In this blog post, we will look at whether overpackaging is simply a deception of consumers or an inevitable response to changing consumer demands.
These days, many products sold in packaging, such as food, cosmetics, and gift sets, are criticized by consumers. This is because they are over-packaged to deceive consumers and maximize profits. The term “over-packaging” is often used to describe products that have little content and only a flashy outer packaging. It literally means that the product is over-packaged. How much do you have to buy to get free snacks? This expression is often used when consumers criticize companies that put more effort into the packaging than the contents of the product they actually purchased.
The reason why we can judge that products are over-packaged these days is the past appearance of the product. In the past, products used to have a lot of content, but now they have less content and the packaging is more colorful. This makes it easy to think that companies that sell snacks, alcohol, and gift sets these days are trying to deceive consumers and take advantage of them by overpackaging their products in comparison to the past. In the past, products focused on functionality and practicality, but in the modern era, packaging is becoming more important as one of the various marketing strategies to attract consumers’ attention.
But is this change just a ploy for companies to make the most profit? I think it is a change to meet the needs of consumers, not an exaggeration. These days, consumers are increasingly valuing design, and the design of products has a great influence on their purchasing decisions. In addition to the practicality of the product, its external beauty, or “packaging,” has become an important consideration.
In particular, visual elements play an important role in modern society. Even the packaging of snacks should catch the eye of consumers, and the design of restaurants, including the interior, tableware, and food itself, also contributes to making customers feel that the food is delicious. Apple, which can be said to be the hottest company these days, has created a large group of Apple enthusiasts with its simple yet luxurious design. As such, the functional aspects of a product as well as the product’s appearance, or design, are now one of the most important factors for consumers when choosing a product.
Moreover, if the target of a company or seller is young people, then the design of the product should be given even more attention. This is because young people place a particularly high value on the appearance of a product. Young consumers want the products they use to provide more than just functional value. For example, the tendency of modern consumers to look for well-packaged gift sets for every holiday, to desire luxury bags or clothes, or to buy expensive water bottles with eye-catching designs, shows this tendency. This reflects a social atmosphere that values the “pleasure of owning” as much as the functional value of a product.
So, how should producers improve their products to make them stand out to consumers? In the case of clothes, accessories, and cosmetics, quantity is not a competitive advantage, and they are all similar in quality. In such a situation, the quality of the product must be improved in terms of technology, but if a competitor produces the same type of product, the technology will be similar. In that case, the competitiveness must be gained through the packaging of the product. Packaging is now considered to be a part of the product, as it has a role that goes beyond simply protecting the product.
This is also true for edible products, especially snacks, where the contents are more important than the packaging. Of course, there are individual differences, and some consumers may not think packaging is important. However, people get their expectations for snacks from the photos and text on the packaging, and the packaging stimulates consumers’ appetites by providing information on the taste and quantity of the snacks. Consumers already gauge the quality of the product through the packaging design before purchasing it, and as a result, the ‘first impression’ of the product has a significant impact on sales performance.
Nowadays, good packaging has become a part of products all over the world. Therefore, sellers, who are obliged to satisfy the needs of consumers, must pay a lot of attention to the packaging of products to meet the interests of the consumer base. To satisfy the aesthetic needs of consumers and attract attention, sellers or producers are changing the packaging of products to be more colorful and eye-catching. And that change has led to a relative decrease in the ratio of contents to the product. Therefore, when you find out that the contents of the product are less than before, you may wonder if the producer has deceived you to increase profits. But the fact is that the quality of the product is being developed according to changes in interests.
Of course, reducing the quantity or deteriorating the quality of products just to save on production costs without improving the packaging is an act of deceiving consumers. There are many such products, especially in the case of snacks, where the contents may be more important than the packaging mentioned earlier. There are many cases where the amount of contents has been reduced significantly compared to the past, even though there have been improvements in the packaging. If there are such companies or sellers, they should be punished.
Currently, each country is cracking down on excessive packaging in accordance with the guidelines set by the Ministry of Environment and the agreements signed by producer organizations and consumer civic groups. These regulations go beyond simply protecting consumers and serve as an important factor contributing to environmental issues. Excessive packaging leads to unnecessary waste of resources, which can have a serious impact on the global environment in the long term.
On the other hand, there is a social atmosphere in which design is becoming increasingly important for businesses selling most products these days, and young people in particular are more concerned with the appearance of their products. Of course, the priority between the contents of the product and the outer packaging depends on the characteristics of the product, but it cannot be ignored that packaging is becoming increasingly important and producers have no choice but to follow this trend. Considering this, the fact that the design of packaging is becoming more diverse and the size of the packaging is getting bigger and bigger compared to the contents can be seen as a product development to increase the consumer base. Before you start blaming the packaging for being over-packaged just because you are dissatisfied with the contents, let’s think about how attractive the packaging was to make you want to buy the product.
