Scrolling around the class blogs, I came across Priscilla’s Thany’s 2nd blog critique on another blog called “Why Good Packaging Matters”. They highlight the importance that packaging plays with grabbing the consumer’s attention and being a visual representation of the company’s brand and image. This helps products to differentiate from competitors. However, given this world , there exists another group that can abuse packaging and damage the company’s brand. These people are counterfeiters.
These people replicate the company’s design in hopes that it will be accepted by those who do not know better. Consumers who base sales only on packaging will be mislead and with that happening, word of mouth can cause the company to lose out on consumers due to these fake products. As said in the blog Vitro’s Perfume Bottles Difficult to Falsify- True Glow of Avon, thought must be carefully given into a packaging’s design. Though there are varying levels of risk of counterfeit for each product when people do commit it, the company will definitely be losing money. No matter if it was snacks, drinks, medicine, perfume or rings, if it is easily replicable, people can copy and leech off of the company’s brand.
Therefore, it is important to design the packaging as individualistic and with the idea of making it difficult to copy and something that only the company can make. Doing this will protect the company’s brand name and dissuade people people from copying. However when creating these packaging, it has to make financial sense in that your expenses are below your revenue.
Packaging therefore becomes a double-sided sword. The packaging represents a company and it’s brand to bring about differentiation, but the packaging design can be abused and used against the company. It can also cause the company to incur more expenses due to the packaging designs. Packaging design must precede carefully as they should take these factors into consideration.
http://blog.libertypackaging.com/blog/bid/50849/why-good-packaging-matters/
http://www.packagingdigest.com/blog/Excellence_in_Packaging/18958-Vitro_s_Perfume_Bottles_Difficult_to_Falsify_True_Glow_of_Avon.php