Emotional Appeal in Packaging Design

First, what is the emotional appeal in packaging design?

Human beings as a "perceptual" animal, if one thing triggers a potential signal in the cerebral cortex, then it can evoke emotions and impulses in the memory of other things. "Thinking people, see things and feelings" is the embodiment of this truth. To a certain extent, emotions will lead to a series of behaviors such as hate, laughter, approval, love, affection, and so on. In terms of marketing, we must make full use of the above characteristics of humans to cater to consumer psychology and achieve maximum profitability. Disadvantages.

The emotional appeal in packaging design is an important means by which wise businesses and advertisers “consciously” use consumer psychology. From the academic point of view, as the father of modern marketing Philip Kotler puts it: “Packaging design Emotional appeal in Chinese refers to satisfying and adapting to the psychological needs of consumers through various human forms, images, colors, and other forms of expression. It stimulates the emotions and emotions of consumers, and then causes them to motivate their purchases and realize purchases. the behavior of."

Second, consumer psychology of emotional appeal in packaging design

Consumption activity is a process of rationality and perceptual synthesis. In the process of consumption, many reasonable factors such as price and quality are taken into consideration. However, in terms of the ultimate psychological state of consumer decision-making, consumers once regard certain products and specific products. Emotionally linked, it is often susceptible to emotional drive, under certain conditions no longer compared with other products of the same type, to identify their own "emotional" products as the first choice for purchase. From the analysis of Freud's “Psychology and Behavior” and Darwin’s Origin of Species, this point stems from the potential of human animal nature.

Of course, as far as consumers are concerned, due to the complexity of human thinking, the factors considered are far less simple than animals. The subjective psychological preferences of different customer groups, the diversity of consumer demand, and the differences in past experiences all influence the formation of final decisions at all times. As far as the packaging we study is concerned, we must make it an emotional carrier when we design packaging, and we must satisfy consumers' spiritual needs and even physical impulses to trigger their purchases. The "heartstring".

In general, good emotional appeal in packaging can make the product "stand out from the crowd," allowing the consumer's mental excitement to translate into a realistic purchase.

First, activate consumer desires.

Second, establish competition differences.

Third, the specific way of emotional appeal in packaging design

1. Visually appealing. The stacking of goods in modern large-scale supermarkets is basically carried out in commodity categories. All competitors are crowded together with “narrower roads in the family” and can attract consumers’ attention in many commodities, making it extremely important to be in love at first sight.

2. Tactile comfort. The tactile influence of packaging on consumers is actually caused by packaging materials. Whether the use of packaging materials meets the attributes and personality traits of goods is a very important consideration in packaging design.

3. Extend the use of packaging, that is, the versatility of the packaging. For example, some canned bottles can also be used as drinking glasses, etc. The candy boxes can be used as toys, jewelry, etc. to make the products more sales force, and fully take care of the psychology of a part of consumers pursuing benefits and practicality.

Fourth, the application of emotional appeal in packaging design should pay attention to several issues:

1. Relationship between emotional appeal and market and cultural background

China is a country with a vast geographical area and numerous nationalities. Its national commonness is generally manifested as: empathy, family affection, family warmth, harmony, and friendship between relatives and friends. There is an “emotional” word between people. This concept has been deeply hidden in the bones of consumers. Specifically, it embodies the following psychological appeals:

First, the desire to build a harmonious society. The Chinese people talk about the middle-distance and emphasize harmony. The blending of Confucianism, Buddhism and Buddhism since ancient times has made the Chinese people's cultural trends not go to extremes and tend to be peaceful. Therefore, the design should be fully aware of this point. When designing commodities for most of the groups in the "Greater China" cultural circle, we must grasp this psychological potential cultural thinking. We must not be too graphic in the graphic design of packaging to reflect violence, pornography, etc. Sensitive information is not conducive to the promotion and sale of goods.

Second, the appeal of blessings. The design should fully tap the cultural value of the product, enhance the deep meaning of the product, and satisfy consumers' aspirations for a good and peaceful reunion. The flat graphic design of the package should be a symbol of good fortune, colorful, mostly red. At the same time, we should also note that some consumers are not direct buyers. They mainly buy gifts for relatives and friends, such as medical supplies and beauty products. The design should actively establish the consumer's sense of trust in the product, as far as possible in the graphic design of the packaging design to meet the buyer's desire to bless others health and safety, reflecting the buyer's good wishes.

Third, personalized appeal. This is the common demand for consumption by young people and white-collar workers. They pay more attention to the manifestation of personal character, temperament, and self-worth. They generally take the majority of personal consumption.

2. Misunderstanding of emotional appeals that should be noticed

First, prevent negative information

In practice, emotional appeal should be as simple as possible in the packaging, and should be straight to the point of purpose, and should not allow consumers to understand or create unnecessary associations. We should see that emotional appeal is not omnipotent; the concept of emotional appeal must conform to the consumer's psychology, but also to meet the cultural background.

Second, avoid confusion of emotional information

Although the concept of emotional appeal in the packaging of goods has been widely accepted by the industry, how to use it properly is a question worthy of discussion. It is impossible to touch the consumer's desire to purchase by simply looking for emotions on the packaging and applying a emotion to it. The purpose of emotional appeal in the packaging must be clear, if it is not enough to just evoke some kind of emotion, it is important to evoke the desire to buy.

In today's highly active commodity economy, consumers are surrounded by more and more commodity information. It is believed that packaging designs that are good at using "emotional" will surely stand out from the ocean of goods.

(Art Department, Fuzhou Clothing Institute, Xi’an Polytechnic University)

Source: Shanghai Packaging