Catering to a Sweet Tooth With Optimal Package Designs

As with any item in the food industry, developing an effective and eye-catching packaging design is essential to your product's success. The packaging design is your opportunity to draw your customers in and help them gain familiarity and loyalty to your brand. There are many different design elements to consider when designing packaging for sweet treats, but, ultimately, creativity and learning about your target audience are the keys to success.

The Customer-Design Team Relationship

When creating your packaging design, it's incredibly important to know who your audience is and develop your materials around this information. You likely have a younger target audience for candy and other sweet treats, but remember that adults enjoy curbing their craving too. During your brainstorm storm session, consider answering the following questions:

• What would appeal to my audience?
  
• What does my audience need?
  
• What is the best way to communicate with my audience?
  

Becoming familiar with your audience is an essential component in creating an effective packaging design. Finding a way to track preferences, habits, and other relevant information through a customer relationship management (CRM) software can be beneficial as it will help you eliminate obstacles and identify trends within your target audience.

Effectively attracting your audience is the best way to establish brand recognition and build a lasting relationship with your customers. Continuously studying the market, whether that's familiarizing yourself with what your competition is doing, what elements keep your customers happy, or what your audience is drawn to, will allow you to build and strengthen your brand. Find a way to incorporate personal touches to your design to grow your brand and make your customers feel connected to more than just your product.

Along with knowing your audience and establishing brand recognition with your customers, it's also beneficial to become familiar with your competition. While the candy you're selling may not be very different from your competitor's, you can find ways to stand out through creative packaging design and adjusting your pricing accordingly. At the end of the day, customers will be more drawn to a top-quality product that is low priced. Familiarizing yourself with your target audience will help you identify your competitors, meaning you can incorporate design elements that differentiate your product from theirs. Adding unique features such as holographic or catering to an eco-friendly audience with compostable wrappers are excellent ways to stand out in the condensed candy market.

Packaging That Works For Candies

Candy can come in a variety of packaging styles from single-serve and shareable to bulk. Regardless of the amount of candy you're packaging, certain packaging materials keep candy attractive while catering to convenience. The consumer market is drawn to convenience and versatility, meaning it is beneficial to incorporate resealable functions and create a design that's easy to bring on the go. Below are a few examples of resealable features that you can incorporate into your design:

• Press-to-Seal
  
• Zippers
  
• Spouts
• Making Your Design
  

Thinking of new ways to create your candy packaging design can be challenging, and you may feel like you're not getting anywhere. Candy products throughout the world have many different design elements that draw consumers in, making them curious to give the candy product a try. Below are a few words to help the creative juices flow in your design process:

Forming a design is a fun, creative opportunity, and this is how you will communicate with your customers every day. Keep all avenues of design in mind whether it's a lay-flat or stand-up pouch, has vibrant colors, or is catered toward an audience that prefers homemade products or eco-friendly packaging. The options are endless, and you'll find an exciting way to communicate with your customers effectively.

Transparency

Many want to know what they're putting into their bodies in today's society, meaning the consumer market likes to see the product in true form and through nutritional facts. While candy isn't always the healthiest, it's still beneficial to include these features in your packaging design. Many manufacturers in the food industry incorporate transparent materials so consumers can see what the product looks like before deciding to purchase. Hans Riegel, the manufacturer of Haribo® Gummy Bears, has included a clear window on their packaging design so consumers can see the colorful candy. Including the nutritional facts is also beneficial as healthy sweet treats continue to grow in popularity.

Convenience

The consumer market is drawn to convenience and versatility in any product's packaging design. After learning about your target audience, you will be able to determine whether they're always on the go, enjoy bringing sweet treats to work or school, and what packaging designs they're drawn to. Incorporating resealable features into your packaging will allow your customers to save candy for later and possibly use the packaging for another item once the candy is gone. In 2017, Mars Wrigley, the manufacturer of Skittles®, refocused their packaging in its Sustainable in a Generation Plan. This new packaging design includes a resealable feature on shareable bags so that consumers can enjoy candy for a more extended period of time.

Sustainable

Eco-friendly and sustainable packaging designs continue to grow in popularity as the zero-waste movement continues to transform. Many in today's consumer market are drawn to products that promote and cater to this lifestyle. Using materials for your packaging design that are compostable or recyclable will translate your support for our environment. Incorporating resealable features encourages buyers to reuse your packaging for other purposes once the product is gone. In 2019, Nestlé released a recyclable paper wrapper with their YES!® snack bars. It's guaranteed more manufacturers will be inspired to follow this packaging design route to further protect our environment.

Memorable

It's essential to have fun with your packaging design and find ways to make it unique, so it draws consumers to your product. There are many different design elements and styles you can incorporate, such as bright and bold colors or attractive patterns. Your packaging design is here to sell your product and share your brand's story with potential buyers. A great example of a manufacturer that creates eye-catching, memorable packaging designs is Ferrara Candy Company or the manufacturer of Trolli®. These candies can be identified from a mile away in retail stores because of the use of bright colors and unique design elements that make their candy look fun and enticing.

Get Creative With Your Packaging Design

Have fun with your packaging design and communicate your product's personality through your final layout. Here at Packaging Lab, we offer graphic design services so you can work with our experts to truly capture your brand's story. There are various design elements and styles you can incorporate into your packaging design to communicate and reach your target audience effectively. Within the food industry, many manufacturers sell candy and other sweet treats, so being creative and developing a design to help you stand out from the competition is the top priority.