You’re at the grocery store looking for laundry detergent, and your go to brand is sold out. There are two comparable substitutes sitting side-by-side on a shelf, but you’re not familiar with either. Which one do you buy? More likely than not, the one that does the best job conveying both quality and value. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking that you’re going to be stuck with whichever one you decide to buy for the next couple of months, so you might end up focusing more on mitigating your opportunity cost than finding something you love.

Whether you realize it or not, packaging gives form. And like any other marketing medium, its function is to help move consumers further along in the buying cycle by shaping perception, working as a tool for differentiation and, in the end, reassuring buyers that their purchase decision is the right one at both the point of sale and every time the product is used afterwards. Though prospective buyers might not know it, they want to be motivated because most, if not all, of their buying decisions are based on information sought out actively and passively.

The process begins with our perception of external stimuli. Marketers and retailers understand that perception can influence our behavior without our conscious knowledge, so they create products and stores, specifically, to maximize consumer spending. To learn more about this aspect of retail, check out our entry on “The Psychology of Advertising” here.

In order for us to efficiently function in this crowded environment, we choose to perceive certain stimuli while ignoring others. This is called “selectivity.” Selectivity lets us focus our attention on cues that provide meaning, while filtering out noise, so as not to waste our finite resources processing irrelevant information. “Thin slicing” is a term psychologists use to describe our capacity to make decisions quickly with minimal information. By and large, thinking is unanimously described as a conscious effort. Thin slicing more closely represents an instinctive behavior.

When faced with a new buying situation, a consumer will typically form a decision for choosing a product based on the information on or around the product, as well as the packaging itself, somewhere in the ballpark of two to four seconds. Generally speaking, shopping is a low-involvement, low-priority event that requires little or no mental or emotional investment, so packaging design should serve to connect the dots between a problem, or want, and a solution.

So what should you do to make your abbreviated sales pitch more memorable?

Consider how you might highlight your product’s image. What qualities set it apart from its competitors? What qualities make it better than any of its countless substitutes? Additional considerations should include your consumer’s involvement level, any possible time constraints and/or characteristics that spread across the aggregate.

Your packaging isn’t any different than a full-page advertisement for your company, more so for that particular product. It’s the vehicle that converts your brand’s identity, its positioning and your company’s culture into something tangible. So yes, it should be taken pretty seriously because a high-quality product coupled with high-quality packaging design conveys excellence, which translates into value in your buyer’s mind.

If you don’t know where to start, consider contacting a professional. As it happens, Bravo Design, Inc. does custom packaging design and has a proven track record doing so for entertainment and consumer packaged goods. Packaging is your first interaction with a customer. We recommend you put your best foot forward.

Photo credit: Kitsune Noir, Jesse Kirsch