Packaging designers understand the importance of graphics and color in metal packaging. Visual stimuli drives emotions and can play a pivotal role in product purchasing decisions among consumers. Color alone can account for up to 90% of an individual's decision as to whether he or she likes a product, according to a 2006 study by Singh. Here are important considerations for designers in their focus on graphics and color.

Even long before packaging design became a focus among marketers, there has always been a sense that aesthetics has had something to do with why people are attracted to certain products. Now in the new millennium a growing body of evidence confirms that visual stimuli is a huge factor in purchasing choices at physical stores. Here's a deeper look at how consumers respond to packaging design.

The psychology of packaging design has become a top concern of marketers, as evidence accumulates that visual aesthetics play a major role of a product's success. Research shows that aesthetic package design leads to an increase in the time consumers spend on making decisions. In fact, the more aesthetics offered by the package, the better chance it has of being chosen over name brands that come in standardized packages, regardless of price.

Food items have more impact on the environmental than the packaging that contains them, by comparison. Even though the most important purpose of a food package is that it protects the food, sustainability has become a major strategy to help protect the environment.

As packaging design has quickly evolved this century, it is becoming increasingly part of brand design. Just like a brand, packaging communicates messages to its target audience through various senses. That's why designers and product managers must examine how packaging is perceived by consumers. Here's a look at how tastes and packaging design need to be consistent.

Effective marketing strategies depend on shape of packaging and semantics that associate with the product. Tests have shown relationships between packaging and brand attributes, which can benefit packaging designers who base their solutions on sensory marketing. While these semantic associations are unique for each individual, this knowledge is still important for marketers to understand. Here's a deeper look at how the shape of packaging conveys meanings to consumers.

Food consumption is a multisensory experience, meaning that people judge food with all five senses, as studies increasingly show. A 2011 study called "Influence of Package Design on the Dynamics of Multisensory and Emotional Experience" by N.J. Schifferstein, Anna Fenko, Pieter M.A. Desmet, David Labbe and Nathalie Martin confirmed that people's emotions change throughout the four major stages of consumption (buying, opening, cooking and eating).

Studying the emotions and dynamics of the buyer journey can help marketers better understand packaging for chocolates, biscuits and confectionery.The various stages in which these emotions are strongest involve opening the package, cooking the food, eating it and rebuying the package. Here are ways to adapt packaging based on how people react to these stages.

When the purchase of chocolate candies and other grocery items is not part of a regular shopping list, it tends to be a spontaneous act. So marketers of such food need to understand the mechanisms that lead to impulsive purchasing.A study reported by Jesper Clement of Copenhagen Business School in Denmark shows that purchasing can be affected by five in-store stages. Here are the findings and conclusions of this eye-track experiment on consumer purchasing behaviour.