Manufactured products are only as good as their sales. Companies must sell the items they produce in order to achieve their profit goals. Packaging design goes a long way toward selling a product, especially one that is new to the market. It is important for a company that is expanding their product line. There are several ways a package design can sell a product to consumers.
One way to drive product sales through packaging is with the colors it displays. These colors must catch the eye of the consumer. If they do not, then chances are the item will never be noticed or purchased. This is a critical design decision and rests upon the nature of the product. A gardening product would need a bright green, possibly mixed with yellow and red, somewhere on the packaging to attract consumers. Cooking items do not generally use bright green. They are more dependent on the colors of the foods they will be used to cook. Packaging for a brownie mix will include brown and red as these are more pleasing for consumers who bake brownies.
A company's logo should appear on the packaging of their product. If they have many products, the sizes and shapes of these must be taken into consideration. If one of their products sits flat on a shelf and another hangs on a rack, then placing the logo in the middle of the various product packages is not effective. Placing the logo to the left or right of the top of the package means the logo is easily seen and identified. This allows consumers who know some of a company's products to easily identify new ones they are introducing. It helps companies break into a new market and get a larger share with quicker sales.
Consumer information is another important tool to drive sales with packaging. Children's toys are an excellent example. People who do not have children do not always know what is appropriate for a child at certain ages. Placing the information that smaller children should not have an item due to tiny parts helps consumers know what is safe to give as an appropriate gift. It makes the consumer more likely to stay with that brand and search for its logo when they next need to buy one of the company's products.
