13th January 2006, 9:20 AM
All companies spend millions of dollars in to designing a product label that will grab your attention.
For example next time you're out try to find as many yellow and red signs, insignias, labels, etc as you can. Yellow and red are the two colors that grab people the most and you can find them everywhere. The type of font used, the emotional influence of the product (are you looking to snack or do you want to indulge?) and about a billion other aspects go in to the marketing.
If it's to indulge, you immeadiately find a package with cursive writing, usually darker in color and sometimes with metallic trim. Words like 'Presents' or 'introduces' tells us that it's special. So after seeing the box and the packaging for 'Deluxe Mac and cheese' we get this feeling of it being more special than mac and cheese, so we're willing to pay an extra dollar or two to enjoy the special product.
All human beings think a darker food is richer. The less opaqe or thick the food the less quality it is (which is retarded but we're raised that way). And of course if the package is using a fancy font then it's obviously of a higher calibur, this found everywhere from beer names, wines, restaurants, cars, you name it.
Though the same ideal is put in to fonts that use symbolism. More and more young drivers are supporting the Scion from toyota. If you look at its symbol it uses litteral blades, sharp edges, etc in a nice round shell. Cutting-Edge, Sharp, balanced, self-contained, angst, power, threatening and it litteraly looks like a device, like a weapon or engine. The word Scion itself means "heir" as in royalty, those who inherit empires. But the word phonetically is slick and metallic even industrial with hints of a poetic nature plus it has two syllables which people love.
All of that is purposely designed so that all of those feelings and thoughts hit you subconsciously when you see the symbol of the car so that when you combine its name and symbol with the actual look of the vehicle and its inner working you paint a picture in your head of being that symbol, which is designed specifically to attract younger drivers.
If it's supposed to attract a broad market and not just one particular demo, it would use a font and design that is simple and generalized, subconsciously telling the person that this is for everyone, come on in.
We can even see gender seperation in products that could be enjoyed by both genders but are trying to specifically target females. Soft muted colors, round shapes, elegent font, petite or elongated packaging, etc. if it's for men, hard contrasts, sharp edges, powerful heavy fonts and often times a shape or symbol to help identify it. Corporations know that men are straight and to the point, we want overbearing and have no use for subtlety. Women want anything that makes them feel more feminin and often will buy products just because it has feminin characteristics such as the shape of the packaging resembling the female body and curves but more than anything, they want sophistication, they made the right purchasing choice because they grabbed the more sophisticated product. men feel they made the right choice because they grabbed the more powerful product.
Put a pretty girl on the product and instincts kick in. Man sees pretty girl, wants pretty girl, buys pretty girl, consumes pretty girl, throws pretty girl away because the relationship was shallow anyways.
There's a reason you like Doritos and its not wholly just because of their taste, there's an entire cultural icon in there. There's also a reason why more young people than older eat them.
Million upon millions is spent and even though you think it doesn't effect you it is on many different levels.
For example next time you're out try to find as many yellow and red signs, insignias, labels, etc as you can. Yellow and red are the two colors that grab people the most and you can find them everywhere. The type of font used, the emotional influence of the product (are you looking to snack or do you want to indulge?) and about a billion other aspects go in to the marketing.
If it's to indulge, you immeadiately find a package with cursive writing, usually darker in color and sometimes with metallic trim. Words like 'Presents' or 'introduces' tells us that it's special. So after seeing the box and the packaging for 'Deluxe Mac and cheese' we get this feeling of it being more special than mac and cheese, so we're willing to pay an extra dollar or two to enjoy the special product.
All human beings think a darker food is richer. The less opaqe or thick the food the less quality it is (which is retarded but we're raised that way). And of course if the package is using a fancy font then it's obviously of a higher calibur, this found everywhere from beer names, wines, restaurants, cars, you name it.
Though the same ideal is put in to fonts that use symbolism. More and more young drivers are supporting the Scion from toyota. If you look at its symbol it uses litteral blades, sharp edges, etc in a nice round shell. Cutting-Edge, Sharp, balanced, self-contained, angst, power, threatening and it litteraly looks like a device, like a weapon or engine. The word Scion itself means "heir" as in royalty, those who inherit empires. But the word phonetically is slick and metallic even industrial with hints of a poetic nature plus it has two syllables which people love.
All of that is purposely designed so that all of those feelings and thoughts hit you subconsciously when you see the symbol of the car so that when you combine its name and symbol with the actual look of the vehicle and its inner working you paint a picture in your head of being that symbol, which is designed specifically to attract younger drivers.
If it's supposed to attract a broad market and not just one particular demo, it would use a font and design that is simple and generalized, subconsciously telling the person that this is for everyone, come on in.
We can even see gender seperation in products that could be enjoyed by both genders but are trying to specifically target females. Soft muted colors, round shapes, elegent font, petite or elongated packaging, etc. if it's for men, hard contrasts, sharp edges, powerful heavy fonts and often times a shape or symbol to help identify it. Corporations know that men are straight and to the point, we want overbearing and have no use for subtlety. Women want anything that makes them feel more feminin and often will buy products just because it has feminin characteristics such as the shape of the packaging resembling the female body and curves but more than anything, they want sophistication, they made the right purchasing choice because they grabbed the more sophisticated product. men feel they made the right choice because they grabbed the more powerful product.
Put a pretty girl on the product and instincts kick in. Man sees pretty girl, wants pretty girl, buys pretty girl, consumes pretty girl, throws pretty girl away because the relationship was shallow anyways.
There's a reason you like Doritos and its not wholly just because of their taste, there's an entire cultural icon in there. There's also a reason why more young people than older eat them.
Million upon millions is spent and even though you think it doesn't effect you it is on many different levels.