Packaging Breakdown: What to Consider When Choosing Product Packaging

Product packaging has always been important to a cohesive product line, but do you know what it takes to be successful?

- SARA GOLDING

Depending on whom you talk to, product packaging fulfills 3-5 key roles. Depending on your brand's style, homing in on at least a few of these areas will further sales and make your brand stronger.

The number one reason your product needs packaging is for Promotion. Did you know that around 94 percent of first impressions are based solely on a product's packaging? To communicate to potential buyers, packaging needs to convey what they are buying. I don't mean just the product itself; I mean the lifestyle they are buying into. Does your product's packaging promote luxury living, eco-friendly sustainability, smart and sassy or mainstream value? How does it make them feel? Are they savvy and frugal? What about indulgent or submitting to a guilty pleasure?

If your packaging design does not promote the feeling and experience you want it to, choose packaging that will make the right first impression. The other part of promotion is to show off your brand in its entirety. Does your soap box look like it belongs next to the sugar scrub and the body butter? What does your product line look like displayed on a vanity or on a shop table?

Right below-using product packaging for promotion is Information. This is how you tell your customers the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of your products. What is the product and how much is in the package? Who are you and where are you from? How do they contact you for more information or more product? When was the item made and what was it made from? How was it made and how do you use it? What should you not do with this product?