Five Rules For Packaging Design To Make Your Product Labels Stand Out

_{Ian Renton  | 18/04/2017 | Label Design Tips,Product Labels}

Last week, Aldi announced that it will be increasing its range of products to 1450. This is still well short of Coles and Woolworths which both hold about 25,000 products. This means, your packaging and product labels must be effective in firstly, getting your product noticed at all, and secondly getting it to stand out. There are hundreds of graphic designers throughout the world creating strong brands for multinational companies. You too can tap into what they are doing by following these five simple rules.

1. Be Clear and Simple.

Here is an experiment you can do next time you are in a supermarket. Go down an aisle and browse at some of the products. Then see if the labelling answers these two simple questions and also how quickly you can answer them. Firstly, what is the actual product? Secondly, what is the brand associated with that product? You may be surprised at how hard it is to find answers to these questions. That is because too often the designs for the packaging and labelling are just too complicated.

2. Be original.

Product labelling is just like other forms of marketing. The biggest marketing sin is to be boring. You do not want to be the same as everyone else. Of course, when it comes to packaging your products, it is vital that the product label design is different from your competitors for legal reasons too. Before you get started in designing your product labels, check out your competitors and be as different as you can possibly be.

3. Be honest.

Do not imply that your product or brand is something that it is not. Sure, you may get one sale but low repeat sales and bad publicity are things that must be avoided at all costs. Also, you are bound to come under the scrutiny of the authorities if you make false claims in your packaging.

4. Allow for product variations.

It is unlikely that you have just one product for your market place. For example, if you sell jam, then, most likely you will offer different flavours of jam and the jam labels need to be similar and easily distinguished as being part of your brand. Also, your products may come in different sizes so again the labels or the packaging need to be easily adaptable to different sizes.

5. Be benefit driven.

Your packaging and labels are there to sell your products. If your product provides one big benefit, then this should stand out and not be hidden. For example, if you sell organic food, then highlight this benefit. If your food is produced in Australia from local ingredients, then say so and even highlight this point.