Why Japanese packaging stands out in the market?
The winning formula of the Japanese packaging industry
Recently one of my friends shared a Japanese toast recipe with me. The recipe was simple, just 2 pieces of bread and a small cup of pudding. From the cooking tutorial video shown by a Japanese housewife, I realised there is a small lever at the bottom of the Pucchin pudding container. It turns out that the lever ensures the clean removal of the pudding from the container swiftly without compromising its shape. What you need to do is just pushing the lever and the pudding will fall automatically onto the plate.
How amazing!
Japan is often acknowledged as one of the industry leaders in packaging design. Have you ever wonder what exactly makes Japanese packaging so unique? I have concluded a few of the differentiating factors that created the winning formula behind the Japanese packaging design.
Design with Understanding
Innovative packaging always leads to very pleasant experiences. Japanese packaging celebrates the process of opening, which has to be possible without scissors or any other tool. It helps consumers to develop a certain respect for the packaging and it makes them enjoy unpacking activities.
There are a variety of individual small sauce packages in Japan to make consumers easy to pour the sauce into the container without getting their hands dirty.
Do you ever feel annoyed by pouring out too many mints from mints boxes and in the end have to put back a little? Mintia Breeze comes with built-in solutions to tackle the issue.
Each mint box functions as an individual dispenser. Just give it a shake before popping out the tab where a single mint will sit securely in a slot built precisely to size. This is such a convenient and hygienic packaging design!
Packaging is not just the materials used to wrap products. Usually, packaging design is mostly overlooked as common packaging available to us is just a plastic layer or a simple casing to wrap the products. In Japan, packaging is seen as an integral part of the product experience rather than just a way of containing a product. To boost and prolong the great user experience, Japanese designers put the effort into studying user needs, understanding users’ pre-existing behaviours, and providing solutions that even users will not think about in the first place. A thoughtful design can always win consumers’ hearts!
Design with Compassion
Depressingly, most products in the market reply on consumers having an unimpaired vision and both hands. For many Japanese packaging designs, one of the highlights is that the needs of the disabled in design are not ignored. It is designed to be easier to read, open and use for visually challenged and disabled people to improve their user experience.
For example, the small arc-shaped cut on milk cartons is designed for people with visual impairments so that they can distinguish between pure milk and other drinks by using the sense of touch. Only pure milk cartons have this cut. Other dairy products that contain milk like milk coffee, flavoured milk, yogurt, low-fat milk among others do not have this mark. Also, the designed small arc-shaped gap is on the opposite side as that of the milk carton opening to inform the visually impaired person of the correct location of the opening so they would not spill any milk or apply force to open from the wrong side.
The braille on the canned drinks indicates the drinks contain alcohol. Soda and beer are always displayed very close together in supermarkets, and the likelihood of mistaking beer for soda is a real possibility for a visually impaired person. The simple act of printing a braille label on the canned alcoholic drink helps ensure no one gets accidentally intoxicated without realising it.
How to differentiate shampoos and conditioners just by touching them? There is a hidden secret on Japanese hair products. The added notches on the sides of shampoo bottles help the sighted and disabled alike to differentiate between shampoo and conditioner.
Design for all, not for the majority. Small improvements and thoughtful details will lead to highly accessible products. The accessible product design with empathy and compassion enhances the independence of consumers with visual or physical impairment and improves the user experience for every consumer. On the other hand, a study by Accenture showed that 51% of millennials are more likely to buy products from brands that demonstrate awareness of inclusion and other social issues. Acknowledging those impaired consumers through thoughtful packaging choices would win over consumers across the market demographics.
Go beyond your imagination
As the market is becoming more competitive than ever before, only being visually appealing is not enough to differentiate products that stand out from the rest. For many Japanese products, one of the keys to making the products irresistible is to create eye-catching and funny packaging designs.
The unexpected combination of Kirin drinks and Glico Pocky snacks brings interesting interactions. Some of the food packaging characters kiss. Others present flowers or cakes to one another and all of them get along in some ways or form. This creative design makes its customers hard to resist buying both the snacks and drinks. The romantic packaging showcases that enjoying Glico Pocky with Kirin Tea is just like hanging out with lovers –sweet and exciting.
The enticing design also received praise from Japan’s LGBT community as this defies the gender stereotype with its sexual orientation inclusive approach.
Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa designed a series of intriguing fruit-shaped juice boxes. The juice boxes appear to be wrapped in the actual skins of fruits. The colour and the texture of the fruit skin are imitated on the juice packages. The packaging design brings the feeling of pulling a ripe banana, strawberry, or kiwi fruit off the vine, plunging in a straw, and drinking up the freshest fruit juice you ever tasted.
The first impression is key. Creative packaging is what seals the deal. Different packaging elements influence consumers’ willingness to purchase products. The key point here is not only to create an eye-catching and mind-blowing design but also to showcase where the products stand for and what that means for customers at the same time. The idea behind this is to elevate products and highlight the most important features.
All in all, Japanese packaging brings the meaning of packaging design to another level. Evolving the designs through numerous small but thoughtful considerations of being visually striking, consumer-oriented, and empathetic to even the least fortunate of us. Japanese design brings people deep satisfaction and helps consumers feel truly respected. Nowadays unique and impressive Japanese packaging design is one of the highlights and icons of Japan by making a name for themselves all over the world. I think it truly deserved all its praises.
Thanks for reading!
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