Packaging design is not a personal artistic exercise and is not done for the sake of the creative act. It is a tool that must support the brand, its attributes, and the previously thought out business strategy. Good design solves real problems.
Here are some aspects to consider when a product branding or rebranding process takes place:
Know your audience
Product brands are, to a large extent, about the consumer: about how clearly he can identify and relate to them, about expectations from the category, about his habits and his visual culture. The better you understand the needs and expectations of the consumer, the more you can use design to capture and facilitate interaction with your brand.
Perhaps the consumer of the brand is skeptical or feels the need to see the product before buying it - then a transparent window in the packaging can help convince you.
Understand what your business goals are
Packaging design should help the business put its strategy into practice and meet its goals. Imagine that the business wants to expand its brand portfolio into other sub-categories or even new product categories. Is master packing designed to support growth plans? But to maintain continuity and consistency in the brand identity at the same time?
Understand your competition
A product brand does not stand alone on the shelf. Even if there are situations when it does not have products with which to compete directly, it has substitutes.
A good packaging design allows for effortless identification on the shelf, clearly deciphering the message, and finds room in the agglomeration generated by the competition to build its own and differentiating visual language (color palette, shapes, etc.), preferably unused by the competition.
Conclusion
First of all, packaging design helps the business meet its goals. A recent project where I used it as a business tool is Vivelis- a frozen product brand that required total rebranding due to low shelf performance and negative consumer perception.