Packaging Design--Communicate Brand Characteristics to the Market (2)

The openness of the door allows us to face both the domestic and international markets. In the face of global competition and market diversification, how Chinese products adapt to the market and obtain consumer recognition has become the first problem that Chinese companies need to solve. When the concept of “people-oriented” is translated into the specific content of social production, “customer is God” is no longer an empty slogan, and it has been implemented in every aspect of corporate production. This is also true in the field of packaging design. Who is our consumer? What kind of cultural background, aesthetic requirements, religious beliefs, laws and regulations, preferences, and so on, will be our packaging designers must understand, especially after China's accession to the WTO, our products will go out of the country more ,head to the World. Products from the past, the market is relatively small, the service of the historical and cultural background of the differences are relatively small, with some common aesthetic qualities into a global market, will face the different ethnic groups, with different historical and cultural backgrounds, lifestyle Multiple groups of aesthetic tastes. With different legal systems, different religious beliefs and other factors, the standards they hold will naturally vary greatly. Here only take the color in the package as an example. In China, red represents the emotional experience of big festivity, joy, and joy, but in some countries, red symbolizes violence and terror and has negative significance. Another example is yellow, which symbolizes light, wealth, and authority in our country. But in Pakistan, we are bored with yellow. Syria uses yellow to symbolize death.

Since the reform and opening up, the living standards of our people have been continuously improved. After people become prosperous, values ​​begin to change. At the same time, consumer psychology is constantly evolving and changing. Overall, it is gradually mature and more rational. This is a phenomenon that packaging designers must pay attention to. In the past, third-rate products coupled with first-class packaging may be able to open a way for the company. But nowadays, this kind of selling of dog meat and excessively gorgeous packaging has become more and more distasteful to consumers (popular products in supermarkets are very good at explaining problems). The principle of moral integrity has become the top priority for companies to obtain a market and establish a brand. It is reflected in the design of packaging that they cannot mislead consumers with false exaggeration. Otherwise, packaging design will not only become a weapon for product marketing, but will also ruin the company's business. prospect.

The above can be seen: different nationalities and different countries, due to their historical origins, social and political, economic and cultural, science and arts, traditional concepts, religious beliefs, lifestyle differences, reflected in the aesthetic taste, personality and psychology are also different. At different times, the consumer psychology of the same consumer groups at different levels is constantly evolving. In the face of these consumer objects with different aesthetic qualities and constant changes in consumer psychology, if package designers still do not thoroughly investigate and understand these changes, and treat them in isolation and in a static way, they will use the subjective imagination to design behind closed doors. Can imagine.

Research competitors (analysis environment)

As a major phenomenon under the market mechanism, competition cannot be avoided by any enterprise. After years of reform and practice, the Chinese society has successfully transformed itself from a planned economy to a market economy. We bid farewell to the shortage economy and the market has long since changed from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Consumers have changed from passive acceptance to active selection of goods. Packaging design, as an important item of direct contact between businesses and consumers, has an important influence on the choice of consumers. How to stand out from many competitors and achieve the purpose of promotion is a problem that every packaging designer must seriously consider today.

"Knowing and knowing oneself and fighting each other well." In the wave of global economic integration, today's increasingly fierce competition, shopping malls are like battlefields. To fully understand and understand competitors' information in packaging design, to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and to win the product in fierce competition is of utmost importance.

In Japan, about 10,000 new products are introduced every year. The increase in social productivity has greatly enriched the products. Many products with the same or similar qualities spontaneously form a mutual competitive situation. In the past, the situation in which each of them dominated one market has changed due to economic globalization. Especially after the rise of the supermarket, these products with the same or similar characteristics must be displayed on different platforms to accept the customers' judgments. In this context, packaging itself has become an important communication medium. Different brands of products have all done a good job in packaging design, but they are not always satisfactory. The reason for this is that there are corporate problems and more problems with design workers. Due to insufficient grasp of the market environment, not understanding the competitors of the product, and merely noticing the superficial phenomena of things, two wrong design thinkings have resulted. One is to pursue absolute differences and develop uniqueness to the limit. , blindly seeking new things, seeking curiosity, seeking blame, and severely separated from the market. Although such design can sometimes attract consumers' attention among numerous competitors, it does not necessarily lead to consumer recognition and purchase behavior. For example, in the first two years of the market, there was a strangely shaped, large-area black candy package. It was indeed conspicuous in the comparison, but in the end it was forced to withdraw the repackaging due to few people asking for it. The second was the lack of advanced innovation. Follow the trend everywhere. It is often the case that once the packaging design of a certain product on the market is approved and the product sales are hot, its competitors follow suit, copy or describe it. As a result, at most, it is just a matter of grabbing the residual soup of others. We advocate learning. Of course, good things must be learned, but we strongly oppose plagiarism. Regardless of the professional ethics, only in terms of the market prospects of the product, the sense of advanced innovation in packaging design has a crucial influence on it. Understanding competitors and analyzing competitors is to better predict market demand. Human values ​​for things always follow the trend. By accurately predicting modest advance innovation, it is very likely that it will become the leader in leading packaging design trends. The market is changing rapidly, and packaging cannot be changed. Old brands, new faces, and whoever can grasp the opportunities will have the market.

In addition, packaging design as a modern design of industrial production, in addition to commercial functions, should also shoulder the responsibility to promote people's aesthetic taste, value orientation and other social responsibilities. Adapting to the market is not a matter of cater to the needs of the market, and it even caters to certain low-level tastes and unhealthy tastes. A piece of packaging design reflects the personality of the brand and the characteristics of the product. At the same time, it reveals the ideology, ethics, social responsibility, and value judgment of the designer and business owner. The packaging design group in a certain period of a certain period shows a group of social life habits, modeling preferences, aesthetic taste, consumer psychology and other multi-level issues. Packaging design is an artistic creation activity. It more reflects the human common culture and is a popular art. At the same time, packaging is also an inspirational medium for internal spiritual thinking and bears corresponding social responsibilities. When carrying out creative activities, packaging designers should have a deep understanding of such rights, duties, and responsibilities. This is also the need to build a socialist spiritual civilization.

In summary, I believe that packaging design must be designed in accordance with the different objective conditions such as product characteristics, functions, sales methods, production conditions, market environment, and use objects. Packaging design is not a kind of art work to beautify products. Designers only walk out of the design studio, enter the market, do a comprehensive understanding of the product, study the market's needs, customer's consumer psychology and aesthetic taste, competitors' relevant information, etc., with a keen awareness of advanced innovation, a strong sense of moral responsibility In order to adapt to the needs of modern Chinese society, we must design and design a package design that can both win in the market, meet consumer needs, and promote the aesthetic appeal of the entire society.

(Author/Luo Xiaomin, Huizhou University, Guangdong)
Source of information "China Packaging Network"