Recent studies have shown that 35% of all buying decisions are irrational. Shoppers studied demonstrated that their attention could only hold up to 7 words at a time and that they navigated through their shopping experience using colours and shapes, as well as the location of previously purchased items. In other words, shopping was found to be a very instinctual process. Decisions to look at or ignore a packaging are made in the blink of an eye.
So, what can a manufacturer or creator of packaging do to successfully attract the customer’s attention?
Simplifying the message is essential of course, but it has to go further than that. There has to be simplicity and coherence in the colours and graphic elements of the package, the first things that the buyer will notice.
This is where shrink sleeve packaging can give you a distinct advantage. One of the ‘visual elements’ of your packaging is the package itself, so why not use it? With its ability to cover the entire surface of the product, it not only gives you more real estate to make your product claim, but, more importantly, it can involve the entire physical presence of the package in the process of attracting the customer’s attention. The shape of the product can become part of the message. A good, coherent design will help point the customer’s eye towards the product’s single differentiating statement. A statement that is hopefully 7 words or less. If the message is placed where the contours of the product are naturally pointing and if the graphic elements are leading the customer’s eye to that messaging, then your messaging will be that much stronger.
Shrink sleeve also enables you to take the opposite approach: make the graphic design enhance the impact of the product, by emphasizing certain shapes and lines and using visual illusions to create different volumes. And why not use shrink sleeve packaging to empower a plain shaped package with bold graphics?
In your package’s natural environment on the shelf, alongside its competitors, shrink sleeve packaging allows you to use the full size of your product to stand out. Choose colours that help it stand apart from the others and your packaging will have a better chance of getting the customer’s eye contact first.
If you’d like to know more about shrink sleeve contact us. If you’d like to find out more about designing effective packaging, download our ebook called Understanding the market potential of shrink sleeve labels.
Good luck out there on the shelf.
