1, the importance of packaging
First of all, the product is the carrier of the company to realize various benefits, and the packaging is to convey the value to the customer in a specific form. Second, packaging is the medium that represents the most contact with consumers and the lowest cost, delivering the value of brands and products. When a customer purchases a product, it first determines the value of the product through packaging, and the judgment of value is achieved not only from an aesthetic point of view, but through the information delivered by the package to satisfy or guide his potential needs.
The role that packaging can play requires that we value packaging design so that it creates new value for us. At the same time, we also need new packaging design concepts and methods to achieve this goal. Here, from the perspective of the combination of theory and practice, I discuss how “package design creates value for products.
2. Values ​​created by packaging design and ways to create value
The value of a product is mainly composed of two parts: one is the use value of the product, that is, the quality of the product. This value consumer can only feel after using it; the other part is the value of the selling point of the brand and product conveyed through the packaging design. It is used This is achieved by graphically implying the consumer's psychological feelings. Therefore, a good packaging design can not only effectively disseminate product information, but also improve the product's psychological value. When a customer purchases a product, not only must he understand the actual use value, but also can convey information hints through packaging design. He can gain many non-product benefits.
How can we create added value beyond product quality? We can use external resources and products from the following aspects to increase the value of our products.
2.1 Use of Geographical Symbols and Products
Many products are produced with high reputation and reputation. Cleverly applied to the design of packaging that symbolizes the origin of the product will make the Xiaofei people have a good association with the product. For example, the elephant trunk mountain that symbolizes Guilin is used in On the packaging, consumers will think that this is a beautiful Guilin. When selling the product to him, he also sold Guilin landscape to him, creating more added value.
2.2 Use of Humanities Culture and Products
Many products are famous because the reason for a poem or a celebrity is to skillfully use these human factors to design and increase the added value of the product.
2.3 The use of contemporary celebrities and product associations
This is a method that is currently used more often. It can use the celebrity effect to quickly increase the product's popularity and added value. For instance, Yao Ming's endorsement of McDonald's products makes it easy for consumers to connect Yao Ming's healthy, up-and-coming and dynamic products with his products and create a desire to purchase.
2.4 Use of Brands and Related Symbols to Link Products
Well-known brands and their symbols have enriched the value of the brand, and they can quickly increase the value of products by using products; the signs and symbols of other authoritative organizations are also the same, such as the Olympic logo, organic certification marks, China's well-known trademark marks, and so on.
The above available external resources that can increase the added value of products are not owned or used by all enterprises and products. Most of the products can only look for features from the product and refine these features from the perspective of demand. , Form the concept of the product, through the graphic design of the packaging design, communicate with consumers visually, so that consumers know the characteristics of the product in a short period of time, so that the package becomes a talking promoter.
When we can only dig out product features from the inside and refine the concept of packaging design, we will find that some products have characteristics, but some products are homogenized with competitive products, the characteristics are not obvious, and some products still exist to some extent Disadvantages. In response to these situations, we must use exaggerated techniques to characterize products based on the different needs of consumers before packaging design. Such as: "Huiyuan 100, 100% pure juice," with a number of emphasizing its pure; Another example: "White plus black, eat white during the day, do not sleep; night to eat black tablets, sleeping incense," the characteristics of the product and consumption The benefits that can be obtained are closely linked, and the product features are greatly enhanced through the visual performance of packaging design (black and white boxes, black and white tablets, etc.).
In the era of overproduction, homogenization of products is a major trend. Only when we are good at using themes and marketing concepts can we create more differences for our products. Such as: "Mengniu milk, special milk for Chinese astronauts", "Jinliufu, Olympic blessing" and so on, in the product did not make any changes to create a selling point. For some of the shortcomings of some products, from an angle, but highlight the characteristics of the product, such as: "a farmer orchard, three kinds of fruit, shake before drinking", originally three kinds of fruit juice made precipitation, but it used "before drinking The wide-ranging appeal of "shake it" not only avoided the shortcomings, but also hinted at the authenticity of the three fruits.
In short, whether it is from the outside or from the product itself to find the characteristics, in the development of packaging design must be extracted from the concept of the product, which is to sell the interests of consumers, that is, to meet consumer demand points. The concept of concentration is to use exaggeration, contrast, hints and other means to express the interests of the product, it can enlarge the value of the product.
3, typical case of food packaging design
The following is a case study of packaging design from two different perspectives. We hope that our packaging design concepts and methods can be used as reference for corporate packaging design.
3.1 Zheng Zhu Soymilk product image design case: vividly express “nutrition concept†in a rational and inductive way
Nutrition is one of the main motives for soymilk consumption. People understand that soymilk is nutritious, but when it comes to what nutritious soymilk is, the vast majority of people may only know about protein, and other high levels have an important role in human health. Nutrients such as isoflavones, lecithin, vitamin E, iron, saponins, calcium, bifidogenic factors, etc. are often not known by ordinary people. The nutritional value of soymilk is also reduced to the concept of a protein-based product stored in the human brain. In this case, Zhengzhu is required to propose a new product concept for the nutritional appeal of soymilk in order to create a new Zhuodong soymilk Product image.
Nutrition is present in the food in the form of particles or elements. Although it is good for people's health, it is something we cannot see. Nutritional impressions are often abstract and non-vital texts. The “nutrition-visible†appeal strategy we proposed for Zheng Zhu Soymilk is to amplify the details of products that are easily overlooked by people, so as to create a dramatic effect. It is the product feature of “the most comprehensive nutritional soy milkâ€.
The vivid expression of nutrition in the form of cartoons is both lively and has good affinity. It is very suitable for the characteristics of soymilk products. Therefore, we designed 8 kinds of nutrients into 8 small cartoons to express the characteristics of the products. The nutrients expressed in the form of cartoons appear on the packaging, making “nutrition visible†a dramatic realization, as shown in Figure 1. The cartoon performance method is in line with the aesthetic requirements of our target consumer groups (adolescents and children), and through the promotion of soymilk nutrition, we meet the food requirements of another target consumer group (parents of children and adolescents).
3.2 Jincai Milk Packaging Design Case: Leveraging themes to carry the cultural value of the millennium
“Jin Cai†is the Changchun milk brand and it is an established company with a history of seven years. After analyzing the brand name, we believe that the name “Golden Fortune†does not seem appropriate as a dairy brand, because “Golden Fortune†makes it easy for people to first think of things like gold and silver treasures. Dairy products, such as emerging consumer health products, are a bit out of place.
In response to this problem, we launched a design. We first thought of the image of “God of Wealth†from “Fortuneâ€, so we designed a cute little God of Wealth. In-depth understanding, found that since ancient times, there are mounts of the God of Wealth. So we let the cute little God of Wealth ride on a cow. This way, “Golden Fortune†is linked to the dairy product visually, and it is used by us as a main visual image for various applications. On this basis, we also created "Heavenly Wealth Little God of Wealth," "Ruyi Little Fortune God," and "Healthy Little God of Wealth."
On the theme of packaging design, "health is the source of wealth" to explain the value of products and brands, and its specific description is to "quality like gold, health seems to be wealthy" as the main advertising language to spread.
When the entire project was completed, the client's evaluation was: not only regained the brand assets that Golden Fortune had painstakingly accumulated over the past seven years, but also unexpectedly obtained a wealth of cultural heritage, which has a history of thousands of years.