As a marketing executive for food items, you understand the
importance of packaging and how it enhances the appeal of the product. As a
senior in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have found two articles that
show the importance of packaging when it comes to marketing food products found
in grocery stores.
In Effective Food Packaging Design: The Aisle as a Runway, Stephanie Silver brings
up various points that reiterate that packaging for food items is of utmost
importance when it comes to what drives consumers to make a purchase in the grocery
store. This article highlights the fact that most food items in a grocery store
are low involvement and most consumers spend less than a few seconds when
choosing a food product. Since the average consumer is making many low
involvement decisions while in the store, packaging has come to be very
important. Packaging can not only attract consumers’ attention, but also
promote certain messages that can appeal to the emotional side of consumers.
The way a product is packaged is an easy way for food marketers to tell the
consumers about the product inside and attract them to buy the product. When
there are various options at around the same price for each item in a grocery
store, packaging can be the factor that makes the consumer choose your product.
http://nishitau.soup.io/tag/food
Ted Mininni
builds an effective argument on the premise that 85% of human decisions are
governed by the sub conscious in his article: Appeal
to the subconscious through package design. So, it is not effective for
food packaging to list feature and benefits, but rather package the product in
a way that appeals to the consumer on an emotional and deeper level. This is
not an easy feat to accomplish because each brand has a target consumer, but
also wants to reach out to consumers who would normally not purchase their
product. Food packaging decision makers need to do extensive research in order
to get a glimpse into the consumers sub conscious and this can then be
translated on to the packaging which is the most tangible representation of a
brand.
From these two articles, here are some ways to effectively
package food items in order to attract consumer and appeal to their sub
conscious emotional side
1. Research – dig
deeper into what appeals to consumers emotionally. Find out if consumers value
the price, quality, taste, or something else about your product and then
highlight that through packaging.
2. Promote Message
– use packaging an easy means to show what your product and brand stands for.
Packaging can be used to promote a brands values or a certain message that they
are trying to relay to consumers. For example, if the brand is moving towards
an environmentally friendly stance, they can use sustainable material to
package their products.
3. Attract Attention
– this may be the most important part of marketing through packaging. When
there are many options in a grocery aisle for the same kind of product, your
brand should distinguish itself from the others through packaging. By using
unique and innovative colors, shapes, fonts, etc consumers will be more likely
to quickly decide to make a low involvement purchase.
Without effective packaging, your product will fail on the
shelf. Even in the midst of marketing through ads in magazines or TV
commercials, the most important form of marketing a food item comes down to the
grocery aisle and what will make that consumer pick your product off the shelf.
Innovative packaging will communicate a lot about your product and brand
without using excessive wording and will also attract the consumer to put your
product in their shopping cart.
Devika Ghosh is a senior at Northwestern University. She is studying Economics and also
pursuing the Integrated Marketing Certificate. Devika is hoping to explore
opportunities in the CPG realm and has had internship experiences with food
related companies such as FIJI Water and the Food Group. Contact Devika on Twitter
@DevikaGhosh3 or through LinkedIn
to continue this conversation.
