Have you ever wondered why some products outperform others? The answer often lies in packaging design, though it’s rarely acknowledged. When a product isn’t selling well, a company will typically enlist a branding agency to redesign the packaging and enhance its appeal to customers.
Packaging redesign allows companies to retain what works while adding new elements to strengthen brand recognition. This contributes to better product sales on shelves and captures the attention of potential buyers. Additionally, it adapts to new target markets and refreshes the brand image in line with the latest trends consumers demand.
Packaging redesign offers many benefits but requires careful planning and execution. In this text, we present the key elements of attractive branded product packaging that influence purchasing decisions. You’ll discover essential factors that enhance brand value and refresh outdated packaging.
Why Companies Should Consider Product Packaging Redesign?
Companies consider redesigning product packaging mainly due to changing market needs. As consumer preferences evolve continuously, even the best product packaging design may no longer resonate with the target audience. In such altered conditions, a company may experience decreased profits, so investing in packaging redesign is a wise decision.
For example, food packaging design has significantly changed as consumers have become more health-conscious. You may have noticed the emphasis now placed on product ingredients, often presented as beneficial for everyone. The main goal is to convey the brand message to the target audience through the story of the product’s ingredients on a perfectly designed product label.
Product packaging redesign is also decided for these reasons:
- Increasing brand recognition and visibility
- Communicating a new brand image
- Adapting to changes in the company’s vision or the market
Key Elements Included in Product Packaging Rebranding
Redesigning product packaging requires a systematic approach involving many elements of brand identity design. These elements bring the product packaging to life, making it much better than the old packaging. Let’s take a detailed look at these branding elements to understand their importance.
Logo Redesign
Redesigning the logo is crucial for redesigning product packaging as it provides a new visual identity and modernizes brand recognition. For example, updating the outdated snack packaging design with a refreshed logo signals a renewed product to consumers and helps the brand stand out on crowded shelves. On this topic, be sure to read about the characteristics of bad logo design and avoid them for your brand.
Enhanced Color Palette
After redesigning the logo, updating the color palette becomes another key design element to consider when refreshing packaging. The color palette creates a theme that makes the packaging easily noticeable. If you think about all the major brands, you’ll notice they have one thing in common: consistency in their brand colors. The color palette must reflect the nature of the product and the brand’s personality.
New Typography and Fonts
Typography and fonts on product packaging should be tailored to the interests of the target audience. For example, a beauty care product might choose elegant and stylized fonts to appeal to female consumers, while bold fonts can highlight important aspects and recognizable features. This ensures attractive packaging and effectively conveys the product’s message to potential buyers.
Product Photography
Product photography is the most important graphic element in packaging design, and accepting stock photos is a big mistake. It must reflect the content of the packaging to pique the interest of potential buyers. The photograph must be appealing and prominent enough to convey its meaning.
Developing a Product Packaging Redesign Strategy
Before beginning the redesign process, companies of all sizes must develop a well-structured strategy. This will increase the brand’s success by ensuring that companies follow logical steps rather than relying on guesswork. Let’s now follow all the key steps in developing an effective brand strategy to refresh product packaging.
Conducting Marketing Research
Before starting the process, the packaging design agency must conduct comprehensive market research. During market research, designers must carefully analyze packaging design trends, including elements such as color palettes, typography and fonts, imagery, and logo design. They must also review industry trends to tailor messages and visuals to today’s target audience. This step will help companies see what works and what doesn’t.
Analyzing Customer Perspectives, especially specific demographics such as older people, provides insights into how the current design meets (or doesn’t meet) their needs. Analyzing competitors reveals what other brands in the industry are doing with their packaging design and how the current design compares to that.
This comprehensive understanding of the current landscape compared to customer needs and competitor offerings provides strategic recommendations for improved packaging design that better connects with the target audience.
Setting Clear and Specific Goals
Market research brings clear and significant insights. Now is the time to set well-defined and realistic goals. The best way is to break long-term achievements into smaller, achievable goals. For example, a company can set a goal to increase brand recognition by 50% by mid-2025.
This goal can be divided into sub-goals, such as achieving 30% engagement in the first quarter. A goal-focused strategy increases the chances of success and maintains motivation for long-term success. Similarly, focusing on a specific target demographic is a key goal that can provide insights for individual design choices such as font size.
Creating a Brand Narrative and Crafting Messages
The new brand narrative should establish a recognizable yet approachable identity. For example, when designing packaging for children, a company can focus on telling a story of imagination and adventure for a product aimed at children. The new packaging should communicate a personality that connects with children and parents.
Successful packaging addresses the target consumer and conveys brand values through visuals and text. A skilled packaging designer can help shape a story that stands out through redesigned packaging. The right brand story and messages make the product and brand instantly recognizable. It attracts attention on the shelf by reflecting the brand image in a way that is acceptable to customers.
And now the most important part begins – the redesign process
But to conclude this text, we don’t want to repeat ourselves and write again about what the packaging design process looks like. We’ll invite you to explore it yourself in one of our blog posts. In it, we’ve explained all the steps we go through with clients to gather all the necessary information for a quality brief. After that, designers have everything they need to start creating a new, fresh, and appealing packaging design for your product.