1. To what extent is packaging important in marketing a product? Give an example of how a package influenced your decision to buy (or not buy) something.
I think packaging is very important. I personally love things that are bright, colorful, and eye-catching. Anything that has an eye catching package is a lot more likely to grab the eye of a consumer. This can be done many different ways using the shape of the package, the design on it, the colors, etc. It's also about style in today's world. People want to be seen with the products deemed "cool". If you have a product that everyone is like "wow, where did you get that?" you're going to be seen as cool or stylish.
There are a lot of books that I completely pass over because their covers or the title on the binding don't look appealing at all. It could be a great book, but I won't even give it a chance unless the fonts and colors or the actual title grabs me. This can be both good and bad because most academic books are less appealing, meaning i'm drawn towards the entertaining books more.
2. What other products have iconic packaging?
A lot of foods have iconic packaging because they have to beat out their competitors. Most foods and their competitors have the same type of general design (like a bag of chips) but then the actual design on the bag has to appeal to a consumer. If it was tostitos vs better made, I would pic tostitos because the colors are more vibrant (blue, purple, and white), the font is big, bold, and cool looking, and the overall design is inticing. The better made one lacks in comparrison with less color, and a less appealing font in my opinion.
School supplies for kids are also very iconic. Kids always want to have the coolest things for school and the producers know that. They deck out all the supplies in bright colors, lots of designs, and make them as appealing as possible. Kids always want the more intensely designed product no matter if it's exactly the same as the generic one without the extra design.
A lot of alcohol bottles are also iconic. There's a party store by my house with thousands of different alcohol bottles, and I always go through and find the coolest looking bottles while I'm there. The ones with the coolest shape, color combination, and font usually win in my mind.
3. What usability issues exist for packaging? Give examples of particularly good or bad packaging from a usability perspective.
Packaging has to be there to be eye-catching but it can't hinder the use of the actual product. Some packaging is just poorly designed like bottles that don't poor well due to the shape of the top.
I have a small tub of lemonade mix in my room, and to open it, you have to peel off half of the label. The only problem is that it's not perferrated, so you usually end up ripping off more than you need, which usually includes the instructions for how much water to use with the mix. The lemonade should have a better peel off label.
The "industrial" size package of goldfish I buy is also not that great. The package looks cool because it's like a giant milk carton, but once you eat half the package, you can no longer reach in and grab goldfish, you have to use a bowl, which makes eating harder. The box is also too big to hold on one hand, so it is impossible to poor and hold a bowl in your hand. Though it looks like a cool design, it's actually harder to use.
2 comments:
The book covers raises an interesting issue. Many times, libraries re-bind a book with a special more durable cover to protect it. These are generally pretty generic looking. Do you think that discourages people from reading them?
The Goldfish package is interesting; it clearly has some usability issues. Do you think it's intentional? By making the big carton harder to use, maybe they can sell more small (high profit) bags.
In response, I think that the rebound covers do discourage readers. I am discouraged by them because they are so dull. It makes a book look old and plain unappealing.
The goldfish package, I'm more unsure about. Peppridge Farm produces many sizes of goldfish, from the small bags, to medium and large boxes, to the industrial size box I was talking about. The sizes are good depending on how many goldfish you go through and how quickly. My roomate and I always get the industrial size one because we both love goldfish. If you were to re-shape the box at all though, I think it would make it even less usable. If you made it taller it wouldn't fit on most shelfs, and wider would make it into an awkward looking box. I think the top could somehow be redesigned so that you could open the entire thing. This would make it a lot easier to get to the goldfish.
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