Cigarette Packaging Design Strategy, Positioning and Consumer Psychology

“The goods are sold for a piece of leather.” Consumers’ perceptions and first impressions of goods begin with the outer packaging of the goods. According to statistics from foreign countries, 50% to 60% of consumers are affected by merchandise packaging and have a desire to purchase merchandise. According to the results of an authoritative survey, it is shown that in the external information that people accept by feeling, visual perception accounts for the largest proportion, followed by hearing, and the rest is sense of smell and a small proportion of taste. Therefore, the outer packaging can greatly influence the consumer's impression of the tobacco product.

The design must meet the consumer's emotional, aesthetic and cultural needs. In general, when consumers buy tobacco products, they always like to select products that look like their own tastes for unfamiliar brands. That means they are very willing to choose the packaging image and their own aesthetic habits, tastes, and ideals. Consistent with tobacco. For example, the Salem cigarettes with the world’s highest sales volume of menthol cigarettes have a white box color for the design of hard box cigarettes, representing purity, romance and comfort. The brand name is highlighted with green and adds a bit of elegance. The fresh air; the top of the smoke sign is a miniature green tree, symbolizing the lush woods and nature. The whole cigarette packaging design reflects a fresh, elegant, natural, pleasant atmosphere, highlighting the characteristics of mint tobacco, especially for the intellectual class and women's appreciation habits.

Tobacco is a customary consumer product. Generally speaking, consumers buy commodities. In general, the components of habits and impressions are more important. Once the cigarette package is impressed in the memory of the consumer, changing the package may take a great deal of risk. According to Trout's "positionalism" point of view, a cigarette package can only lock in a concept, any change in the image of the package may cause consumers to doubt the product image, do not trust, they will think that has changed the packaging of tobacco products and There was a big difference before the change, which led to the interruption of consumption. As a result, tobacco companies must analyze the impact of changing packaging on product profitability and marketing before deciding to change product packaging. In cigarette packaging decisions, similar packaging strategies, a variety of packaging strategies, and gift packaging strategies are all marketing strategies used by tobacco companies and should be used with caution. Must be considered in conjunction with advertising, promotional activities, prices and other marketing tools organic combination, can strengthen and stimulate consumer purchasing psychology, thus inducing their purchase behavior.

High-grade is not the direction, the feature is the first in the past decade, the competition between tobacco companies is getting more and more intense, has reached a level of enthusiasm. All manufacturers are also pondering over cigarette packaging design, and the printing process, printing technology, and materials have all been used to the top. Looking back at cigarette packaging design work in recent years, people seem to have entered a misunderstanding, blindly pursuing the luxury of trademarks, paper, ink high-end.

Looking at foreign cigarette packaging, such as 555, Marlboro still use white cardboard, and imported cigarettes rarely use gold cardboard packaging products. Therefore, David A?Aaker and Erichjoachimsthaler emphasized in the book “Brand Leadership” that sales rely on overall marketing strategies to avoid entering “ The concept of leadership is misleading, but it should be guided by the needs of target consumers. The book "China Tobacco Reform and Development Issues" edited by Liu Yanping said that most cigarette companies used to design their cigarette packs in a brand-name fashion. Designers used to draw names, and sometimes even led comrades. The end, the specific instructions for the text stamping. The printing factory prints according to the plan, and finally produces and sells. In such an environment, cigarette packaging designers tend to be behind closed doors, designers engage in creation based on brand names, and finally get a "leadership". Imagine a package designed in such a way that lacks consumers, what they like, where they sell, analysis of competitors in the market, and so on. The pre-market survey is not clear, it is not detailed, there is no marketing strategy, so the design can only be designed according to the meaning of the brand name, and the design of the work style depends entirely on the designer's personal style, which ignores the consumer's feelings An important criterion.

In order to avoid the misunderstanding of art and “close door design”, we should focus on brand positioning and marketing objectives, especially on the basis of repeated and accurate market research, so as to correctly interpret and express brand positioning. Designers often focus on the artistic feeling of cigarette packaging design, but do not accurately grasp the brand's positioning and marketing goals. Let's take a look at the marketing plan for imported cigarettes: Marlboro, a world-class brand that was designed by advertising master Leona. He first identified Marlboro as a manly cigarette and linked it with the most manly western cowboy image. Cigarette packaging design is concise and crisp. Red represents masculinity. It also shows strength and masculine temperament on white background. It attracts consumers who love, appreciate and pursue this temperament. Through this positioning, Marlboro has established a free, wild and adventurous image. Among the many cigarette brands, Marlboro cigarettes have been ranked first in the world in cigarette sales since the 1980s and have become the leading brands in the global cigarette market. Without this "manly" positioning concept and overall marketing strategy, there will be no success today. In fact, Marlboro's design is concise and artistically sensational, but it is precisely because it grasps the brand's positioning, the product has been a great success, so the brand cigarette packaging design has become Classic.

Outstanding personalized cigarette packaging design facilitates shaping the image of tobacco products and consumer identification. The beautiful and unique decoration design can produce strong visual stimuli and keep the consumers in mind so that it is easy to establish a brand image in their minds. The lack of personality of cigarette packaging design is often lack of charm, lack of sense of innovation, no sense of beauty, and even to imitate, copy the design of others, such a tobacco product is difficult to establish their own brand image, it will not have the vitality . At present, many cigarette manufacturing companies and packaging and printing companies in China have taken note of this problem. They have drawn nutrition from traditional and ethnic fertile soil and successfully designed a batch of cigarette packaging designs with distinctive characteristics and era characteristics.

People's consumer psychology is extremely delicate and difficult to ponder. People often buy products based on their own impressions. The psychology test of cigarette packaging design on consumers shows that beauty and ugliness, elegance and vulgarity, attention and exclusion, these psychological feelings, not only men and women are different, but also because of the preferences of countries, regions and individuals The difference. So as tobacco designers must understand the cigarette sales market, study design factors and analyze consumer psychology. Only in this way can we accurately find out the laws in order to improve the effect of cigarette packaging design and urge consumers to purchase goods.

Reprinted from: Packaging Design Network