Picture this: 

You’re in your local Target, strolling the hair care aisle. You’re on the hunt to restock your shampoo. Given that you’re a millennial, you don’t have any brand loyalty–no shade, you just want something new every once in a while. You come across this in the middle shelf, roughly cart level:

Pretty sure from the label, this will do what you need. Your hair has been pretty dry lately, and a hydrating shampoo sounds good. You pick it off the shelf and hold it in the aisle for a second. Nothing special about it, but it’ll do the job. 

But, you skim the shelf again and then you see them. A set of bottles in the new section. The shelf presence is striking, but minimal–the total opposite of the bottle you’ve just picked up. You put the first bottle back and stroll down the aisle. You grab the shampoo bottle and notice that the bottles are weighted in your hand and the label feels soft and silky. 

Done deal. 

You add not only the new shampoo you were looking for, but the accompanying conditioner, and a new styler–why not try something new, a little treat for yourself–to your cart. Imagine how fancy you’ll feel seeing these on your shower shelf anymore. Never mind that these are three times the price for less product. Worth it! 

Why did this work? 

Packaging plays a huge role in the perceived value of a product, and it’s a combination of two elements–the quality of design itself and the quality of the materials used. 

Fundamentally, when you use higher quality materials and your design conveys a higher end feel, your buyers are more likely to perceive your product as luxury, regardless of its actual value. 

Let’s look at the numbers.

In fact, a 2018 consumer product survey found this to be true. When presented with luxury labeling and packaging options, shoppers were 21 to 46% more likely to feel good about a product. 27% to 44% of buyers likely viewed the product as higher quality, with no real difference in quality. 

In the same study, we find evidence that, with luxury packaging options, consumers are 20% more likely to select it out of a shelf of similar products, resulting in a purchase 80% of the time. 

After the materials itself, the graphics and artwork are a huge influence on consumer behavior. We know that roughly 76% of consumer decisions are made on the fly, in store. As a result, a majority of consumer decisions are made in an emotional reaction to color, visual texture and graphic composition. Luxury brands tend to convey calmer, more stable characteristics (i.e. employ larger amounts of white space, high contrast graphics, minimal design elements) which allow the consumer to envision their lives with those products. 

Essentially, with design choices that are minimal, you allow the consumer more space to come to a conclusion and develop positive feelings about the product without heavy suggestion from the design itself. In a saturated market and environment where the brain is prone to making on-the-fly decisions about products, introducing minimal designs that require the consumer to think about the product tends to lead to a memorable experience with the product. 

When it comes to higher end packaging materials, look for subtle texture, and unexpected visual interest. 

Things like pops of shine from a foil and tangible texture from uncoated papers or specialty varnishes add to the luxury feel without weighing down the design. Now, that’s just labeling. In the structure design itself, using higher end materials like glass and glass in a unique structure shape, provide visual interest without requiring new design elements. 

High end packaging in the wild.

 Back to our hair-care example. You can find examples of these strategies used to elevate perceived value from your big box stores (ahem, Target, take all my money) to your specialty stores (think, Sephora, and beyond) alike. 

For one example, Kristin Ess’ hair care line utilizes all of our minimal and luxury design strategies to communicate the value of the product, and elevate it from your everyday brands.

And another, Oribe meets their luxury price point with high quality design and packaging materials.