1 Products are information, packaging is media
1.
From packaging as product service, to product as packaging service.When there are no words or symbols on the packaging, the packaging serves the product;After the words and symbols are added to the packaging, the relationship between the packaging and the product undergoes a reversal, becoming that the product serves the packaging.How do products serve packaging?
At this time, the brands and symbols on the packaging are more valuable, important, and vibrant.If the quality of the product is poor, the brand on the packaging will be damaged; If the quality of the product is good, the profit also comes from the brand on the packaging.The product serves packaging, and in order to make the brand on the packaging more attractive, we must improve the quality of the product, so as to make the brand more valuable and promising.
2.
Packaging is the most important metamedia for a brand.Media is divided into metamedia and extended media.Extended media is the media that we need to spend money to use, whether online or offline, indoor or outdoor, such as TV, the Internet, elevators, airport billboards, etc.Metamedia, in simple terms, is the media that we can use on our own without spending money.For fast-moving consumer goods, metamedia is product packaging; For stores, metamedia refers to the storefront and storefront.Metamedia is free, while extended media requires payment.Metamedia is much more useful than extended media and has significant strategic value, but people often spend a lot of money on extended media without paying enough attention to it.The reason for emphasizing the importance of metamedia is firstly because currently, enterprises generally do not attach importance to or recognize the importance of metamedia.When making a product, the brand may be very concerned about how to position and advertise it. In terms of the application of metamedia, most people do not value it, while a few value it but do not understand it. Only a very small portion of people truly understand it.However, once a company abandons metamedia, it actually misses out on the use of the largest media.Secondly, in fact, our brand super symbols are often used on metamedia. However, due to the lack of awareness and sufficient emphasis on metamedia in enterprises, it has resulted in a lack of accumulation of brand assets.
There are two types of metamedia, one is the product itself and its packaging, where the product is information and the packaging is media.The second is people.As a metamedia person, there are three types: enterprise employees, consumers, and non consumers.The dissemination of "target consumers" is a huge theoretical flaw, which includes three aspects.One is to assume that the purpose of dissemination is for sale, ignoring another major purpose of dissemination: to expand dissemination.The second is to assume that you know who the target consumer is, but in fact, you don't know that everyone who comes is a customer.The third misconception is that people make purchasing decisions based on product information, but in reality, people make decisions based on comprehensive social information.
3.
From the perspective of consumers, we say that packaging is the product.
Why is packaging a product? Because when consumers are browsing shopping malls, they are not seeing individual products, but rather packaging one by one.And during the transportation process, salespeople and distributors throughout the entire sales chain also see this packaging.Packaging is the largest medium and the most important medium for products, and packaging is the product itself.So, packaging design is often a work of product redevelopment.
Packaging is the most important strategic tool for a brand.If you think it's a decoration, then it can only play the role of decoration. But if you think it's a strategic tool, it can play a strategic role.Using Chef Bang as an example, consumers may not know Chef Bang, but all of them may know the meaning of green squares - table cloth, food, and appetite.So this green grid completes the recognition, memory, and value transmission of the Chef Bang brand, as well as the brand preference of consumers - transplanting their favorable impression of the green grid onto the Chef Bang brand.Strategy is not lofty, but embedded in every action of the enterprise, making every action have strategic value. Packaging design should be regarded as advertising design, not only product advertising, but also brand advertising, accumulating brand assets for the brand.
2 The Three Major Tasks of Packaging Design
The essence of packaging is not a product package, but an information package, an information explosive package!This information package competes with other information packages in shopping malls or electronic shelves, stands out, attracts consumer attention, and carries purchase reasons, exploding consumer minds and achieving a purchase.Effective packaging design can greatly reduce brand marketing and communication costs.
1.
Fundamental task - obtaining display advantagesGood packaging design can reduce display costs, which is the cost of being discovered on shelves.Our packaging design is not created for exhibitions under spotlights, but is displayed on a dazzling array of shelves to attract consumer attention and persuade them to make purchases.Why do people say that the packaging of brain platinum is so ugly, but you must see it at first glance when you walk into the supermarket. This is the display advantage.
In the era of Internet e-commerce, the meaning of shelf and display advantages has changed, that is, screens have become shelves, including computer screens, mobile phone screens and TV screens.The principle of e-commerce packaging design is that it can be seen clearly without clicking on the large image, which can impress people to make purchases.No matter how well you design, if you can't see the small picture clearly and the consumer doesn't click on the big picture, everything will be in vain.Our products are ultimately presented on shelves, displayed on screens, and the shelves and screens are very noisy. So when designing packaging, we need to amplify the reason for purchase and make sure the volume is loud enough. How big is it? Three words - try to be as big as possible.The font size should be large, the symbols should be strengthened, the colors should be bright, and the impact should be strong. These are all ways to amplify the reason for purchase.In packaging design, there should be a firm belief: I don't have advertisements, and no one has ever heard of me, but as long as my packaging is placed on the shelf, it can quickly communicate with consumers and sell itself.
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Creating a consumer experienceThe packaging of different products has different experience requirements.As gifts, products such as mooncakes and health products, some people complain about excessive packaging.A large box is opened with a large foam inside. There is only a thin layer of sliced ginseng in the foam. There are a few bottles of chicken essence next to it, maybe there's something else. A unscrupulous businessman!However, when consumers think of spending 50 yuan to carry a large and dignified gift box to visit relatives and friends, this is the most appropriate packaging.Product developers and packaging designers have a deep understanding of consumer needs, usage scenarios and psychology, as well as consumer payment capabilities.Open a window on the packaging to let people see rows of neatly sliced ginseng, and specially put a few bottles of chicken essence to make the gift carry a certain weight. This is the dignity and dignity of the working people. How can one arbitrarily say that it is over packaged?Packaging is a ritual.
3.
Creating SpreadabilityBroadcasting is flipping the word "dissemination" upside down. It's not about me broadcasting something for it to spread, but about me broadcasting something for it to spread on its own.We usually find advertising companies to advertise, and they will tell us the cost per thousand people and the reach rate, which is the cost per 1000 people.In communication, besides arrival rate, communication rate is more important.Can it be transmitted? How many people can it be passed on to?As the saying goes, if one spreads ten, ten will spread one hundred, which means its communication rate is ten times higher.For example, if I spent one yuan to convey an advertising slogan to A, my cost per person would be one yuan. Then A told B this sentence and conveyed to B that I didn't spend any money, so my cost per person became fifty cents. If A tells ten people, then my cost per person becomes a dime.So communication rate is more important than arrival rate.
The essence of communication is broadcasting, which is to mobilize consumers to spread for us.If the information is broadcasted to him and he doesn't tell others, there won't be a tenfold effect. If he can pass ten, ten to one hundred, there will be a tenfold effect.Each packaging is a mobile advertising space.Consumers purchase products, carry them on the street, and every time someone sees the packaging, it achieves a broadcast.A good packaging not only has a broadcasting effect when held in hand, but even if it is damaged or deformed, thrown on the ground or in a garbage dump, we can still see what it is at a glance through the fragmented lace, symbols, colors, shapes, etc. on the packaging.A good packaging has the advantage of being displayed on shelves, even if it is thrown into a garbage dump, it can still spread brand information and release brand signals.
3 The Supersymbol Principle of Packaging Design
1. Cultural matrixFor a brand, business ideas are only its surface, and cultural phenomena are its underlying logic.If we only understand a brand from a business perspective, it's just scratching the surface. Only by understanding from a cultural perspective and deeply rooted in the foundation of culture can we establish a brand building.The power of a brand comes from its cultural matrix. The cultural matrix is the entire culture that nurtures us, which is a constantly repeating part of our lives, repeated to become a common experience, knowledge, and concept for all of us.These are things that we are born with, passed down from our ancestors, and are known to everyone, and everyone's ideas and behaviors are influenced by them.In summary, there are four characteristics of a cultural matrix: never-ending, all-encompassing, cyclical, truly everyday.Once a cultural matrix is formed, it has an irresistible force and will definitely occur on time, accompanied by numerous complex rituals, symbols, and props.
Its characteristic is irresistible, inevitable to occur, and the occurrence is collective unconsciousness, spontaneous involvement.
Taking the Spring Festival as an example, it is a festival based on the mother body of traditional Chinese culture. It is a huge human drama that people in the Chinese cultural circle participate in together. It has a huge ritual system, symbol system, inertia, and commercial activities.Packaging can achieve brand parasitism on the cultural matrix, allowing products to act as props within the cultural matrix.For example, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most powerful and core cultural symbol of the festival.Haagen Dazs in the United States sells ice cream, which has nothing to do with Mid-Autumn Festival and moon cakes. But it printed Chang'e on the box, launched Hagedas ice cream moon cake, and entered the cultural matrix of the Mid-Autumn Festival.So, as long as you enter this ceremony naturally, there will be purchases, because the people participating in this ceremony only recognize symbols.
2. SupersymbolsIn packaging design, symbols often have a natural visual impact, and their significance lies in reducing the cost of discovering and remembering a brand.Therefore, it is important to pursue the effect of a stunning glance, so that consumers can immediately recognize your brand at a glance.
Packaging design should pay attention to the overall symbolism of the product.A product is a symbol on the shelf. The first thing to consider is not how to highlight information on the packaging, but how to highlight the product on the shelf.For example, the packaging design of Chubang soy sauce does not highlight the logo, but instead uses a green grid overall packaging, creating a unique advantage on the shelves.So, how should the overall symbolism of the packaging be reflected in the specific design?The symbolism of packaging not only refers to the brand logo, but any element on the packaging that can make consumers recognize the brand at a glance is a super symbol of the packaging.This symbol can be a brand pattern, a brand character, a fixed layout, a unique color scheme, or even the appearance of the packaging itself.
3. Shelf thinkingThis world is a world filled with shelves.When we want to send a message, the first thing to consider is the shelf environment: what kind of environment does our message reach? How can our information be highlighted in such an environment? How to defeat other competitors in this environment? This is what we call shelf thinking.When the product sits quietly on the shelf, it yearns for someone to buy it.But is it really staying there quietly? No, it is selling itself loudly, through its super symbols, through its product name, through its purchase reasons, through its color, stripes, and shape, it is doing its best to attract the attention of buyers.When the consumer's attention first falls on the product, communication occurs.
We demand that the product be seen and understood at the same time.The so-called understanding refers to consumers understanding our purchasing reasons, understanding who we are, what we do, what value we provide, what differences we have from others, and so on.All of this happened between lightning and fire.
Communication is much more important than the subsequent purchasing experience, and what we need to do is to do our best to make communication happen.We need to repeatedly speculate and simulate the state of consumers passing through the shelves.If it is a supermarket shelf, when will consumers see our products when they pass by the shelf where our products are located, and how can they be the first to see our products.If it is the screen of a mobile phone, how can our product jump out of the page when the consumer swipes the screen to the page where our product is located, so that they can see it at first glance.We need to make consumers see our products or brands, first of all, by relying on visual impact; The second is the reason for purchase, allowing consumers to see what they are interested in.
Planning the reading sequence and speed of print media communication is the key to achieving effective communication and success.Whether it's a poster, a cover, or a packaging, we must strictly regulate the order in which consumers read it. We need to repeatedly adjust and plan what they read first and then.When the communication between the product and the consumer occurs, if the consumer sees the reason for purchase, we need to plan an order for them to obtain evidence of the reason for purchase, and the faster the better, so that they can quickly confirm the reason for purchase in their minds through writing, and finally give a purchase order.
How to arrange the reading order? Our usual reading order is from top to bottom, from left to right, and from large to small.Sometimes we highlight the colors of some text, and sometimes we enlarge or change the font of a sentence, which is an arrangement of reading order.The entire reading sequence has been planned, how can we accelerate the reading speed?We can use super sentence structures to speed up reading, or we can use phrases. If there are two or more inflections in a sentence, consumers must read word for word, and their reading speed will slow down, which is highly likely to stop purchasing.So, reading order and reading speed are the two key points of communication in front of the shelf.
