Companies It takes a tool and power to open a paint can, chips fly out of the bag when opened – The packaging of many products causes annoyance, but why?

What packaging are the teasers of your everyday life? Many could answer the question abruptly.

The most common annoyance is packaging that is difficult to open. Sometimes these cases even lead to hospital visits due to deep wounds and sprains.

The list of really annoying also includes resealable packages that refuse to close, as well as dispensers that get clogged or leaking and containers that are impossible to get out of the last dripping or dripping.

This list also proves that packaging can be a discarded part of product development, if not a loose end cassette. After all, the packaging of the product is a discarded part. It protects or promotes a consumable product in bright colors. After all, people end up buying the product, not the packaging.

Perhaps however, this is not quite the case.

A market study conducted over the past five years shows a major shift in consumer thinking. The majority of people say that the material and design of the product packaging influences their purchasing decisions.

Excessive packaging is of particular concern. It can make a customer feel like a one-man climate threat when he or she has to throw away all the extra cardboard, plastic and styrofoam in the trash.

According to brand experts, the success of a product often depends as much on the creativity, usability and environmental friendliness of the packaging as on what is found inside the packaging.

Multi these properties are achieved at the expense of another property. Packaging design is a tricky balancing trick. Avoiding problems requires careful preparation, foresight, and imagination.

“Product developers are so focused on the product itself that they often don’t even start thinking about packaging before the very late stage of the product development process,” says Daniel Johnson, Director of Packaging Research at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Delay may result in shedding as the product launch date approaches. Details are ignored.

To save time and money, packaging can be tested by laboratory technicians or manufacturing company staff in their meeting rooms instead of being done by ordinary people in real life conditions.

Peeling the protective plastic off the top of the shampoo bottle is a whole different thing if you sit comfortably at a conference table than if you are naked and wet in the shower.

“We educate our customers to see packaging from the perspective of their own customers,” said Industrial Designer for New York’s Red Antler brand consulting firm. Kaeo Helder says.

“The easiest and simplest is always the stupid solution: just wrap it in plastic. But then the scenario of someone trying to tear open a package with their teeth materializes. ”

If the product is used in the kitchen and bathroom even with wet hands, Helder advises to design a square or roughened cap that is easier to get a grip on. It would be even better if the cap also breaks the protective seal when turned.

Packaging form is also important. Does the packaging fit where consumers are most likely to store it?

No one wants a product that is too big for a kitchenette shelf or too wide for a refrigerator door shelf or bathroom cabinet.

These small details can have a big impact on product sales.

“We are seeing a trend that companies are saving money by not conducting target group testing and instead hiring a handful of trainees to follow people’s reactions to the new packaging solution from social media,” CRB’s packaging engineer Renee Benson says.

CRB, based in St. Louis, is a conglomerate operating in the engineering, architecture, construction, and consulting industries.

“They don’t seem to realize that most people won’t start complaining. They’re just changing their buying behavior. ”

Second a common mistake is to fail to assess the effects of changing an existing product over time.

Companies make such changes every few years, need a product change or not.

Benson gives an example of a detergent brand. A moisturizing ingredient was added to the product without considering the possible effect of the change on the packaging. Its valve was made of a certain type of flexible plastic.

“As the composition was changed with emollients, the flexible plastic swelled and the jars on sale began to leak,” Benson says.

“They didn’t check the compatibility of the product and its packaging, which caused the problem and a lot of bad blood in the customer base.”

Same can occur when a company decides to use thinner packaging material to save weight and reduce waste. The solution seems like a good idea, but the other parts of the production chain have been designed based on the use of more robust material.

For example, the sealing temperature of a heat-sealable package may be exactly right for the original material.

However, it seals the thinner material so tightly that the customer has great difficulty opening the package or box. Remember this when the plaster bag needs to be torn open with such force that the chips are thrown along the walls.

Designers and engineers believe that packaging innovation is often limited by existing packaging machines. Again, some packaging has been made in the same way for so long that no one will think of a better way.

A model example is paint cans. They are hard to carry, difficult to pour, and just as painful to open and close.

“Some sort of upright bag with a spout would work better,” says Daniel Johnson.

“But upgrading one production line to fit new packaging is a million-dollar problem for the average paint manufacturer.”

The entire distribution chain, from transport pallets to store shelves and color mixing machines, is built on canned paints.

As e-commerce direct to consumers becomes more widespread, companies relying on clumsy traditional packaging are themselves begging for change, including non-paint can sellers.

Packaging experts according to, new digital startups can upset entire industries simply by bringing better packaging to market.

An example of this could be a number of small companies that now offer tube-free toothpaste. It is shaped into tablets and packaged in small, recyclable jars or glass bottles.

The product is praised to be better for the environment and, unlike toothpaste packaged in a tube, does not need to be dug out of hand luggage for airport security inspectors to see.

“Brands take risks when they neglect packaging,” 99 CEO of Designs Patrick Llewellyn says.

99 Designs is a platform company that brings together designers and companies looking to create or improve their own packaging. The theme is especially relevant now that the pandemic has led more consumers to order products online.

“In the past, the shopping experience came first and foremost from finding and comparing products on the shelves in the store,” he says.

“But suddenly the first touch with the brand might be a door-to-door box.”

Companies need to think about the “experience of opening a package”. Indeed, a few popular Youtube channels show people opening boxes from a variety of products to toys to electronics and groceries. The viewer gets to enjoy the excitement of opening the package.

“It’s just about how the package opening experience is organized. You can open one strip of cardboard or remove one piece of paper and reveal something, ”explains Red Antler’s Helder.

“It’s almost like an archaeologist doing his excavations.”

Again once it’s about balancing.

People want less packaging material, but at the same time they want the product to arrive in good condition.

They want packaging that is practical and environmentally sustainable, but also a source of joy.

They want a package that contains information – product composition, instructions for use, expiration date – but not an excessive flood of words.

The difficulty factor is increased by the requirement for packaging that is suitable for a wide range of supply chains. There are big differences in their pricing and transport and distribution requirements.

Big brands are forced to develop more and more different packaging for different forms of retail. The needs of small specialty stores, grocery stores, wholesalers like Costco, and online stores like Amazon, for example, are different.

“There’s a lot more work to be done in packaging design now,” says Johnson of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

“This is a great time for a packaging engineer.”

Translated from England by Jyri Raivio.