Unclear and Misleading Packaging Design
The number of products still on the market that fail in the most basic areas of design is unbelievable. In our effort to help educate companies, and thus help them grow their brand and make more money, here is one such example, and what could be done to help it.
Healthy lifestyle choices have been a huge trend recently. It is understandable that many producers want to put as many of a their products’ healthy benefits on the package as possible. Unfortunately, quite a number get the whole concept very wrong. This post is meant to help.
For example: Here is a package with the main text removed from the design.
What would you expect to be in the package based on the picture and color scheme?
Shower gel? A feminine hygiene product? A voucher for a wellness weekend? Or maybe slimming product?
Would you say ham? Why not? Here is the package with all the text.
Here is what the producer says about this product
“Wellness in ham shape: The innovative ham with only two percent fat is perfect for the new, light feeling of life and fully meets the requirements of a healthy diet. Mild sea salt, vitalised water and without flavour enhancers–a healthy lifestyle can do you so much good.”
Does this packaging communicate this?
No, it does not communicate the core idea of the brand. Even though we understand that the image of a slim relaxed woman may have some positive impact on the buyer, we believe that the communication of the proper diet product can be done in better, more understandable and especially more clear way.
Here are some very basic things that would help this packaging:
Shoppers look first at pictures. Therefore the image should communicate it is food, and specifically that it is ham.
In general people don’t like to see people on food packaging, especially if it is the focus of the image. Characters demonstrating weight loss or health should be smaller and not at the center.
The color could be fresher and warmer. This is not an appetizing color. Red would be better color to start with. Pink would at lest be in line with the color of ham.
The Point: Many smaller and family run companies seek to save money by not hiring professional packaging designers or brand consultants. However, the money lost on potential sales growth, is usually much greater than the money spent on professional designers. Also, it cuts down on visual pollution in information-intense stores.
For other fun packaging fails and what could help, see our post on poor packaging design (link)
