The American Chemical Society (ACS) is pushing for the widespread adoption of new retail packaging design that effectively alerts consumers when their food is going bad and when it's completely spoiled. Using gel tags that are inlaid with nanorods crafted from gold and silver, the packaging detects changing composition of gases and other chemicals within packages. As the composition changes from fresh, edible food toward the spoiled end of the spectrum, the tags change color from red to green to violet — with shades in between — denoting the stages of decay.

Branding your company doesn't have to be a stressful endeavor. If you’re a recent startup OR you've recently moved from one geographical area or market to another and are having trouble increasing your name recognition, developing an inbound marketing strategy that includes branding your company is a great way to increase traffic to your website and awareness of your business.

There's been a huge shift towards using inbound marketing strategies ever since the Internet became a vital mainstay in people's daily lives. More and more brands are using inbound marketing tools -- like SEO, blogging, and social media -- to attract, convert, close, and satisfy leads and clients.

Inbound marketing solutions help businesses' websites rank higher on search engine result pages. Higher ranks help get more web traffic. The more traffic websites get, the more business leads they generate. The more business leads there are, the more e-commerce sales opportunities there are.

Basically, inbound marketing strategies lead directly to big profits. In fact, e-commerce generated about $1 trillion in 2011, and about $1.2 trillion in 2013, showing that it continues to grow and grow each year.

It is difficult to prove intent to buy each time someone searches. 60% of your customers actively research before they contact business or walk into a store. At the Search Inside Summit in Florida, several big-brand marketers said PLAs were out performing standard text ads.

The increased success of PLAs (product listing ads)reduced ROI for standard text ads they were running. Running both forms of paid advertising on Google did not equate to doubling sales.

Statistics show that 63% of marketers believe that there will be an increase in spending on brand marketing over the next year*. That means that more businesses find branding to be a integral part of their marketing efforts.  An efforts that pays dividends to the company's bottom line. If you've been looking for an opportunity to start branding your company, now would be a great time to get onboard. Don't be left behind as your competition develops innovative new product packaging design or a great new marketing strategy. But how do you use things like product packaging design, social media accounts, and website design to brand your company? The trick is to focus your energy on two separate yet connected areas: the internet and the real world.

Do you have enough budget to develop the right package for your product?

Whether you are a first-time entrepreneur or a seasoned brand manager, I understand how it feels to face the large task of packaging your product.

Your product should be showcased in the best light possible, reflecting your brand’s cohesive image so it can compete on the shelf.

Packaging is a critical component in the success of your product.

The investment needs to be considered carefully and not solely decided by price. It should be considered when you are designing your product so that it is budgeted into the cost of the product development.