Packaging Design on Digital Shelves

Packaging Design in Digital Shelves The dramatic shift in the marketing world has replaced the understanding of packaging as something that protects and preserves the product with an understanding of packaging as something that sells the product and creates emotional bonds. In the competitive landscape of the 21st century, brands that stand out in packaging stand out on both physical and digital shelves, and this not only encourages purchasing behavior but also creates a prestigious perception and triggers the consumer's instinct to bond with the brand. Packages designed from different aesthetic perspectives play a decisive role in the product's success in shelf competition, while also helping to eliminate other alternatives in the critical first 7 seconds that influence the customer. Bürkan Çiftçigüzeli, Founder and Creative Director of B12 Creative Branding, emphasizes that packaging designs reflecting the brand's corporate values and message need to be evaluated from many perspectives; he noted that packaging designs that touch on consumer trends at the right point, look good not only on the shelf but also in the digital window, and spark a decision-making mechanism will be the stars of the shelves. Packaging design, which is among the fundamental dynamics that make a product a brand, has found its place in the close competition of all major brands in recent years. Packaging design, which strengthens companies' hand both in influencing purchasing behavior and in creating brand loyalty, offers increasingly more room for maneuver, especially within the digital marketing mix. Bürkan Çiftçigüzeli, Founder and Creative Director of B12 Creative Branding, who draws attention to the fact that the fundamental motivation behind selling a brand today is the value attributed to the product and the prestige provided by packaging, explained the effects of packaging design in our digital purchasing habits, which have increased with the pandemic.

Every product is remembered by its packaging

Bürkan Çiftçigüzeli: "Thousands of similar products wait on shelves to be purchased by consumers. Whatever sector, segment or function they belong to, if what we first touch in today's markets and first see in digital windows are packages, we cannot deny the power of design here. Consumer research already demonstrates the impact of packaging design on the decision-making process. At this point, the better the packaging design, the stronger the communication between the consumer and the product. In today's world where competition has crossed local boundaries and the world has become a digital supermarket, brands that make packaging communication effective gain a place in the consumer's mind, while others fall behind the shelf. Designs that go beyond the function of protecting and promoting the product find their place not only in digital windows but also in consumers' lives. At the end of the day, every product is remembered by its packaging," he said.

Packaging design comes into play in the first 7 seconds that influence the consumer on the shelf

Bürkan Çiftçigüzeli, who stated that brands need the first 7 seconds to be of critical importance to influence the consumer facing the shelf, whether digital or physical, and that when the first impression is poor, the purchase transaction becomes difficult, said the following: "There is no longer a purchasing process as it was before. Now there is a more complex process consisting of consumers who use digital channels, whose attention is easily dispersed, who compare alternatives, and who research in detail. Moreover, even if products are the best in the market and have the qualities to meet all needs, if they do not have packaging that reflects this, sales do not reach expected levels. At this point, to keep pace with the dizzying speed of the digital world, to sell the product, to be remembered in the next purchase, the quality of packaging stands out. Packages that win consumer trust fulfill their first task by drawing the consumer's attention to the product. When the quality of the packaging, the language used, its color and its visual compatibility with the product combine with the depth it creates in the digital window, the path to purchase becomes shorter. Packaging designs successful enough to attract attention in today's digital marketplace are the critical threshold in the purchase of the product placed in the cart. Those who cross this threshold can reach their year-end sales targets more easily," he said.