How to Choose the Best Product Packaging Design Agency in UAE

Carefully designed packaging can do wonders for your brand in terms of awareness, recognition, and credibility. Have you ever purchased a product just because of how beautifully it was packed? Several of us have. That’s the effect packaging can have on your customers. Packaging design has become an integral part of a brand’s identity and it continues to evolve. According to a survey conducted in the US, most people (72%) agreed that an attractive design of the packaging has swayed their decision in the favour of the product. Packaging can be a powerful tool to attract customers.
A unique and consistent packaging design can help reinforce your brand, the more your target audience encounters your tangible elements like logo, company colours, and font, the faster your brand gets recognized. In today’s world where everything is on social media, and trends are the way to connect to the larger mass, unboxing videos of your product on the social media might help in converting those potential leads. The creative design also exhibits product quality in general. People are more environmentally conscious than ever, and sustainable packaging seems to be the way to go.

1. Things to consider before choosing the packaging design agency

There are several factors to consider before finalizing your packaging design agency. Here’s a list of suggestions that you should take into consideration while selecting:

Evaluate the experience

While it is no doubt that freelancers are immensely talented, an experienced firm can bring in exclusivity. The experts in the field understand the essence of palettes, fonts, shapes, and sizes. You can look into their previous work to analyse whether the agency meets your demands.

Read about Vowels’ work on FIT AF, where Vowels helped them curate a detailed brand strategy and style guide.

Look for reviews

After reading reviews you will get a basic idea of how the company works and the impact it had on its clients. Reviews from clients are honest and can be valuable while looking for agencies. It tells you the basic idea of what you might be getting into.

Learn about the process the agency follows

Knowing a bit about the packaging design process could help you choose wisely. To be on the same page, communication between the company and the agency should be smooth. The agency should be able to understand the client’s requirements.

There are a few basic steps that could be followed while designing product packaging.

1. Understanding of the brand’s essence
2. Researching the brand
3. Developing a few samples designs
4. Finalising the approved designs

Quality of the packaging design

Good quality packaging design ensures two things, first that the product gets noticed and second that it gets delivered safely. In the race to design visually pleasant product packaging, it is important to stay true to its most important function, i.e., safety. The quality of the product being used in packaging is also an area where one should be careful. People are moving towards eco-friendly materials to support the sustainable development model.

Look for the market you are in

Understanding the market is one of the most crucial steps for a design agency. Every thought behind the design should be customer-centric, it should cater to the taste of the market you are competing in. While looking for the agency, keep their area of working in mind. It would give an idea of what kind of market they specialize in.

Creating a set of Packaging Guidelines

Staying consistent to the design is important. It improves your brand credibility and makes it more recognizable. Packaging guidelines is a set of rules stating visual elements like logo, colour, font, etc. so follow while developing new design for future products. It helps to make the future efforts in line with the overall strategy of your company. It might be a good idea to ask your product packaging design agency to create a document for future reference.

Also read – The Impact of Package Designing on Product’s Value

2. Try out ‘Testing Methodology’

You can ask your firm to do a packaging testing with your target audience. Packaging testing is a good general practice to learn about the target audience. While designing the packaging for a product it is important to understand what the consumer might think of it. Testing methodology is providing your target audience a few designs to look at, and then give honest opinion on them. This could help assess consumers’ sentiments. The testing methodology can yield a few advantages such as,

1. Your choice is data driven – When you test your sample with actual audience to see what resonates with them, you get a design which is acceptable by the buyer.
2. Improvisations on current designs – Through testing a few samples with your target audience, getting a public perspective can also help you to improve on current designs by incorporating learnings.
3. Understand demographical thinking process – It is crucial to understand what people like and dislike in the area your company operates. The world is diverse and rich in history, to understand what suits best to whom is definitely an advantage you want on your side.

3. Let Vowels be the part of your creative journey to design the best Product Packaging

As a branding agency, operating in Dubai and India, we understand the nuances of developing something special. We understand the efforts that goes in building something from the ground. A great product requires a great packaging. We create a carefully designed product packaging which resonates with your brand values and echoes the brand’s message loud and clear.

Check out Vowels work with Simply Kitchen for Well-curated packaging guidelines and design systems.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Why would I need a packaging design agency?

Ans. It is one of the most crucial stages in product development cycle. Product packaging is another touchpoint to the customers where your brand can show its vision and ideology. In a crowd where customers have a plethora of options to choose from, sometimes an attractive packaging could be the final call to decide what product they want to opt for. Great packaging has the ability to sway your customer’s attraction.

Q2. What is packaging design?

Ans. Packaging a product serves two main functions, to protect the product inside and to stand out in the market. It is the final touchpoint with your consumers. After production, your product takes a journey from the manufacturing factory to the retail store. In order to keep the product safe during the journey and to attract the consumers from the shelf, it takes a carefully curated design. To engage the customer creatively while keeping the primary function of protecting the product, it is recommended to have an agency design your product packaging. 

Q3. How does a packaging design agency work?

Ans. Every design agency has their own way of working on the design for your product packaging, but understanding the basics of how an agency could/should approach the project could help you choose better. Designing the product packaging requires a lot of attention to the detail, understanding the core principals, vision of the brand, the tonality of the brand, market reach, and when all of this information is gathered. A team of industry-specialised designers work on creating a prototype with keeping the gathered information at the centre.

Q4. What does a packaging design agency do?

Ans. A packaging design agency works with a team of world class designers to understand the core principals and values of the company and incorporate company’s vision into the design. Through a series of tests and market research they come up with a bunch of ideas to evolve the product packaging. To make the product packaging, attractive and sturdy and give your company an edge over the competition.

Q5. What to look for in a packaging design agency?

Ans. Choosing a product packaging design agency could be overwhelming when you don’t know where to start, here a few tips you could use to find the right product packaging design agency.

• Consider experience – An experienced firm with a background in the market could help your company add a touch of professionalism to your product packaging design.
• Consider their previous work – Check out their previous work and how satisfied were the client with the work.
• Consider the agency’s design process – Knowing what procedures the agency follows could help you understand better whether the agency offering what you are looking for.