Minimalism is the newest trend we can observe around us on many fronts. Using and owning as little as possible, limiting your ownership of material things or even aborting it completely, reusing, recycling, upcycling, buying less or buying used items, not buying at all and relying mostly on renting, borrowing or sharing; all of these trends are on the rise and the idea behind them is, Minimalism.
What brought this in the packaging industry, can be attributed to various factors that we will look at in this blog.
Contemporary trends
Gone are the days of hefty and massive objects. It is an era of microcars, Nano sims, contactless payment and kindel. Why should packaging still be needlessly bulky? Most people find it unattractive, distasteful and old-fashioned. Whereas, compact and easy-to-carry things are equated with contemporary styles.
For example, our phones have evolved a great deal over time. It was once a receiver connected to a huge dial through a cord. And now, it is nothing but a flat screen size of our hand that becomes a phone, a type writer, a book and a webpage upon a touch.
Simple designs are more appealing
Packaging design is the first thing your consumer sees. Make this first impression count. There are so many options in the market nowadays for everything and each one of them is trying to be visible. Instead of being visible, businesses are overwhelming the consumers with a plethora of colours, graphics, fonts and complex designs. Most consumers find this tactic too overpowering and intimidating.
Consumers are attracted to simpler designs. Present them with a design that only accentuates your product. It is soothing for eyes to see something simple amidst so much chaos. Something basic in the complexity of colours, sounds, designs and choices. This is why, packaging with minimal designs is becoming popular.
Unboxing has become an experience people actually look forward to. The trend is so viral that influencers are sharing their unboxing moments with their followers online. A hassle free unboxing experience is certainly a hit. No elaborate engineering is involved just to get to the product they so earnestly bought.
Another attraction for consumers in minimalist packaging is that it highlights the product information. Consumers want to know WHAT they are buying before making the purchase. This is what minimalist packaging offers them.Take a soap box for example. The packaging design is easy on the eyes. No screaming combination of colours and graphics, a simple logo with the name stating what it is: a soap bar.
Fitness for purpose
Nowadays, people appreciate designs that are straightforward and fulfill the purpose. It is worth investing time in designing a minimalist package with the help of a designer who understands your product and its customer base.
Cost-effective
Minimalist packaging is cost effective too. You are using less material which cuts down on manufacturing cost. By eliminating all of that extra packaging, you are getting rid of that extra weight too. The package is lighter and smaller. Shipment costs are calculated not just on weight but also the dimensions of the package. A lighter and smaller package is costing less to ship.
Environment friendly
The sense of responsibility towards the environment is so strong that people are letting go of the things that were once considered must-haves. So why shouldn’t packaging practices be evaluated?
Using lesser material to manufacture the packaging reduces your carbon footprint too. Consumers are choosing the brands that are committed to lessen their negative impact on the environment. How much material is going to go in waste, how much of it can be recycled, how much of it is actually made from recycled material; these points are literally running through an environmentally-conscious consumer’s mind when they are shopping. The product that fulfills this criteria wins and goes in the shopping cart.
These environmentally-conscious consumers are great marketers too. They have actually played quite an important role in promoting this kind of packaging among their circle of influence.
Unnecessarily large and complex packages are a waste of valuable resources.
Businesses are recognising the obstacles unnecessarily large and complex packaging presents like
- They are more time consuming to put together
- More material is required to manufacture them
- If the design is too complex, manufacturing the samples can be difficult and the chances of going wrong increase too
- hence, they are adopting minimalist packaging.
Each of these reasons are pretty strong in their own but when put together, they make the case for minimalist packaging too strong to ignore. Cost efficacy is definitely a dominant factor but consumers’ power has played a key role in steering the industry in the direction of minimalism and it continues to do so as evident by its growing popularity.