4 Important Elements of Packaging Design

Packaging is known to be the identity of a product. It is extremely important for your product to get noticed amongst the hundreds of other products available on the shelf. Packaging is an integral part of any Branding Strategy to glamorise a product in a way that would not only catch the consumer’s attention, but also would be a great source of advertising. Packaging plays an important role educating the customer about the product; it’s also like having a direct interaction with the brand. As said by Martin Neumier “A retail package is the last and best chance to make a sale.”

The four main elements of packaging are Colours, Visuals, Typography and Format. These elements help the consumers to relate to the brand easily and tend to have a high recall.

Colours have great psychological impact and can draw attention to your product. In order to stand out, brands often choose colours that do not belong to their brand colour palette. This disruptive behaviour is good, but may not always work in favour of the brands. Colours are known to be the most important part of packaging because they subconsciously reflect the personality of a brand; also it is the first thing to be noticed and can be visible at a distance as well.

Visuals & Mascots help in associating with the brand and create high recall value. Visuals are graphical representations of the product inside, where one can easily understand what the product is without having to read.Mascots on the other hand are an additional element that may in some cases strengthen the identity of the brand. A mascot is easily relatable by every age group. Brands like Amul still extensively use’s their mascot named Amul girl for all their communication and branding. This over the years has become a part of their identity and is now very relatable by the consumers. Another Indian brand using a mascot is Air India using their mascot named Maharaja, for their communications.

Typography is another powerful part of Brand Identity. Just like colours have meaning; typography represents the values of your brand.  Every typeface has a different set of connotations and hence will create a unique representation of who you are and what you stand for, as a brand. Brands often use bold fonts and serifs to catch attention, as they’re clean, simple, and easily readable. As mentioned, fonts also have a different meaning. The font used for the IBM logo demonstrates power, while Coco-cola and Disney cue fun.

The format of Packaging is designed in such a way that it attracts the attention of the consumer and can be easily spotted on the shelf. Format of packages largely depend on the products, keeping in mind the requirements and convenience of a consumer. For instance, products like shampoos, oils, ketchup, etc come in various sizes as well as in sachets which encourage the consumer to try them.

Read more here: 5 Golden Rules of Packaging Design

Article contributed by:

Riya Wadhwa, Brand Artisan - Marketing

Evolution of Colours and their role in Brand Identity

It is believed artists invented pigments using a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal, and chalk as long as 40,000 years ago. Initially, artists only invented a basic palette that consisted of red, yellow, brown, black, and white. Later, through scientific progress and advancement, colours like blue, green and violet were invented. Since then, there have been numerous discoveries of new and colours simply by mixing and experimenting.

Today, colours are present all around us and are associated with every aspect of our lives. They influence the way we think, cause actions and reactions. They can irritate or soothe your eyes. Some colours are calm and give us a feeling of serenity while some can cause anxiety. Every colour has its unique meaning and associations. In today’s society, colours have become a very powerful form of communication and are irreplaceable. The study of human behaviour towards colours is known as ‘Colour Psychology’ and this is a widely used concept in Marketing and Branding. Here, we will see how our mind perceives certain colours:

Red: Red is known to be a very strong, noticeable and an emotionally intense colour.  Red is most associated with energy, youth, courage, strength, warmth, desire, passion and excitement. While on the other hand, it is also associated with war, danger and aggression. Red has the ability to enhance metabolism, raise blood pressure and increase our respiration rate. Red colour also makes objects appear much closer than they actually are and thus, grabs more attention this is why danger signs, traffic signals are in red.

Yellow: Being the colour of sunshine, yellow puts a smile on the dial. The most visible colour from a distance, it communicates cheerfulness, friendliness, energy, reflects joy, optimism, confidence, happiness and creativity. However, at the same time, yellow is the colour of caution and associates with fear, depression and anxiety. Yellow also arouses hunger and hence most of the fast food and ready to eat products are packed in yellow.

Brown: Brown is seen as a serious and very down to earth, warm, with properties like stability, structure, support and sophistication. It is among the oldest colours and is associated with wholesome, natural and organic produce and anything related to the great outdoors, agriculture and farming. Hence, most organic products use brown in their packaging.

Black: The colour black relates to hidden, secretive, unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery. It is associated with elegance, glamour, luxury, power, exclusivity. Black is bold, classic and to be taken seriously. Black on the other hand also has a negative side to it like evil, oppression, grief, and insecurity.

White: White represents purity, simplicity, hygiene, innocence, clarity, transparency. It is known to be the colour of perfection. If we had to identify one brand that has uses white to convey its brand message to perfection it would have to be Apple, white represents the simplicity of the products in both their form and function. White can also be associated with emptiness, coldness, unfriendliness, isolation and emptiness. The colour white also depicts peace, cleanliness and calmness; thus hospitals are generally painted in white.

Blue: Blue is a universally preferred colour, having versatile qualities. Blue is widely used and appreciated for its calmness and serenity. Brands using the colour blue in logos give a sense of reliability, trustworthiness and authority. Thus brands like Dell, Intel, Facebook, Twitter, Samsung have their logos in blue. However, being associated with feelings, also expresses sadness or depression.

Green: Green has two very common meanings - one being nature and environment, and the other being finance and wealth. It signifies harmony, balance, freshness, awareness, growth, restoration, and stability. Though, it can also be significant to boredom, blandness. Green representing nature is also considered to be beneficial for Mind and Body and is also said to have amazing healing powers.

Violet: In ancient times, violet was termed as ‘the colour of atmosphere’. It is known to be a soft colour with calming effects that convey creativity and wisdom. Violet is also associated with spiritual awareness, vision, luxury, truth, and quality. Violet also has negative associations like introversion, suppression, and inferiority. 

Colours and Brand Identity:

Colours are known to have effects on a person’s psychological, physiological and sociological behaviour. Thus, colour is an important aspect while considering the Brand Identity System. As every colour has a unique identity, it is important for brands to select the right colour. Using colours that go with your brand personality and consistently using brand colours, has been proven advantages and create a stronger Brand Identity and has higher brand recall. Few examples are Coca-Cola is known for its bright red labelling on bottles; Dairy milk uses their patent violet for all its chocolates, Christian Louboutin is known or its red bottom pumps and Barbie uses the typical pink for all its packaging. Colours are thus an important element in a brand’s visual identity and needs to be based on logic, meaning and purpose.

Article contributed by:

Riya Wadhwa, Brand Artisan - Marketing

Do you need a Branding Agency?

You may wonder why does your company need a Branding Agency? You are doing just about fine, or better you could be surpassing expectations. So, why fix something when it is not broken? You shouldn’t. But, remember Branding is as much about building as it is about fixing.

You may be wondering that you have an in-house Design team or a pool of freelancers who can do a fair job, so why hire a Branding Agency? Well, Design is not a commodity, nor is Branding done on whims. Brands are built on Promises and Experiences (the whole wide world of Branding can be deciphered in these two words)- you need to Identify what your Brand is Promising to its Customers or what it can/should Promise and then translate that Promise Visually and Verbally into Brand Experiences across touchpoints.

A Branding Agency understands your Customers better. You may have Marketing mavericks who are well travelled and have multifarious background but they are in most cases restricted by their own views of Marketing Strategy and Aesthetics. Branding Agencies specialise in defining the Core of your Brand and translating them into Brand touchpoints. A Branding Agency sees your Brand in ensemble, beyond a deliverable like Identity Design, Positioning, Communication Design or Verbal Identity.

You must talk to a Branding Agency about your company’s Branding if:

1. Your company is an SME and have big Aspirations

2. Your BHAG is daunting

3. You want to grow your Market or Market Share

4. You want to build a stronger Brand

5. You have a superior Product or Service but your Customers don’t know about it

6. You're growing and want to perceived differently

7. The vision of the Brand has evolved and matured

8. You have just started your business, or starting up

We’d love to hear from you, please write in to us hello@yellowfishes.com

Brand strategy is the key to effective marketing.

Branding defines. Marketing communicates.

Branding preceeds all Marketing and Communication. Infact, defining a Brand should be the first step in any Marketing strategy. To define a Brand, a Branding Agency needs to study and understand the Market Dynamics, Category Trends and Consumer Behaviour. Once the Agency is acquainted with the Dynamics, the next step is Analysis of the Data and closer look at the Competition to see what they are doing best and what are the learnings. Brand Positioning is not about identifying an empty spot in the Market and pitching in the Brand there, it’s about owning one-something that your Brand can stand for and leveraging that. The next step is translating the Brand Positioning and Proposition into Visual Language and Verbal Language of the Brand. Hereafter, it’s a two-pronged Approach. One is to maintain Consistency in Visual and Verbal Languages (for Recall and Recognition) and the Second is to create enough Variations in Visual and Verbal languages so there is no monotony in the Marketing of your Brand.