id8’s retail packaging design follows our proven process which includes three phases:
1. Discover
2. Create
3. Activate
Packaging Research
In the Discover phase, we begin by gathering information about your product and current packaging. There is some pre-work and a long meeting where the id8 team asks questions about your purpose, target audience, competition, goals, and personality. After the meeting, we research more, analyze the data, and come up with some overarching insights and recommendations based on our findings. We look at product differentiators and customer pain points. To design the best packaging, we need to understand your company culture and how products are made. The packaging must connect with your customers at an emotional level. So, we dive into psychology, gestalt principles, sociology, science, and human nature.
Packaging Designs
After we have a sound understanding of your product and organization, the second phase, Create, uses that information as the basis for packaging design. Our creative services include selecting the structure, material, and size of the container. And then we begin the design of what the packaging looks like. This may be a foil pouch, a folding carton, or a label on a bottle.
We decide where the brand identity is placed, where the product name is placed, and the best imagery to represent the product inside. The packaging is very important to a customer buying the product the first time, so a lot of attention is paid to the colors, the pictures or illustrations, and the typefaces selected. We ensure that the product name is clear to see and easily read by a customer and that the design itself is distinct in comparison to the competitive products next to it on the shelf. Lore of the brand and the product should be included on the front and back of the packaging so customers can read the brand story to connect with it.
Our creative designs are thoughtful for all sides of the packaging including the inside. When a customer opens the box, the brand experience continues on the inside. We design the whole unboxing experience so every piece of recycled paper (sustainability is important to many online shoppers), including the instructions, are a part of the brand experience. And then we ensure your brand story is woven into the packaging so it connects with the customer. In the past 20 years, id8 graphic designers have produced a variety of packaging containers like sustainable boxes, trays, jars, bottles, bags, or boxes.
New Product Activation
During the final phase, we Activate the packaging design by taking the final packaging design and making decisions about how to photograph the product for online selling at vendors such as Amazon or in your online store. We write a product launch plan so that we have accounted for how customers are going to find your product. The audience is carefully considered to determine the best channels for marketing and advertising. We start at the store level and may include POP, like shelf talkers and posters. We then look at options where customers can find out about your new packaging design such as billboards, digital marketing, banner ads, and search.
id8’s proprietary process helps clients to translate their brand vision into vibrant packaging that will set your product. Let’s chat!