When not to invest in packaging design
A premium ceramic fixture worth 250 reais ships in a generic box that costs 15.50. It looks careless. It is the smartest decision in that project, and the same reasoning explains why the pack of a cheaper product, on the shelf next to it, deserved months of work.
Anyone approving a packaging budget needs a criterion, not a preference. The criterion fits in one question.
Every pack does three things, and only one is optional
Protect, transport and communicate. The first two are not negotiable: if the pack fails at them, no artwork saves it. The third depends on a single fact of the real world: will the shopper meet the product, or only the box?
That is the question that governs the entire investment. How does the pack interfere in the purchase decision?
The three routes
The pack sells. The product is sealed inside it and the shopper decides on what the box shows and explains. Here communicating is the main job, and cutting the packaging budget is cutting the sales budget.
The product sells. The product is displayed outside the box, open, switched on, running water. The shopper touches it, tests it and decides on the product. The pack only shows up on the way to the car. It has to protect and transport well, and it barely needs to communicate. In that scenario a generic box shared across several products lowers the cost per unit and costs no sales at all.
The luxury experience. A towel rail worth 3,000 reais may sit on display outside its box, and even so the box cannot be just any box. It does not have to sell: it has to match what the person has just paid. Here the pack confirms the decision instead of provoking it, and that is reason enough to invest.
Investing the same in every pack is the same as deciding nothing. The money left over from the box that does not need to communicate is what pays for the box that does.
Four variables before approving the budget
At Deca this decision passes through four filters, and none of them is aesthetic.
- Segmentation and product. Does this product have a story to tell, or is it simple enough to explain itself? A lay audience or a specialist one?
- Sales channel. Self-service in a DIY store, or a specialist retailer with a salesperson beside the customer?
- Purchase decision. Is the product displayed inside or outside the pack?
- Investment in the product. How much did the person pay, and what does she expect to receive in her hands?
And the decision does not belong to one person. It brings together product marketing, research and development, supply, packaging engineering and design. Whoever decides alone finds out about the mistake on the factory floor.
The channel changes everything
In a DIY store on a busy Saturday there is no salesperson available. The shopper walks with his trolley, stops in front of two similar boxes and chooses. There the pack is the salesperson, and it is the only one.
In a specialist store, with a salesperson beside the customer, the scene flips: somebody is there to explain the differential, answer doubts and close. The pack can be cleaner, quieter, more premium, because the argument has another mouth. Same product, same brand, two packs with different jobs.
Who chooses, who pays and who opens
In building materials something happens that almost no other category has: the architect chooses, the owner of the project pays and the installer opens the box. Three people, three moments and three needs on the same pack. The architect wants specification, the owner wants confirmation that the money was well spent, the installer wants to find the parts and the instructions in thirty seconds.
Treating the three as a single buyer is the fastest way to lose two of them. Before deciding how much to invest, decide who this box speaks to, and in what order.