Consumer Research + Packaging

You have already worked intensively on a nice concept, created a detailed design draft and maybe even the first dummies are already in front of you. The pride in the packaging is enormous and the optimism is great – you can hardly wait until you see the product shining on the supermarket shelf.
But wait – what does the consumer say?

The consumer is king, as has often been mentioned. He is at the end of the entire production process and is idealistically the reason why a certain product is produced or a certain service is provided. The product, including its packaging, is created exclusively for the customer and is ideally adapted to him or her. Logically, this requires precise knowledge about the consumer.

This knowledge can be acquired by means of professional consumer research methods such as focus group moderation, usability tests or online tests and can contain important information such as the consumer’s expectations and requirements of the product and packaging, but also their usage habits and basic attitudes. It also shows us what problems they have and, most importantly, how they feel when they hold a package in their hands. What do they think of the packaging material? How do they find the given information? Do they like the design? Can they “read out” what the brand stands for?
User research has the advantage that you can test the performance of a package in the real world, with real people. This is where you uncover realistic user needs and validate the basis for the design.

The timing of consumer research is important. It is obvious that consumer research should ideally be carried out before the design process, in order to save subsequent, time-consuming and often costly adjustments and changes.

So what makes good consumer research? The difference between good and bad research is simply the consideration and subsequent correct incorporation of the information obtained from the research. The biggest mistake that is usually made is simply ignoring the preparatory work required for research, which is very time-consuming but ultimately definitely worthwhile. So if you already integrate consumer research into your plan, you are already on the right track. The only thing missing is the successful implementation of the generated consumer insights into the design …