Package your products to achieve the best outcome by following these guideliens:

 

1.  Package to Sell (Design):

 

Great packaging should be eye catching, easy to read and easy to open.  It should invite customers to interact with the product and it should clearly convey what the product is about.  A beautifully deisnged packag will not only attract potential customers' attention, it will also influence their buying decision.  Some things you should consider when deisgning your product to be appealing includes:

 

Depict The Product: 

You have to let people know what is in the packaging that you are trying to sell them.  They should not have to guess.  A great way to do this is to place a picture of the product on the packaging. 

Depict Different Flavors and/or Colors:

 

If the product comes in different flavors and/or colors depict this on the packaging so that customers know exactly what they're buying.  They may prefer one color or flavor over another and don't want to buy the wrong one. So, make it easy for them by clearly depicting this information.  You can depict the color of the contents for example, by using a color swat to depict all the colors the product comes in with a check mark on the content's color.  An example in which flavors can be displayed would be to list all the flavors that the product comes in with a check mark next to the flavor that depicts the content.

Depict Nutritional Value:

 

If the product has a nutritional value clearly depict this information on the packaging.  Today's consumers are very conscious about the contents of the products they eat.

Depict The Amount of Items In The Box:

 

Depict the number of items in the package on the box that it comes in.  When a consumer goes to buy a box that contains a multiple of something they want to know exaactly how many is in the box.  This information should be clearly stiuplated on the packaging. 


 

 

2.  Legability:

 

Remember that your product will be compared to others.  If the consumer can't read the information on the package they will go with a competitor's product.  Make it legable and easy to read.  The consumer shouldn't have to put on glasses to read the information on the package.

 

 

 

 

 

3.  What Does The Product Do?:

 

Be clear about what the product is for.  Why buy a product if you don't know what it does.  Consumers will spend very little time trying to figure out what a product does.  The average time a consumer will spend trying to figure out a product is 4 seconds. 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Brand Your Product:

 

Don't forget to brand your business by using your company logo on the product packaging.  The packaging is prime real estate that you can use to promote the business.  Your logo tells the consumer who produces the product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Be Honest:

 

Be honest about what is actually in the packaging.  Don't use a picture on the packaging to portray an image of something that is better than the actual product in the box.  It's misleading to do so and it will upset your customers.  It could result in returned products and a bad image of your brand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Shelf Impact:

 

Try to design your product so that it can stand out on store shelves.  Remember that your product will be placed with similar products.  Do a visit to the retail store where your product is most likely to be displayed and take a look at the shelves where your product is most likely to be displayed and develop a design that would make it stand out and get attention from consumers.

 

 

 

 

7.  Future Product Expansion:

 

When you design your product consider how the product will expand in the future.  If the product will be presented in different flavors and colors in the future you have to consider how the packaging will be able to evolve to accomondate those future introductions of the product.  Think of the color scheme, font size, images, etc that you use and make sure that they can be tweaked for use on future products so that you can maintain a consistant display of the product labeling.

 

 

 

 

8.  Functionality/Reusability:

 

Make sure that the packaging of your product is functional al and can be used in ways that the consumer is likely to use it.  If it can be reused it will have even more value to the consumer and they will be more likely to buy it.  Consider the choices for packaging materials that could have reuse value:

- Paper
- Metal
- Plastic
- Paper
- Organic (bio-degradable)

 

 

 

 

9.  Meet Dimension Requirements:

 

Be sure to package your product in the appropriate dimensions so that it can be placed on retail shelves alongside other similar products.  If the product is packaged too big it will not fit in the alloted space for a product of its type.  The more space your product take up in a retail store the less products that store can offer to customers.  Hence, a retailer may reject your product simply becasue of this.  Visit retail stores and look at similar products to get an idea how other products are pacakged to get on store shelves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.  Barcode:

 

Remember to place barcodes on your products.  This is a requirement to place your products in retail stores.  Learn about barcode.

 

 

 

 

11.  Meet Legal Guidelines:

 

Manufacturers must comply with the  Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) with regard to products that are packaged and sold to consumers.  The FLSA stipulates the following:

 

- U.S. content must be disclosed on automobiles, textile, woll and fur products sold in the U.S. (FPLA)

 

-  A company can make the Made in USA claim on thier products if all or virtually all of it was made in the USA.  You can place the "Made in USA"; "Our products are American-made"; or "USA" labels on your product to make the made in USA claim.  (FPLA)

 

- For textile products you must provide warning about how the product should be cleaned.

 

- Rule 505.5 of the FPLA states that the name and palce of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor must be placed on consumer products.

 

- Rule 500.6 and 500.7 of the FPLA requires that the net quantity of contents be displayed.

 

- Rule 500.8 and 500.9 of the FPLA requires that the units of wegiht or mass and measure be a part of the labeling on the package/product. It also requires the use of metrics units.

 

- Rule 500.26 of the FPLA requires the depiction of servings, uses and applications.

 

- Rule 500.29 of the FPLA stipulates how combination packages should be labeled.

 

Read more about Igredients, Packaging & Labeling from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) website.

 

The Business Education page of the Consumer Product Safety Commission is also a good place to start to find informationa bout labeling your products.