The Important Role of Packaging Design Testing
They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but just think about all the times you’ve gone shopping and picked one product over another just because of how it looked. In a saturated marketplace, packaging can help you stand out or leave your brand on the shelf collecting dust.
This is where packaging design testing comes in. Packaging design is often a critical component of a brand’s identity, and that’s why testing your package design before entering the market, to ensure it reflects the needs and motivations of your customers, can drive sales and save you money in the long run. But how can you tell if your package design hits the mark when it comes to capturing the attention of your customers? In this article, we will explain what package design testing is, how to undertake it and the benefits it will bring to your brand.
What is Packaging Design Testing?
Packaging design testing is the process of evaluating the visual aspects, effectiveness and visual appeal of your brand’s packaging with a select test group that meets the demographic of your target audience. Think about it. Once you launch your product packaging, you’re pretty much stuck with it, so doing your research before releasing any type of packaging is the most effective way to ensure it is going to work for your customers.
Package design testing lets you gauge consumer impressions so you can choose the most effective design and beat competitors across a range of metrics. By identifying the packaging design that resonates most with your target audience, you can make informed decisions about product packaging.
Without strategic design, you’ll likely fade into the background and get left on store shelves. Testing empowers you to boost your new product’s packaging effectiveness, functionality and appeal before you actually invest in developing and launching it. When you test package designs, you are screening and evaluating many different aspects of your product packaging.
Why is Packaging Design Testing Important?
Packaging design testing is essential as it helps to ensure a package design will be practical and appealing to consumers. The importance of package design testing cannot be overstated. It is beneficial for businesses operating in highly competitive industries where packaging design is critical in influencing consumer behaviour. Packaging design testing offers several significant benefits to make sure your product is ready to hit the market:
Find the best package design: When you test your design ideas, you ultimately find the one that works best for your target audience. Package design testing allows you to eliminate ideas that aren’t appealing, optimise the ones that just miss the mark, and find the winners.
Identify areas of improvement: No matter how amazing your brand may be, there are almost always ways to improve. Listen to the feedback from your customers to make your designs even better at attracting the right demographics.
Find ideas for future innovations: Your test results will reveal ideas that performed well and not so well. When you’re creating another product line or looking to reposition your product, you will already have some idea of which designs your audience liked most, so you can apply this knowledge to your re-designs or new products.
Understand what different audiences want: Your target market isn’t uniform. A package design test will help you find specific customer segments that are being underserved and identify their needs.
Help persuade the key stakeholders: Designs usually have to go through several committees and approval processes. Testing your packaging designs gives you real, quantifiable data to help you persuade the higher-ups and get everyone on board.
Faster decision-making: A product design test produces valuable data to help you make faster decisions. Instead of relying on your gut feeling, you have objective metrics to guide you. As a result, you can iterate more quickly.
Go to market with confidence: Package design testing gives you certainty in your decisions. Knowing that your final choices are supported by real numbers and public opinions gives you reassurance.
Save money and time: Conducting package design testing means you can avoid spending more to correct mistakes. Once you know what kind of package design your customers like, you’ll save time on actually designing it.
Ensure it corresponds with your brand image: You might discover that certain images or claims used in your packaging and marketing materials don’t align as well as they could with your brand image. These insights will help you refine your messages, advertisements, visuals, and other marketing elements, enhancing and focusing your brand image.
Make sure it stands out amongst competitors: Distinctive features help create a memorable presence so a product will stand out on the shelf among competitors. For example, testing may reveal using a contrasting colour against your competitor’s packaging can help it stand out on the shelf.
Make sure it is aesthetically pleasing: Unattractive or confusing packaging can lead to customers overlooking your product. Testing helps identify and rectify design flaws and establish a clear information hierarchy. These little things matter in package design as they foster positive brand perception and help drive purchasing decisions.
When is Packaging Design Testing Conducted?
Package design testing should be conducted at all stages of product development. It is an ongoing process – not a one-time event. Before you start testing, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, what questions you want to answer and what metrics you want to track. A well-defined objective will help you choose the right method, sample and tools for your testing. There are several key stages when package design testing should be conducted:
Initial stages of product development: Testing your early packaging concepts can help you identify the most promising design direction. This allows you to refine your ideas and focus on package designs that perform best with your target market.
Going to market: As you advance in your product development and prepare for your go-to-market strategy, it’s essential to test your final product packaging design. This stage involves fine-tuning your designs to ensure the packaging is visually appealing, effectively communicates your messages, and stands out on the shelf.
During re-launches and line extensions: A product update, line extension or re-launch is an excellent opportunity to rethink your packaging design and identify areas for improvement. During this testing phase, you can evaluate your current packaging to gain customer sentiment and insight before developing and launching new packaging designs and messaging strategies aimed at keeping your packaging fresh, relevant, and competitive.
During a brand ‘health check’: Regular testing allows you to make data-driven adjustments, ensuring your packaging remains competitive and engaging. This testing helps identify any issues that may cause customers to switch to competitors, such as unclear messaging, unappealing design, or a lack of alignment with customer expectations.
Elements Tested by Package Design Testing
Package design testing looks at the strengths and weaknesses of a product’s packaging by measuring elements of the packaging design against the target audience. By testing your packaging, you’ll get meaningful insights that will inform your design process. Elements considered during package design testing include:
Colour: Colour plays a significant role in attracting attention, moulding perceptions, and conveying brand identity. Despite being studied by psychologists for decades, many overlook the power of colour when designing their packaging.
Design: Packages have limited space for elements. With testing, you’ll identify the best combination or design to drive purchases while ensuring it aligns with your brand identity. Chocolate maker Koko & Stone incorporates organic shapes that represent the ancient process of stone grinding on their packaging to enhance the craft aspect of Koko & Stone’s production method.
Graphics: Testing ensures the packaging visuals and images are attractive, relevant, aligned with your product’s message and target audience, and effectively communicates the product’s benefits. An example of a company that excels in this area is Chobani, which uses vibrant, clean graphics on its yogurt packaging to convey freshness, natural ingredients, and a modern, health-conscious appeal.
Size and shape: Testing different packaging sizes allows brands to determine the most practical and appealing option. It also allows you to consider factors such as shelf space, consumer convenience, and perceived value.
What Metrics Does Packaging Design Testing Track?
Package design testing tracks several metrics to gain valuable knowledge about how the product’s design and packaging influence the audience. These include:
Packaging appeal: A highly appealing design can significantly influence a consumer’s decision to choose your product. An eye-catching, well-crafted package immediately draws attention, generates excitement and entices shoppers to explore the product further. Consumers are willing to spend more on products that come in high-quality, visually striking packaging.
Purchase intent: Strong purchase intent shows that your design effectively communicates value and desirability. Whether your product retains shelf space depends on its initial and repeat sales, making purchase intent crucial. Common methods to gauge buyer intent include data analysis, surveys and customer observation.
Design uniqueness: A unique metric to evaluate in package design testing is standout or shelf visibility. One undervalued tip to make your product stand out is simplicity. Some ways to accomplish this include using fewer colours, minimising graphics and labelling them with clearer messages.
Market relevance: Your packaging design should be relevant to your target market. It needs to grab the attention of your desired audience, keep it, and encourage them to buy. This can only happen if it meets your customers’ needs, wants and tastes.
How to Conduct A Packaging Design Test
There are various ways to conduct package design tests. The success of your packaging testing hinges on choosing the research method (or a blend of methods) that best fits your requirements. Polls are better suited for instant feedback, while surveys are great for longer research timeframes. Here are some different tests you can use:
Mockup package testing and 3D prototyping complement each other in the design process. Mockups provide valuable insights into functionality, usability and consumer appeal, while 3D prototyping offers detailed refinement and validation. Using both methods together allows designers to identify and address potential design issues early, resulting in more effective, high-quality packaging. This combined approach streamlines the design process, minimises production risks, and ensures the final product is practical and visually appealing.ntly enhance customer trust, increase value and foster loyalty.
Focus groups bring together representatives of your target demographic to learn about their opinions and attitudes toward your product packaging. You should use focus groups when you want to create a benchmark to measure your design’s success and see how people interact with your packaging design in real-time. However, ensuring a group that accurately reflects your target audience can be complex, so it’s worth doing this alongside one of the other options.
Usability testing can be a great way to measure the design’s success and gain insight into how potential customers use the packaging. You can assess whether their use of the design aligns with your expectations or if they are using it differently.
A/B testing involves creating two versions of your packaging design (version A and version B) that differ in one specific way – colour, typography, imagery, etc. – and testing both versions in the marketplace. The goal of A/B testing is to learn which package design or element performs better. Live A/B testing is done at the end of the design process while your product is available in the marketplace, while A/B testing before you launch helps ensure you make the right decisions about your design before you go to market.
Online surveys can help you spot patterns in responses over time. You’ll get insights to make smarter decisions during the entire testing process. Surveys are most effective when you need to test or ask about multiple aspects of your package design.
Eye-tracking studies: The decision to buy something often occurs on an emotional level, making it difficult for consumers to articulate why they like or dislike a design. In package design testing, eye-tracking studies can provide precise information on whether the packaging attracts attention and if the information on it is sufficiently visible.
This article examined why packaging design testing is essential for enhancing user experience, attracting new customers and differentiating from competitors. Taking the time to undertake package design testing removes the guesswork in packaging design, saving time and money. For expert advice on package design testing, don’t hesitate to contact the Brandwell team.