Pre-Launch Process & Design Checklist for Food Packaging

Last Updated on June 21, 2022 by DesignerPeople

Australia is proudly known as “The Land Down Under” with its placement in the southern hemisphere; our region is more beneficial for agriculture and farming of fruits, dairy, vegetables, meat, etc. Superior quality local wines, beer and other soft drinks also make us attain a better position in the global market.

The food industry plays a significant role in our employment and financial contributions. Even the world’s leading FMCG companies like Nestle, Unilever, Mars, and Simplot have had their strong presence in Australia for decades. Indeed, the traditional and cultural diversity of Australia is mirrored in the food range available.

The packaging of a food product is designed as per following specific regulations and specifications.

Therefore, developing an engaging food packaging design with excellent artwork can be only achieved through an intensive process. Here, you need the help of a good food packaging design agency in Australia who guide you in the artwork and development of strategies.

Why is Packaging Design Important for your Food Product?

Whether your hot Biriyani arrives cold or sushi becomes warm, a wrong packaging not only creates an undesirable mess but makes the meal less appetising. From our research, around 95% of food companies in Australia break down in the market every year.

The reason is simple; they fail to understand customers’ tastes and preferences. In the busy world, people don’t go to understand the product’s USP or benefits; thus, they use the best alternative option to come to a decision – i.e. analysing product packaging design.

The distinct food packaging design not only communicates who you are and what the brand stands for. Developing a solid brand identity with outstanding packaging can help attract customers and helps convey information about your product precisely and concisely.

Read More: 99 Impressive Label Design for Australian Products

The Complete Process for a Successful Food Packaging Design

A successful packaging has the potential to stand out, empathise with people and gives the perfect solution for what they’re looking for. Reaching such a stage is not a one night result; it takes years of experience and teamwork to get you the best result. Let’s discuss in detail.

1. Do a Strong Market Research:

Doing strong quantitative and qualitative research is the first and foremost step before sketching your design. If you want the packaging to leave an everlasting emotion on people, intense market research is essentially required.

People easily get enlightened with the product or brand from the first time they visualise on the rack. Thus, analysing what draws your audience towards the product through packaging is the success of your food packaging design. If you win this initial step, you are done with 50% of the work.

So, we need to consider product packaging design as a form of boosting that can indicate a lot regarding your brand to a client. Conducting a powerful brainstorming helps analyse what your customers are looking for from the brand.

2. Apply your Product Story:

Also Read: Zenko Water Lily Pops Packaging Design Singapore

Behind the success of every product or brand, there will be years of journey and hard work. Even if you’re a startup or already a brand, make your story a vital tool for branding and other marketing activities.

No matter your case, your food product can be inspired by effective stories. Implementing such promising stories or messages makes your food product more vigorous and develops exceptional consumer progress with more apprehensive connections. While delivering the story, make it short, fresh and crisp, communicating the point of concentration. If you succeed in showcasing the story in the best engaging manner, it becomes your brand’s touch point that will differentiate your brand or product.

3. Understand your Target Market:

Understanding your target market is essential for designing the proper packaging. It helps you convey crucial information about your brand in one way or the other. If you communicate the right message, then it will reflect in the form of sales.

Apart from the basic psychology of packaging, your expectations will reflect differently on your product according to the demographic. Specifically, your prospects’ age group and generational association matter for your product packaging design.

For example, Gen Y is swiftly becoming a primary target market for many retailers. Features of this demographic include a high recognition for environmental issues and the overall demand to engage with socially responsible brands.

Therefore, the design for this target market would focus on a natural experience and an authentic commitment to corporate social responsibility.

4. Create a Versatile Packaging Design:

Executing your design in such a way that it can be used in multiple ways is an important aspect that you need to take into consideration. Most times, food manufacturers go for packaging design that enclose standard sizes of products.

Especially when running a cloud kitchen or small products, it’s best to go for a versatile packaging design so that we can produce a single serving with a pair of food pairings. Therefore, while designing, your logo and other elements have to fit conveniently in other different types of packaging.

Therefore, as a food manufacturing company, you need to ensure that your food packaging designs need to accomplish two significant goals:

• It should provide you with more chances to serve the various tastes of your target audience.
• Your packaging design needs to be such a way that people can instantly recognise your product so that you can become tension-free in the long run.

Pre-Launch Design Checklist for Food Packaging

A packaging design won’t arise instantly. There is a huge checklist that needs to be put green tick before delivering the final designs. A balanced design helps convey the powerful brand message and product information to the customers efficiently.

Let’s have a broader look into the pre-launch design checklist:

Front of the Packaging Design:

According to the studies, consumers take only 6 to 7 seconds to make their buying decisions, and it’s possible only by looking at the front part of your packaging that is placed on the rack.

Let’s understand the major components that need to be considered in the front side of your food packaging design:

1. Brand Name:

A creative and eye-catchy brand naming is the vital cornerstone that acts as the spine of your brand. It helps you develop strong brand awareness and communicates the meaning of your brand or food product.

A powerful brand name generates value for the product’s packaging design and helps develop emotion and trust in the brand. Consumers always rely on a product by looking at the brand name. Thus, ensure your brand name is viewable and placed correctly.

2. Tagline of Food Product:

Having a strong tagline for your food brand or product is a prominent method of exhibiting brand emotions and engagement with its audience. Your tagline should reflect its culture, mission, vision and beliefs.

Powerful taglines are catchy and give you strong recall in the mindset and striking for the brand. It helps customers easily differentiate your products from others and influence their purchasing decisions.

3. Unique Selling Proposition of Food Product:

If you want to launch a product that needs to be the customer’s new favourite choice, your brand should have unique selling propositions that other brands currently do not have in the segment. So, your goal must be coming up with such a USP and highlighting the product based on that.

A food packaging design that enhances product benefits stands out in the marketing industry. Therefore, design your food packaging with appropriate combinations of fonts, layouts, highlighting the product’s USPs so that consumers can identify the product at the first glimpse itself.

4. Colour Selection:

When your product is arranged on the shelves, the colours used while sketching your food packaging design are critical. Colours have a vital role in buying decisions and building an emotional attachment to the product.

While choosing colours, make sure that you don’t get rid of your brand’s colours and sustain brand consistency. But, if you have multiple products under the same criteria, you can go for variants to generate uniformity. Going with such a pattern will enable your brand easy to recall and keep consumers reliable to your brand.

5. Use of Stylish Fonts:

Food packaging has an abundance of information. Executing such information (i.e. from USP to nutritional facts) in the best suitable manner is the success of any adequate packaging.

Choosing creative fonts according to the product’s nature is not everyone’s cup of tea. For example, you can select a bold, distinct logo for the title and an italic or funny one for USP and the standard one for the backside of the packaging.

Back of the Packaging Design:

The food authorities of Australia impose strict guidelines and regulations on food packaging and labelling. The government ensures that customers need to be aware of what they are purchasing and consuming.

It is essential to make sure that you approach a professional food packaging design agency in Australia who have tremendous experience and a clear understanding of packaging guidelines. Usually, the legal food department verifies the regulatory adherence before the product launch, so it’s mandatory that you should meet their guidelines.

1. Nutritional Facts on Food Packaging:

In the current era, people have become more concerned about their health and are more concerned about what they’re buying. The nutritional facts of food packaging need to be précised by following the mentioned guidelines.

Indeed, customers give special attention to brands that indicate their nutritional benefits and go for those they generate trust with. The nutritional facts are also valuable information for customers to understand their amount of daily nutrients and calorie intake.

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2. Veg or Non–Veg Declaration:

According to the Food Regulatory of Australia, all packaged food that is “Non-Vegetarian” must be symbolised with a brown shade-filled inside a square with a brown outline. However, if food only contains, the manufacturer can declare that it includes only egg with the non-vegetarian symbol.

And when it comes to veggies, there must be a symbol of a green shade circle inside a square with green.

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3. Ingredients on Food Packaging:

The ingredients on the packaging allow the audience to know by which ingredients the food product is made. It helps customers to choose the best one that they’re looking for.

An effective packaging design helps customers easily understand their ingredients by using proper fonts, or we can even create ingredients in the form of stories. For example, if you are taking products directly from farmers to plants and the professional approach, all can be indicated through an art form, making the packaging catchier.

4. Product Mandatory Information:

No matter which food product you are selling, there is certain mandatory information you need to follow. Some products have their information on the packaging side, whereas others have it on the product’s backside. However, certain brands also go to place information such as net weight or other icons on the front side of the packaging.

5. Warning Instructions

Source: sfa.gov.sg/food-information/labelling-packaging-information/understanding-food-nutrition-labels

Caution statements, such as the ones below, will always assist individuals in identifying what not to do for specific persons.

This includes soy, peanuts, dairy, wheat, and a variety of other foods to which many individuals are allergic and which might cause health problems.

Wrap Up!

It’s human nature that people impulsively get attracted to things that give pleasure to the eyes. A food product that is professionally designed and engaging is restrained to attracting more potential customers than a product that is awfully designed and looks bland.

The packaging design varies on the nature of your product. Even the packaging design strategies differ from place and time. It is essential to go for that packaging design that makes you stand out in such a competitive market.

If you want to make a strong pitch for a food brand in Sydney, or other states like Perth, Melbourne, Hobart, or other places in Australia, you can reach us. We, DesignerPeople, have a tremendous experience in this segment and are privileged to develop your brand to a greater extent.

Author: Megha Malik

As a passionate entrepreneur and creative brand consultant with experience of 14 years in digital, branding and packaging industry, it is my honest effort to put my experiences and knowledge of industry towards readers. A chartered accountant by degree but a marketing personality in blood has motivated her to take in designing industry as a career. With her fun-loving personality and sharp branding skills, she is a great motivational speaker on her YouTube channel, an active member in various business channels offline as well as online. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.