Is today's food packaging design subtle or eye-catching? We made this guoba packaging "eye-catching"—the client was very skeptical, but the later sales results gave us a pretty good report card!

The client making guoba (crispy rice snacks) was a very down-to-earth boss. When he came to me, he had just one request: don’t do all that flashy, fancy stuff — it needs to be grand, like award-winning work, with a level of refinement worth appreciating.

I said fine, but first let me ask you: where does your guoba sell?

He said supermarket shelves, plus small corner shops.

I said then it has to be “flashy.”

He got anxious: why are you doing the opposite? I said flashy is a derogatory word, but flashy on the shelf is called “eye-catching.”

Think about it — guoba sits on the same row of shelves as potato chips, biscuits, and latiao (spicy strips). When a customer walks by and scans the shelf, their eyes don’t linger for more than three seconds. If your packaging is grand, plain, and tasteful, it’s invisible on the shelf; if it’s bold and grabby, the customer can fish it out at a glance. In the shelf business, the first battle is about “being seen.”

What we ended up making: a high-saturation orange-to-green gradient with clashing colors, glossy plastic composite film bright enough to reflect light; the product name “烤锅巴” (Roasted Guoba) on the front in three-dimensional type with black outlines, popping out like a barrage of comments; and a small red tag beside it reading “非油炸” (Non-Fried).

— Orange-green gradient packaging front display

When the client got the sample, his face turned green: this color scheme is way too tacky, isn’t it? Looks like street-stall goods.

I said don’t rush to curse me — find a supermarket, put it on the shelf, and stand ten meters away to look.

He actually went. When he came back, his attitude had changed: seems like… it really is the most noticeable one.

I said exactly. The difference between street-stall goods and a shelf bestseller isn’t about who’s more “upscale” — it’s about who “fits.” Your guoba sells for 6 yuan a bag, and your target customers are students and young people binge-watching shows. What they want isn’t a sense of luxury — it’s the urge to “want to eat it just by looking.” Put that orange-green clash right there, and you can see it from two rows of shelves away — and that urge kicks in.

We deliberately chose that high-gloss film — the printed saturation gets boosted, and under the lights the whole bag shines. The client said it costs a bit more than ordinary film, over a dime. I said that dime buys you that half-second on the shelf.

— Close-up of high-gloss printing on the packaging surface

Later he asked me again: should we put some health concepts on the packaging? No additives, traditional craft, that sort of thing.

I said don’t. People buying guoba are thinking “what can I munch on while binge-watching,” not “today I’m going to eat healthy snacks.” Tell them no additives and they go “oh”; tell them “crunchy and crispy” and their mouth waters. Ninety percent of a purchase is emotion making the first move — reason just helps find an excuse afterward.

— Scattered guoba after opening the bag

This reminded me of a principle: in marketing, the biggest taboo is “educating the user.” No matter how good your product is, don’t corner the customer and lecture them. If the customer dreads hassle, save them the trouble; if the customer fears choosing wrong, let them recognize it at a glance; if the customer wants to be happy, serve up the “happy” right in front of them first.

Doing business by following human nature is a hundred times less effort than shouting slogans at human nature.

Often clients see the packaging I create based on the traits of the consumer group and say, this packaging is too tacky, and so on.

I say don’t — those two curses you throw at me are nothing compared to the goods sold.

Sanyao Packaging

Good packaging speaks.