Brand image is more than just a word. It is how your customers think of and recognize your brand.
You are walking by busy roads, and a car passes you. You instantly recognize the car's name before looking at the logo.
How?
Most of us do. This strong connection happens between you and the car when the brand has established a strong brand image.
And how do you establish a strong brand image?
With a consistent Product Design Language.
With millions, if not billions, of brands trying to grab customers' attention and create a positive brand image, having a consistent product and packaging design language across your product line becomes crucial for businesses to stand out.
A strong product language communicates to your customers who you are, what you stand for, and why they should choose you. It makes your customers recognize you instantly just by looking at your product line.
Creating a consistent product design language is associated with colors, shapes, and a strong value that makes people resonate with your brand.
That said, let’s dive into learning more about building a consistent brand image using product design language.
A product design language gives your product a unique personality that helps you stand out in a crowded market. It is a way to translate your brand value into the three-dimensional form of your product and packaging, communicating desired emotions and your brand's unique personality.
It’s a toolkit combining elements like form/shapes, materials, colors, texture, and even the way buttons and interfaces are laid out to convey the brand’s purpose and emotions across the product line.
For example, while the potato chips market is flooded with competitors, Pringle’s unique packaging helps them stand out. The cylindrical design is highly recognizable and contributes to the brand’s overall brand image.
But, which elements of design ensure a uniform product packaging design language?
Let’s see.
Colors have become a powerful branding tool. Colors evoke deep emotional responses, shape customers' impressions, and enhance the user experience within seconds.
Color plays a key role in product packaging design, as it affects the user's perception of the product’s quality and usability, conveys brand identity, and builds a cohesive brand image.
For example, it’s impossible to visualize Himalaya’s product packaging without green caps and white body schemes. The Himalaya uses the same color scheme across most product lines, making it easily recognizable.
There is no simple answer to “What colors are right for my brand?” It always depends on your customer's reaction, the country's cultural perception, and emotions associated with the color.
[Take a quick look at the role of color psychology in packaging.]
Choosing material for your product packaging design is a tangible expression of a brand’s identity. In addition, materials provide a sensory experience that complements other elements to build a cohesive brand image.
Materials help to create a unified, tactile experience across the product line that can also evoke specific emotions among the customers. Consistent use of material across the product line and packaging can provide a sensory experience that strengthens a strong brand image.
For example, a brand using sustainable material across the product line and in packaging conveys that the brand values environmental responsibility.
The choice of material tells your brand story and accentuates the look and feel of your brand. For example, Apple's rigid box packaging undoubtedly gives a premium feel, mirroring the seamless, user-friendly experience of the Apple products themselves.
Each item is tucked into molded paper inserts, and finally, the boxes are topped off with a beautiful matte finish throughout, making their boxes truly luxurious.
The form language might be an uninitiated term, but customers will recognize your brand with that unique shape that helps you stand out. For example, every car enthusiast recognizes the car purely based on its overall shape.
These tangible product design elements are scalable and repeatable across multiple products and packages. They’re specific silhouettes or patterns that are not commonly found in other products or brands.
The form language comprises two main components: Product Silhouette and Signature shape.
They become the central visual element in a brand’s communication and image.
Think of Coca-Cola; the bottle design embodies the brand’s commitment to innovation, uniqueness, and customer experience. The general curved silhouette remains unchanged, making it an enduring symbol and eye-catching product on a supermarket shelf.
The last element of your product design language is those small details and textures that create a distinctive experience in terms of aesthetics and tactical experience, leaving a lasting impression on the customers.
Beyond other elements, the detailing and finishes of your product packaging design can elevate the intrinsic value of your product in the minds of consumers. How the texture feels in the consumer’s hand contributes to a customer’s association with a product.
Along with the finishes, fine details like grooves, rounded shapes, curves, and others give the same personality to every product and communicate the same every time. When executed consistently, these elements signal the brand’s commitment to producing high-quality products.
A good representative brand that uses this form of language as its main brand feature is Selzer Fenex Bottle. The grooves in the bottle's design make it easily recognizable, consistently giving it a unique shape across all 3 SKU sizes.
Ultimately, designing a cohesive product design language is challenging. Yet, you’ll need to be consistent with your product and packaging design and evolve when the time comes.
Creating a cohesive brand image requires consistency in your product design language, but it’s worth it. When consumers instantly recognize your brand, value, who you are, and what you stand for, all based on product design.
A strong brand image looks different for each brand, but it’s the difference that helps you stand out from your competitors.
Still confused about your product design language?
Analyze your packaging structure against the criteria using our Structure Evaluator tool.