Does Product Packaging Play an Important Role on Consumer Buying Behaviour?

We have often wondered why brands spend a large chunk of its budget on getting the right packaging for its product or service. The answer to this lies in the following quote and example:

“I am not a make-up person, but I love wearable products that are easy to use, with fun packaging”

- Charlotte Ronson

Charlotte Ronson is one of the many famous fashion designers in the fashion industry who truly believes that packaging of the product is equally important as the product itself.

1. Brand Image

A consumer can relate to the product or service through the outer appearance of the brand. Let’s take an example for that: Consider Nike shoes sold in a brown paper bag without anything written on it. Would you consider purchasing it anyway? Would it have the same impact on the consumers mind as it would have if you were to purchase it in a nice cardboard box with Nike’s logo on it?

2. Unique Packaging

An eye catchy packaging can bring about an instant response in a consumers mind. Kate Spade New York understood it well and acted accordingly. Usually the premium handbags brands provide dust bags with their product, but Kate Spade went one step further in making it personal for her customers. The brand mentions a quote which is beautiful, female centric and inspirational on each of its handbag’s dust bag. This creates a unique, personalized experience for every client and the packaging itself does the selling there.

3. Subconscious Decision

Brands like Kit Kat, Cadbury, Oreos, Snickers etc. have long since made a very steady image in the minds of its customers that when we think of one of these brands, the packaging is the first thing that pops in our mind. When someone mentions about Cadbury-it’s the purple colored wrapper with the white font used to write Dairy Milk and golden font to write Cadbury-that comes in our mind. So consumers end up purchasing the brand without second guessing the product.

4. Emotional Appeal

Emotional branding has always been around and is gaining more and more popularity as the competition in the market increases. Brands can either trigger a positive or negative response by its logo, packaging, color, price or typography. Once a consumer is loyal to a brand, the emotions end up instigating a repeated purchase of the same brand.

Consumers often perceive that packaging is co related to the quality of the brand. So the color, structural design, images, typography, print and font are the most basic influential elements in the packaging and design of a brand.