While a great package design is important for just about any product, when it comes to the specialty foods industry, food grade packaging design is crucial. Not only do you need packaging that protects the food, but it also needs to entice consumers quickly. You typically only have a few seconds to grab a customer’s attention, and the following tips can help you create a customer-winning design.
1. Research is Key
The team at Indepak can create any type of food grade packaging you might need, including custom thermoformed trays, tubs and clamshell packaging. We can ensure that your packaging is of the highest quality, but it’s up to you, as the product manufacturer, to research your ideal customer and come up with a label design that speaks to that customer.
You need to know the target audience well and understand their values. For instance, your client might be a young professional that focuses on purchasing products that are healthy and sustainable. Your main client might be parents that want healthy foods for their children that are also convenient to pack in lunches or carry along in the car. Your client also might be a die-hard foodie that wants the finest, upscale ingredients for their meal prep.
2. Build Your Brand Image Through Continuity
Food grade packaging design can be a great way to build your brand image. Let’s think about potato chips for a second, specifically Pringles. Just by saying the product name, you can imagine the tube of Pringles and the image of Mr. Pringle. While the company has more than a dozen varieties of chips, the packaging design remains largely the same for each container, only the colors and a few tiny design elements change.
Not only does this similar design promote the brand identity, but it also saves the company money. After all, when all of the packages are the same size and shape and only the label changes, you can do a larger production run, which is much less expensive than using a different package size and shape for different product varieties. Whenever you can keep packaging uniform, you will pay less and also improve your brand identity.
Of course, in some cases, it’s not possible to keep everything the same size and shape. For instance, perhaps you sell two types of yogurt. One product is a simple tub with fruit and yogurt mixed together. The other product needs a tub or tray with two sections, one for yogurt and one perhaps for granola. In this case, you would want to highlight your logo and perhaps use the same colors and typefaces to help consumers recognize your brand. This is a huge reason why creating a great logo is so important. It needs to be attractive and recognizable in just a few seconds.
3. Simplicity Is Best
At Indepak, while specialty food packaging is one of our main areas of specialization, we design food grade packaging for all types of retail products, as well. One aspect of design we’ve found to be true across industries is that customers appreciate it when your labeling makes it easy to understand what’s inside the package.
Obviously, if your crackers are on a shelf with other crackers, the consumer understands that it is a cracker. But what is the flavor? Is it wheat? Is it organic? If you can convey this important information quickly and succinctly, you will reach more customers. This is where all that research will come into play. If you understand what your target customer wants, highlight those elements prominently on the package.
If you create frozen dinners that appeal to health-conscious vegetarians and vegans, make sure you state clearly that the meal is 100% vegan. You might also add organic to the label, as that also will appeal to your clientele. Any client with special dietary needs will want to see those needs addressed as quickly as possible. On the flip side, some customers will be more concerned with factors such as convenience, so you could highlight, “Ready in Just 5 Minutes,” on the package.
It can be tough to strike a balance between including the right information and including too much information. In general, your front label should include your logo, a brief product description and any crucial elements that customers will want to see.
4. Think About Sustainability
Many consumers are concerned about sustainability and they make purchasing decisions that are as eco-friendly as possible. Let’s think about cage-free eggs for a minute. A customer that searches for cage-free eggs is probably concerned with making healthy choices and ethical choices, which means that they also are likely concerned about sustainable packaging.
We can design an egg carton using recyclable materials or even using recycled content or perhaps starch-based bioplastics. You can highlight the sustainability of your packaging somewhere on the label so that customers understand that you are making eco-friendly packaging choices which might push a customer to select your eggs over a competitor’s product.
5. Select a Trusted Packaging Supplier
With more than 50 years of experience, Indepak has long been a leading supplier of innovative food grade packaging. We have extensive experience with a wide-range of materials approved for food contact, including PET, PETG, HDPE, LDPE, polypropylene and bioplastics.
We can create custom clamshell packaging, trays, tubs, lids as well as unique designs, such as a tri-fold egg carton that carefully protects your delicate products. Additionally, if you need modified atmosphere packaging, we can create tubs and trays suitable for MAP applications and we will work closely with your lidding film supplier to ensure material compatibility.
As a food packaging supplier, we also have FSSC 22000 certification, which is an ISO-based standard recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative. The FSSC 22000 certification program meets the standards and benchmarks set by that international organization. We are committed to providing you with the safest food packaging, and every aspect of our production process focuses on safety as well as quality.
