Month: November 2010

Will a product still be the same without its packaging? Packaging design represents what the brand stands for and also speaks for the quality of the product often times. It does not only have the function of protecting the product, explaining its attributes and benefits, but also has a role in appealing to consumers.  To successfully appeal to consumer, a package needs to differentiate a product from its competitor and ultimately become a part of the product experience.

I was doing my grocery shopping in TNT the last weekend and I observed some difference in how products from Asia are packaged as compared to the west.  The color, label and typeface, images, patterns and shapes even materials are influence by the culture. These are important to consider when it comes to designing a package. Below are a few of my observation and thoughts:

• First, the color difference. There are more bright and flashy colors in the chips aisle. They look more appealing because colors such as red and yellow symbolized happiness and good luck in Chinese culture.
• The labeling are mostly in languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese although some of the product sold are available here in English.
• Some of the products have smaller sizes compared to the same product available in other western supermarket.

Packaging has an incredible power over that people buy. Thus it is challenging to build consistency for people to interpret the global brand identity. For global brands, some sort of standardization and certain level of customization are needed to attract attention from customers in order to be successful.

Jess Tang’s post about Google caught my interest and I want to expand more on what Google contributed to online marketing or the marketing world as a whole.

Google has permeated into our everyday life; it does not only serve as a search engine as we once knew. It has countless online products available from search engines to maps, YouTube, Gmail and the list goes on and on. With such high usage of Google product and high search share, Google has the ability to reach very large number of people and thus become a very powerful marketing machine by providing information and act as a medium to communicate value.

Google has forged itself as the ‘middleman’ as more and more of the world’s business is performed on the internet. Also, with its advertising program such as Adsense and Adword, it benefits marketer and consumers both as a channel of communication, providing  the right information to the right people at the right time.

Packaging represents brand and quality. Creative and appealing packaging also serves a purpose to encourage the consumers to purchase and use the product. We have more tendencies to purchase products that are more cleverly packaged and presented. This post showcases innovative and creative packaging design ideas for everyday product from all over the world.

A milk carton concept

Mr. Clean Dumbbell packaging -A multi-purpose container for cleaning detergent products, water, and can be used as a dumbbell.

Salt and pepper shakers shaped like D-Cell batteries. A vertical transparent strip along the side indicate the amount of spices left in the shakers.

An interesting body soap packaging

Evian mineral water in an expressive limited edition package.

banana juice – it even imitates the texture of a real banana skin.