The Psychology of Packaging: How Design Influences Consumer Perception and Purchase Decisions
Product boxes aren’t just containers that protect your product – they have a powerful influence on your customers. After all, when shopping for shampoo, the brand with the most appealing bottle usually catches your eye.
The same goes for packaging. How can you curate the psychological effects of your packaging and influence consumer behaviour?
Keep reading as we help you to influence your customers with custom packaging. This is your ultimate guide to the psychology of packaging and how to leverage it to your advantage!
How Does Packaging Influence Consumer Behaviour?
Your customers subconsciously form opinions of your brand based on the colors, imagery, and typography you portray. Here are the many ways packaging influences consumer behaviour:
- Recognizability – your packaging helps your customer recognize and remember your brand. The more distinct and unique your packaging is, the more your customers will remember it. This is why many brands have ‘sigils’ to represent their brand, which have little to do with the product itself. Think about popular toilet tissue brands with bears, koalas, and other distinct symbolism – they’re in your head, right?
- Confusion – if you change your packaging design too often, you could alienate your customers. They will no longer be able to keep track of your brand and recognize it when they next shop with you.
- Quality – the quality of your packaging will affect your customer’s opinion of the product once they open it. If you were to open an embossed box with colored tissue wrap inside, you’d expect the product to match this quality. Alternatively, if you opened a reused shoebox, you’d expect the product to be poor quality.
- Loyalty – some customers may enjoy the visual aesthetic of the product, creating an emotional attachment which will influence their purchase decisions. They will more likely forgive any product defects if they emotionally attach to your brand and its imagery. This is how product packaging design impacts customer loyalty.
It’s easy to surmise that packaging is a powerful psychological tool.
How To Incorporate Psychology Into Your Packaging Design
Incorporating psychology into your packaging design requires a focus on three key areas – typography, colour, and images. Let’s explore.
Typography
Typography is more important than you think – fonts can create a tone for your business before your customer even tries your product. For instance, using a silly, playful font will create a fun image for your brand, which is ideal for toy companies.
Using a more standard, elegant font will help you convey that your products are from a reputable provider – which is more important for a luxury skincare brand. The font says a lot about your brand before your customer reads a word of the content!
Colour
To give you an example of how color affects your brand, let’s explore some of the psychological associations with colors:
- Green – green can convey freshness, nature, and eco-friendly tones for an all-natural or sustainable brand (you can choose eco-friendly packaging to emphasize this).
- White – white conveys purity, freshness, and simplicity, ideal for an authoritative brand.
- Black – black conveys elegance, which is ideal for luxury brands.
- Red – red signals strong emotions, like anger and lust, making it an eye-catching choice for food products and encouraging impulsive purchases.
- Blue – blue signals neutrality, cleanliness, and calm, which is ideal for medicinal brands and products.
- Yellow – yellow symbolizes optimism, warmth, and energy, making it a good choice for seasonal summer products.
- Pink – pink symbolizes beauty and romance, making it a great choice for cosmetics brands.
- Gray – gray reflects authority and maturity, making it the best choice for functional products like automotive products.
Of course, the specific shade you choose may alter the perception and feel of your packaging. But you can leverage it to say something about your brand without putting it into writing. Try looking at the colors your competitors are using, and make sure your products stand out when compared with theirs.
Images
Imagery is another powerful tool in your packaging arsenal – which is why so many brands have logos. Engaging the consumers’ eye and presenting them with a memorable image is the best promotion for your brand and will help you stand out from the crowd.
The more emotionally engaging your image is, the better it will be for your brand. So, when choosing images or custom stickers for your packaging, select the one that makes you feel something. If it’s connected with your branding and captivates your attention, it will do the same for your customers.
Choose The Packaging Company For Custom Packaging
Now that you know the critical components of psychologically influential packaging, it’s time to design yours. Keep these factors in mind when designing your packaging, and make sure the result is cohesive and aesthetically pleasing.
Ready to start designing your custom packaging? Use The Packaging Company’s easy-to-use online tools to create and view your custom designs.
