If you have been marketing a product for any length of time, it may be time to change your packaging. When you change your packaging, you have to consider size, shape, graphics, color, and typography. The change may be needed in one or all of these categories. But how will you know for sure that it’s time to change? Change isn’t always good. Some products become well known just for their packaging. Take Cracker Jack® for instance; their packaging hasn’t changed significantly in more than sixty years. However, most companies do revise their packaging every so often to keep it looking fresh and up to date. Here are four signs that it may be time to change your packaging.
Lack of Sales
If sales have dropped off over the previous months or even a year or two and you’ve eliminated all the other possibilities, maybe it’s time to reevaluate the packaging. Spiff up the typography, use more modern graphics, or brighten the color scheme – anything to make your product more noticeable and boost sales. You may even want to make it really stand out with custom packaging.
Packaging Failure
It could be that your first package design isn’t really working very well. Maybe it breaks open too easily and spills the product. Maybe the package doesn’t fit the product properly with extra space inside. It could be that the package material isn’t sturdy enough and gets crushed in transit. If any of these situations arise, you should work on creating a better package design.
It Looks Dated
Take a stroll through the store where your product is displayed and look at your package, comparing it to other similar products’ packaging. How does it compare? Does it look dated? Packaging that’s five years out of style just doesn’t have the same “cool” feeling that an antique look does. Look at the other packages and get some ideas on how to update your package’s look without directly copying your competition.
New Regulations
Depending on the type of product you are marketing, there may be regulations that have changed since you first put your product on the market. This is particularly common with medicines or products that can be potentially harmful if misused. You may have to redesign your packaging to be child-proof or tamper-proof. Many products need to be in tamper-evident packaging, including medicines and some food products.
