Valentine’s Day designs: “Packaging should capture the uniqueness of how we feel”

14 Feb 2019 --- As February the 14th rolls around, companies seek to attract consumer attention with packaging designs that cater to the day’s romantic connotation. From Christmas to Easter, seasonal releases of products are a classic way to appeal to consumers and product packaging takes center stage. With this in mind, PackagingInsights spoke with industry experts to find out what makes or breaks Valentine’s Day seasonal packaging.

Valentine’s Day packaging trends
The color red, hearts, pink hues and roses are all linked to Valentine’s day and seasonal packaging is often adorned with such decorations to make the products’ adherence to the day’s celebrations clear. Yet, how do overarching packaging trends translate into seasonal packaging editions? Many companies opt out of traditional color schemes and styles and go for more stand-out, fashionable options such as art.

“Valentine's packaging seems to follow the general packaging trends of the given moment. For instance this year I've seen a lot of open composition and art deco work,” Daniel Sklaar, Founder of FINE & RAW Chocolate, tells PackagingInsights.

Richard Village, Director at Smith&+Village, tells PackagingInsights, that there are two trends that are particularly important for Valentine’s Day; bespoke and social media.

“The rise in bespoke products and services and the increasing proliferation in personalization, that allow consumers to tailor their purchases come into their own during all gifting seasons, but particularly Valentine’s. How better to express your affection than to give something genuinely personal to the special people in your life?” he says.

From the “shareability factor” to the use of emojis and shorthand, the way we communicate in the age of social media is changing and so too is the way we express affection, Village notes. “Today, a quick ‘I heart-emoji you’ is just as heartfelt as a long-winded confession of love and what could be better than combining this with a delicious box of chocolates.”

Staple trends nonetheless maintain their appeal and continue to influence product packaging.

“Anything classic will stand the test of time. Even though it's massively commercialized, Valentine’s has all the right ingredients for a really good design to create something with longevity,” explains Sklaar.

However, Sklaar asserts that deviating from tradition can also be an attractive addition to seasonal packaging. Take the use of the traditional red color, for example.“To get millennial on this, it's like texting a black emoji heart to someone or a red emoji heart. Red is the direct color of love. Valentines, however, can be layered with other colorful expressions, such as desire, amorous and provocative feelings, sensual and friendship.”

Avoiding traditional Valentine’s decorations can help seasonal releases avoid looking “naff,” according to Village. “Whilst the season is a huge opportunity for manufacturers and retailers alike, much of the content has been forced into a brash, heart-shaped niche under the assumption that affection must equal schmaltz.”

“What will always cut through the Valentine’s Day noise and make a real connection is packaging (and a gift) that feels personal, which is why we need more diversity in Valentine’s packaging to demonstrate the wide variety of our emotions,” he says.

“Packaging should capture the uniqueness of how we feel – even if that’s a cheeky one-liner or a bespoke detail. Everyone wants to be made to feel special, even if just for one day,” Village concludes.

Appealing to the consumer
Regardless of season, good packaging is important to a product’s appeal as it is the first point of contact for the consumer. “I believe people respond to good design regardless of seasonality. The extension of this thought is that the different seasons give you opportunities to explore new design ideas,” Sklaar says.

“Seasonal packaging acts as a reminder that there’s an occasion to celebrate, even when our busy schedule hasn’t given us a moment to think about it. It stands out in a sea of everyday stuff and can help to reduce the guesswork of finding the right gesture for the object of your affection,” says Village.

“It’s also a chance to be playful, witty, cheeky and honest. A chance to break from the norm and openly express emotions we may not in our day-to-day lives. And that opportunity is always going to be a hit with consumers,” he explains.

Making a product seasonally relevant appears to be a useful way to increase its appeal and often without any alterations to the product itself. Packaging that is season appropriate may be novel enough.

Whether seasonal packaging is traditionally done and in line with classic expectations or pushing traditional boundaries with the radical use of color and language, the main focus is that it makes for a good chance to experiment, refresh a product and have a bit of the kind of fun that consumers seem to appreciate.

By Kristiana Lalou

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