One of the keys to selling your product is making it enticing enough to shoppers. You could have the best product of its kind but that won’t help you if it is blending in with its surroundings. The first goal of any packaging design or label is to make that product stand out on shelves.
Before slapping any label on a product, the design needs to be carefully thought through.
Know Your Audience
One of the first objectives to designing a label is to understand your audience. You’re not selling to everyone. Target market analysis should’ve been done prior to creating your product but now is the time to do it if you still haven’t.
Go to the store and observe how your audience shops for their goods. You’ll be able to identify what types of labeling catches their eye and how they interact with products. Knowing this information provides you with a starting point that is in the right direction.
Visibility
Shelves are littered with hundreds if not thousands of products, especially in grocery stores. With so much visual stimulus it could be a challenge to make your product visible to consumers.
A few ways you can differentiate your product are through shape, color, and other graphical elements.
If your product allows for it, you can use packaging that has a unique shape to it. Try something that your competitors are not doing.
The color of your product’s packaging and labels should be well thought out. There are a handful of studies that show different colors evoke different emotions from people. For example bright reds and oranges illicit feelings of energy. Blues often have more of a soothing appeal.
Graphical elements such as fonts or images will also help to differentiate your product from the masses. Choose something unique, memorable, and distinct from your competitors. Imagery can often engage your customers and move them from just visually seeing the product to actually picking it up.
Communication
Finally your labeling needs to convey clear, meaningful messaging. This is where you want to provide your product’s value proposition. In other words, why should the consumer choose your product?
Your window of communication with your potential customer is brief. You’ll be lucky to grab a few seconds of their attention, so the copy that you choose for your labeling must be concise yet compelling.