Developing New Product Packaging for Your Start-Up Business

It’s no secret—managing a start-up business is challenging. In the food and beverage industry, ensuring your product turns heads and persuades customers to make a purchase takes lots of planning and careful branding. One of the best ways to develop a strong brand identity and stand out among established food products is by investing in a compelling package design.

So where do you start? Learn how to create the perfect package design for your new food or beverage product and common pitfalls start-up business owners should look out for.

The Challenge of Packaging New Products in the Food and Beverage Industry

As a multi-billion dollar industry, the food and drink market is dominated by powerful brands with highly successful marketing strategies and recognizable brand colors, logos, and emblems. Most people have their preference for specific consumables, whether it’s their favorite brand of orange juice or their go-to bag of chips for a mid-afternoon snack. Because of this, newer businesses with limited visibility often struggle to distinguish their product from a sea of similar items.

And while this problem is to be expected in every industry, the food and beverage market is especially unique. Food is essential for life, and purchasing consumables is a task people don’t take lightly. Not only is it something we often do multiple times a week, but amid our busy schedules, we prefer to make quick decisions about products we can trust—leaving less room for experimentation.

Common Start-Up Business Mistakes

To understand how emerging businesses can navigate these challenges and create successful food product design, you should understand the biggest mistakes business leaders make. These include:

Overcommitting to an early design that no longer fits their brand
Not pinpointing a target audience
Failing to balance performance, cost, and aesthetics
Ignoring current market trends

How to Start up a Brand With Package Design in Mind

As you avoid making these mistakes, try the following seven tips:

1. Start Thinking About Your Brand Identity

As a newer business, your priority should be creating a brand identity that your intended consumers can recognize and actively seek out. By learning how to position your food product and captivate your audience, you can build consumer loyalty with the promise of unique products that cater to their lifestyle. Plus, you can gain the opportunity to convey your values to customers as you tell your company’s story and give off the impression of looking much more established.

2. Create an Eye-Catching Start-Up Logo

A great logo is the most recognizable design element potential consumers will spot. When coming up with ideas, you’ll want to pull out all the stops as you build a strong image that’ll translate across multiple platforms. Aiming for longevity is great, but as your food product evolves and the market changes, being willing to test out different logos and make necessary alterations is also ideal. Keep in mind that it should always embody your brand.

3. Invest in Compelling Food Photography

While not every food or beverage product incorporates photography into its package design, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of visual appeal. For example, question whether a mouthwatering image is a selling point you want to embrace. If it seems like a good idea, lean into the key elements of food photography, like plating, lighting, and framing.

Not a start-up business but struggling to get your food product off the ground? Learn when it’s time for a rebrand.

Knowing When to Rebrand Your Product

4. Experiment With Shapes and Colors

Intriguing shapes and brand colors are marketing materials that often go hand-in-hand. Mixing patterns and shapes can create a never-before-seen look that turns heads or conveys a specific tone. Plus, without food photography, specific shapes can convey the same messages just as quickly.

Additionally, color theory is a science that applies to many subjects, and data suggests that specific colors are commonly associated with particular food and drink items. For example, green with organic foods, red with sweet or ripe foods, and blue with staples like water, milk, and other dairy products.

5. Discuss the Benefits of Your Product

One of the best approaches to any brand strategy is to take advantage of every opportunity to discuss the benefits of your food product. Now is the time to quickly and succinctly convey to customers why your item differs from the rest and, more so, why they’re better off buying it. Be mindful of your tone of voice, and make sure that you’re not providing misleading information that can be interpreted negatively.

6. Consider Your Font

Font is another element that makes or breaks the package design. Every start-up logo design and any subsequent wording should have a font that’s legible, properly sized, and in a reasonable location. Assess things like your typeface preference and whether your font is too soft or harsh for your message and aesthetic. Also, think about hierarchy, your use of white space, and text alignment.

7. Look for Inspiration

As a start-up, you should never be afraid to do your research and look to other products or services in the food and drink industry for inspiration. While your business is newer, you don’t have to feel like you’re completely reinventing the wheel with every aspect of your package design.

Shoot for something that’s unique to you, but at the same time, remain observant of the current trends and anticipate which moves could become lucrative for your brand. Recognizing your competitors’ mistakes and successes is a valuable skill.

Key Takeaways

Building a brand in the food and beverage industry takes a lot of work. However, you can develop your product packaging design strategy with the following tips:

Understand and avoid the traps of operating a start-up business, like not considering your target audience.
Consider your brand identity, make an eye-catching logo, and invest in food photography.
Additionally, try experimenting with shapes and colors, advocate for your product, think about font, and always look for inspiration.

Take Your Start-Up Business to the Next Level With DePersico Creative

With DePersico Creative, your emerging business is in good hands. We’re a family-owned design studio specializing in food and beverage product positioning, logos, brand analysis, and much more, and we’ve built quite a portfolio over the years. Regardless of when your business began, you deserve an effective food package design that resonates with your target audience.

See why we’re a top choice for food brand package design and contact us today.

Developing New Product Packaging for Your Start-Up Business

The Challenge of Packaging New Products in the Food and Beverage Industry

Common Start-Up Business Mistakes

How to Start up a Brand With Package Design in Mind

1. Start Thinking About Your Brand Identity

2. Create an Eye-Catching Start-Up Logo

3. Invest in Compelling Food Photography

4. Experiment With Shapes and Colors

5. Discuss the Benefits of Your Product

6. Consider Your Font

7. Look for Inspiration

Key Takeaways

Take Your Start-Up Business to the Next Level With DePersico Creative

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