Drive Health-Conscious Food Product Sales With These CPG Food Packaging Tips

The success of food products depends, in part, on its CPG food packaging — and that’s especially true for health-conscious food products. The food market is getting increasingly competitive, and having a great health-conscious product is no longer enough to attract customers.

The design of your CPG food packaging, or consumer packaged goods, must capture the attention and desire of your potential customers and communicate the value of your product. Packaging serves many purposes, but one of the most important elements involves brand messaging for customers, ensuring a more powerful marketing for your healthy food product.

So how do you get there? In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of CPG food packaging in marketing health-conscious food and how it subsequently affects online and retail purchasing decisions.

The Role of CPG Food Packaging in Marketing

Have you ever looked at a bag of chips or a box of ice cream cones and decided to splurge?

That’s the power of CPG food packaging — it makes you want a product just because.

Your product only has one chance to make a first impression. Many times that first impression is what leads your customers to decide to buy. Health-conscious consumers, in particular, pay attention to the packaging of products because it lets them gauge the quality of a food or beverage product and make assumptions about its healthiness.

Today, we will explore the role of CPG food packaging in marketing your health-conscious food product.

Communicating Nutritional Information

Effective CPG food packaging transparently conveys information to potential customers about a healthy product’s ingredients, contents, and nutritional value. This helps set your product apart from other products in the market and drives consumer purchasing decisions. With your CPG food packaging, you can quickly tell your health-conscious customers that your product is healthy, vegan, gluten-free, or organic, ensuring that the consumer understands what they are purchasing.

Brand Image

Your food packaging design is the foundation of your brand image and awareness. It’s the best way to convey your product and company to customers. When your package is luxurious, customers tend to believe that your product and company are high-end. Alternatively, packaging can convey details like fitness-centric or vegan. Your CPG food packaging is a way to introduce and reinforce your brand.

For example, a brand selling organic fruit juices might choose packaging that incorporates earth tones and images of fresh fruits, along with prominent labels stating “100% Organic” or “No Added Sugars”. This packaging communicates a health-centered, natural brand image to customers, reinforcing the brand’s values.

Driving Online and Offline Sales

Distinct CPG food packaging designs will effortlessly drive sales. Why? When consumers understand a product from its packaging, they’re more likely to buy it. 94% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand that offers transparency, including clear and accurate product labeling.

Moreover, packaging serves a dual purpose. While its primary function is to protect the product during transit and storage, well-designed and informative CPG food packaging can also act as a persuasive sales tool. It can highlight the product’s unique selling propositions, reinforce the brand’s image, and communicate its value directly to the consumer.

Additionally, packaging can also be used to target a specific market segment. For instance, health-conscious consumers may be drawn to packaging that emphasizes natural ingredients, nutritional benefits, or eco-friendly materials. This targeted approach can increase the product’s appeal to its intended audience, driving sales further.

Lastly, in a crowded marketplace, distinctive and attractive packaging can help products stand out on the shelves, increasing their visibility and the likelihood of purchase.

Attracting New Consumers with CPG Food Packaging

One of the ways your business can drive sales and foster brand loyalty is by using impactful packaging features that resonate with health-conscious consumers. According to the Food Marketing Institute, the average supermarket in the United States contains over 31,000 products.

Packaging makes a difference. In one survey, 72% of American consumers stated that their purchase decisions were influenced by a product’s packaging design, while 67% said the packaging materials were.

That’s why it is so critical for brands to distinguish themselves and their products in crowded grocery aisles. Your brand can beat the competition by integrating essential package design elements into your healthy food product. There are six features customers generally look out for.

1. Product Protection

CPG food packaging is important for healthy foods because it protects the product from spoilage, breakage, contamination, or loss. It ensures the product gets to the consumers in the best possible condition. Customers want to see that the package of their healthy food products is properly protected and not broken. They also want to see a tamper-proof seal to ensure there has been no interference with the product.

2. Health and Nutrition Facts

Customers who purchase health-conscious food products are most likely health-conscious and want to know what they put in their bodies. These customers are no longer merely looking for a list of ingredients; they want clear information about a food product’s health and nutritional facts if it claims to be healthy. They want to see calorie counts per serving and know that their food has no harmful additives or toxins. They need all these to make informed choices that align with their health goals.

3. Directions and Instructions

Consumers appreciate CPG food packaging that gives them clear instructions on how to use the product. Customers should be able to look at your product and understand the purpose and the value proposition. Later, we’ll discuss what to include on your packaging to ensure the customer can understand your product.

4. Eco-Friendly Packaging

Many customers have now begun to make more environmentally conscious choices, and a huge chunk of these customers are looking for natural, healthy foods. These customers will leverage their buying power to contribute to protecting our planet. In particular, US consumers are prepared to pay a premium for sustainable packaging across different end-use areas due to their commitment to sustainability.

5. Information Architecture

Information architecture refers to how product details are presented on the CPG food packaging. Customers will generally scan through your product packaging, looking for certain information on health-conscious food products. These include the brand name (to see if it’s a familiar or trusted name), labels like ‘vegan’ and ‘organic,’ and visual images of what to expect from the product. Details like these help their decision-making faster.

6. Design and Aesthetics

Consumers are naturally more attracted to aesthetic designs and product packaging. Research shows that aesthetic package design leads to an increase in the time consumers spend on making decisions. The more visually attractive your CPG product packaging is, the better chance it has of being chosen over name brands that come in standardized packages, regardless of price. When buying health-conscious foods, customers gravitate towards colors like green and white because it tells them that the product is natural, healthy, clean, and nutritious.

How CPG Food Packaging Impacts Online and Retail Purchase Decisions

CPG food packaging will always influence customer decisions, regardless of whether it’s an online or retail shopper. When customers are attracted to the packaging of your product, their chances of putting it in their cart are higher. This is especially true when online shopping, as customers cannot touch or feel the product. That is why it is key to have packaging that works well for in-store and online shopping experiences — to drive customers to pick your healthy food product continually.

Targeting Health-Conscious Consumers

The average consumer makes about 35,000 decisions every day. Most decisions in the grocery store happen in a matter of seconds — so your CPG food packaging needs to have a strong impact quickly. Here are the things you must do to ensure that you are packaging your health-conscious food products for your consumers.

Design

1. Prominently display your product and brand name to make it stand out on the shelf, especially if it is well-known.
2. Include your social media handles.
3. Include a QR code that leads customers to a page with additional information on the ingredients you used and their health benefits.
4. Stick to colors corresponding to your brand design.
5. Include a slogan to show customers that you provide a specific, target product to solve their needs.
6. Green imagery helps conjure organic, healthy associations.
7. Functional design lets consumers open and close the package and even consume the product on the go.

Provided Information

1. Give them all the basic information you think they should know about your product.
2. Be transparent with information on the contents of your product.
3. Use labels your health-conscious customers want, like ‘vegan,’ ‘organic,’ and ‘toxin-free.’
4. How do you use your product, and what age range is your product appropriate for?
5. How often should your product be used, and what should be avoided?
6. How much should be used at once?
7. Show them how to store your product.
8. Use an enticing picture that shows them what to expect when using your product.

Materials

1. Use eco-friendly materials and materials that have been recycled, like biodegradable plastics, glass, paper, or metal.
2. Avoid materials made using resource-intensive methods like high water or energy consumption.
3. Use materials that are non-toxic for the safety of children, pets, and people with allergies.
4. Reduce waste with packaging that can be reused or re-purposed.

Five Tips for Upgrading Your CPG Food Packaging

So how can you upgrade your CPG food packaging to target health-conscious consumers? Let’s talk about the retention topic.

1. Collect customer feedback through surveys and feedback forms. You can utilize sites like Survey Monkey and Typeform in email newsletters, social media stories, and on your website.
2. Improve individual packaging features gradually; simultaneously, doing it can shock the consumer and reduce store recognition. Start with one item, and update each packaging piece as they sell out. It’s crucial to keep customers aware of the brand while making design changes.
3. Introduce seasonal designs (to learn more about how this helps, click here).
4. Seek the expertise of a professional designer. Hiring a freelance graphic designer can amplify your efforts for fresh and new packaging for your CPG brand.
5. Evaluate a prototype before making final changes.

For healthy CPG food brands, effective packaging plays a pivotal role in consumer engagement, and the provided tips offer valuable insights for enhancing this aspect. Ensure that you connect with customers and gather feedback through regular surveys, upgrade packaging features that stand out from the competition, and even introduce seasonal designs to wow your audience.

CPG Food Packaging: Conclusion

A health-conscious product’s CPG food packaging serves not only as a means to protect and deliver its contents but also as a tool for employing brand promotion, expanding consumer markets, tapping into customer engagement, conveying company values, and fostering continuous business.

Effective CPG food packaging is a crucial element for health-conscious products. Not only does it ensure the safe delivery of the product, but it also serves as a powerful marketing tool. Strategic design and messaging promote the brand, broaden consumer reach, engage customers, communicate the company’s values, and foster sustainable business growth.

In the increasingly competitive health-conscious market, it’s important to leverage the power of packaging to set your product apart. Consider integrating eco-friendly materials and clear, concise health and nutritional information to appeal to today’s informed and environmentally conscious consumers.

Moreover, remember that packaging is a tangible touchpoint for your brand. It’s an opportunity to create a memorable unboxing experience and cultivate customer loyalty. Thus, investing in high-quality, appealing, and informative packaging is crucial.

At ChuckJoe, we understand the nuances of designing effective CPG food packaging that resonates with health-conscious consumers. We can help you streamline the design process, saving you both time and resources and, ultimately, help you create a package design that stands out in the market.

If you’re ready to elevate your product’s appeal and increase its pick rate, let’s discuss how we can create CPG food packaging that truly sells.