CPG Packaging Trends That You Should Know

Go to any grocery store, convenience store, or specialty supplement retailer and you’ll see shelves stacked with similar products from different brands. Though presented a tad bit differently on its digital shelf counterparts, essentially you’ll get the same experience when searching for CPG products on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon. Your CPG brand has on average a few seconds to make a good impression before the customer moves on to the next option. Effective and appealing packaging design not only makes it more likely for one product to be chosen over alternatives, but it also reflects on the values of the brand. This is what makes packaging design just as important as the product itself. It has a major influence over the buying decisions of consumers.

At its core, packaging refers to the way in which a product is enclosed for sale. In a broader context, product packaging refers to the whole process of designing, manufacturing, and marketing a product.

Considerations for great CPG packaging should surround the following areas…

  • Sales – Which packaging is most likely to persuade shoppers to choose your products?

  • Shelf Presence – Which packaging helps break through the shelf clutter and makes it easy to find your products?

  • Brand Equity – Which packaging most effectively communicates key benefits and maximizes product perceptions?

  • Aesthetics – Which package do shoppers like best?

When CPG brands make changes to their packaging, they want to improve perceptions about certain product features, such as taste, health, or other trending characteristics. The goal when making these significant and visible changes is typically to enhance brand equity first and then any assumed increase in sales over the near-term is icing on the cake.

That being said, you can’t pay your suppliers with increased brand equity monopoly money. You need to generate sales. Changing a package design can be quite risky. Though every CPG brand assumes this wouldn’t happen to them, packaging refreshes or rebrands can harm sales or cause the product to lose shelf presence. The point I’m trying to make here is that yes CPG packaging refreshes can increase persuasive sway in order to land in shopping carts, but it isn’t a guarantee, so it requires a strategic dive into the reasons for a reinvention.

Here are a few examples of why you might want to look at a packaging refresh or larger rebrand…

Is the Product Packaging Outdated?

If it’s been several years since you’ve redesigned your brand packaging and your sales are lackluster, then your packaging design may be overdue for an update. Customer tastes change with each passing year, and they may view some designs as stale.

Have You Changed the Product Formula?

If you’ve improved upon an existing product and the result is that it now has added benefits that make it more appealing, then it’s imperative to communicate this on the package in a visually bold way.

How Competitive is Your Product Category?

Are legacy brands reinventing their packaging to attract the changing consumer landscape? Are new brands gaining market share with packaging that differs greatly? If the answers to these questions are yes, it might be a strong signal that it’s time to look at making changes to your CPG packaging.

So, taking this all into account…what are ten CPG packaging trends that I believe you should be paying attention to right now?

Connected packaging

QR codes were put out to pasture and then BAM…2020 hits and they’re now ubiquitous across culture. Connected packaging offers a world of possibilities for engaging with consumers by delivering marketing opportunities like promotions or building loyalty programs. This packaging technology feature is also excellent for easily distributing product source information to consumers.

Anti-Bland (Maximalism)

Maximalist designs are proudly loud and elaborately detailed. For this reason, they stand out in a minimalist era. Why go understated and subtle when you can dazzle your way into consumer consciousness? Maximalist design often works with vibrant color, texture, rich motifs, flashy typography, and visual or packaging novelties like optical illusions or unusual shapes. Maximalism takes you on a journey with your attention moving from one point of interest to the next.

The "bland" look is also associated with millennials, whom many brands are no larger chasing.

Illustrations and Characters

The illustration trend provides a conscious nod to its viewer with its childlike drawings and teeters on the edge of meme culture with its humorous style. This isn’t a totally new packaging trend, but illustration is becoming more popular again. CPG brands are also using this trend to build more collaborations with artists, including those from underrepresented populations. Brands are being thoughtful about sourcing partners and bringing them into their stories. I also think this trend will play into the future with web3, NFTS, and metaverse.

1990s Aesthetics

Depending on your fashion sense, age, and/or age of your children, it might not be much of a shocker that the 1990s are back in. As Gen Z muscles out millennials to become brands' primary targets, 1990s aesthetics have come back in a big way. Consumers want to have a good time right now, and that decade encompassed a wide array of aesthetics, from bright-colored geometric patterns and boxy lettering to edgier styles inspired by skateboard and rave culture.

Clean & Simple

Third-party certifications are great, but CPG packaging has begun to look like a NASCAR with all those little sponsor stickers on cars. When the cars are going around the track, spectators can't see the stickers. Similarly, when packaging gets too cluttered with certifications, they end up meaning nothing to the consumer. To combat this, CPG brands will start to move away from "slapping every claim on the front of the pack and focusing those that matter most to their audience.

Imperfectionism

Earthy imperfect textures remind consumers where brands are getting their materials from, which is a must for brands that want to push sustainability and tap into the consumer consciousness with the climate crisis. As the CPG industry is rapidly changing to favor brands with this purpose at the core of their offering, ethical and compostable packaging is one of the many things you can do as a brand to show you’re serious about your sustainable positioning.

One-Off Launches

With the CPG industry starting to embrace "drop culture," such as developing seasonal lines, one-off flavors or one-time collaborations with influencers, brands are given allowance to break from their established brand identities to create something completely different. Thanks to continued lowering of barriers to entry in printing and manufacturing, such limited time offer launches are much easier to execute—and a lot less risky—than they used to be.

Ecommerce Ready Packaging

E-commerce has hit a tipping point, and that sales channel shift creates more demands on the package. Everything that the item’s package does in a traditional brick-and-mortar retail channel, it has to do in the e-commerce channel—and then some. The package needs to be stronger to protect against the demands of the e-commerce channel. With the packaging becoming the shipper in some cases, CPG brands should consider the unboxing experience too, right?

Structural Uniqueness

The supply chain challenges have definitely hampered this trend recently, but I still think revamping classic packaging shapes and sizes to stand out from competitors is a fruitful endeavor. New concepts of structure, coupled with innovations in materials and technologies, can shift consumer perceptions of the physical form and steer new directions for CPG brands.

Transparent Packaging

People appreciate it when CPG brands are honest and transparent. Successful brands have embraced this philosophy. Transparent packaging design creates a sense of trust and connection to your brand.

You could interpret this trend in three ways:

  1. Thoroughly and clearly list the ingredients that are in (and not in) your CPG product.

  2. Utilizing clear windows for its ability to highlight contents and capture attention.

  3. Storytelling purpose-driven elements of the brand to attract likeminded consumers.

Final Thoughts

While this was an article about trends, I should remind you that these should never be considered hard-and-fast rules. The key to success with CPG packaging lies in your ability to know who your brand truly is at its core, as well who it is targeting. Packaging (along with the larger brand strategy) needs to be authentic. When looking at trends, CPG brands must think about how they align with what they are trying to build and the products they offer. If you're just searching for trends to emulate, ultimately, you will be a bit behind and not look like yourself.

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