Packaging design is critical for business owners to ensure that their product stands out on the shelf.

However, determining just how valuable design is can be difficult. The team at the Dieline Packaging Blog and Designalytics, a company that provides design analytics to consumer brands,  introduced the Designalytics Effectiveness Award at the annual Dieline Awards to answer this question and to emphasizes the role of packaging design in business growth and expansion.

The 2020 Grand Prize Award for Designalytics Effectiveness was awarded to the Hill’s Science Diet packaging redesign.

This sleek, attractive redesign allowed  Hill's to increase their sales significantly and generate more revenue.

The clean, modern design was a worthy winner of this year’s Designalytics Effectiveness Award and we would like to extend our congratulations to Hill’s and their design team on what they have achieved with this great redesign.

Let’s take a closer look at just a few reasons that this packaging redesign is a winner:

The Coronavirus pandemic has turned the world upside down in recent months. It has impacted how we socialize, communicate, behave, travel, the economy, and so much more.

For businesses, it has been a challenging time, trying to adapt and remain flexible in a constantly changing business landscape.

With the fast-paced nature of marketing and new brand ideas popping up all the time, it is hard not to get caught up with creating new ways of marketing your brand.

However, it is vitally important that you are consistent with the ways in which you promote your brand with its styles, designs, values and messaging.

Brands can have multiple effects; they can attract customers with their brand personalities as well as keep customers loyal to the business.

The businesses that become bored with their brands too quickly and constantly want to create original ideas for keeping up with current trends, usually jeopardize their brand.

Keeping up with current trends is not a bad thing, it can ensure that your brand does not get outdated. However, some companies may sacrifice other important elements of the brand if it is changed too much.

Keeping the brand consistent is especially important, if your brand is constantly changing over different platforms then it can have negative effects.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, many e-commerce businesses have prospered as more people have made the move to buying online. As more online retailers have entered the e-commerce space, however, competition is increasing and you need to ensure that your offerings stand out in a crowded market.

To gain a foothold in the market, you need to make the right impression with your customers from the moment they come into contact with your product, and that starts with the packaging.

With the fractured way customers interact with brands these days, packaging plays a bigger role now more than ever.  David Edelman of McKinsey & Company says,

"Increasingly, consumers put off a purchase decision until they’re actually in a store—and, as we’ll see, they may be easily dissuaded at that point.

Thus point of purchase—which exploits placement, packaging, availability, pricing, and sales interactions—is an ever more powerful touch point."

Here are ways in which you can ensure success with your packaging

The past few months have hit economies hard all around the world. With non-essential businesses being forced to close down in many countries due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has been difficult for conventional retailers to keep pace with what is going on.

Although eCommerce remains strong, most business owners have the impression that retail stores, including grocery stores, are on the decline.

However, this could not be further from the truth.

In fact, people are spending more at grocery stores now than they were several months ago. For many households, the coronavirus has generated more demand for grocery products.

This has created a surprising, if welcome, opportunity that businesses need to reflect on in the coming weeks and months, namely, standing out in the grocery store environment to secure more business, despite the coronavirus.

Let’s look at how rethinking your in-store strategies and displays for grocery stores that will help your business seize the opportunity presented by the COVID recovery.

Coronavirus is certainly a new challenge that all business owners are facing these days. Social restrictions and regulations are significantly impacting the bottom lines of many businesses, and many owners are even facing the prospect of permanent closures brought on by the impacts of the virus. However, while the economic damage caused by COVID-19 is certainly something that needs to be considered, prioritized, and tackled, it is likely the case that your business was facing some wicked problems before the virus hit.