Food for Thought

By Ron Romanik

When "pet parents" peruse the aisles of a pet supermarket, they might scrutinize the food products and packaging with a more discerning eye than they would at a "human" supermarket. Pet food packages offer a multitude of information to ensure human customers of the quality and reliability of the food inside. One of the most important jobs of pet food package design today is to educate humans about the meanings of organic, all-natural, and holistic claims.

If you can't measure it, does it really exist? Yes, the Return on Investment of effective package designs is real and very valuable. Robert Croft of Swerve Inc makes the case for ROI in order to help you make the case to your consumer goods client. Another unique package design perspective is offered by David Lemley of Lemley Design. He uses an extended metaphor of Design as Theater to make great points about what consumers are expecting from their package design and brand personality experience. If you need scientific studies to back up your arguments about package design, go to Scott Young's article on label hierarchy insights gleaned from years of scientific eye-tracking studies.

For more package design food for thought, check out our Package Design eSolutions newsletter at: www.packagedesignmag.com/esolutions. We hope that you find tasty morsels of insight there and here that translate into package designs that better connect with your target consumers.

Ron Romanik
Editor-in-Chief