How Does Our Packaging Make You Feel?

Written by Ted Mininni, President and Creative Director at Design Force, Inc.

Successful packaging for consumer product and licensed brands not only fosters attention and an emotional buy response out of the gate but satisfies consumers’ unconscious need to identify who they are by the brands they choose and to get “emotional validation” from them after they make a purchase. Powerful packaging leads to consumer adoption of the brand as a means of self-expression. Just how important is consumer emotion before and after purchase?

According to a scholarly article published in the Journal of Applied Packaging Research: “A history of marketing reflects the directive that ‘emotion leads to action’. Indeed, studies have shown that 95% of thinking is unconsciously realized where consumers make purchasing decisions based on emotion rather than rational thought. In addition to being emotionally driven, research has found that decision making occurs in brief phasic events, approximately 2.5 seconds in length”.¹

2.5 seconds doesn’t give marketers much time to make their case to consumers. It’s a challenge but it’s also a great opportunity. Packaging is visual and it makes the brand tangible. Consumers have a visceral reaction to it and they will reach out and touch it if we make it compelling. If we leverage the unique assets of the brand in a riveting, emotive manner, the consumer will hone in on it to the exclusion of everything else on the shelf.
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