When it comes to vitamins, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements, savvy health-conscious consumers are not only tuned in to the benefits of what’s inside, but shoppers are also mindful of supplement packaging. With growing health awareness driving sales, design trends have evolved alongside consumer expectations, accommodating a surging wave of buyers seeking healthy foods and supplements.
Supplement Packaging Connects With Consumers
Packaging’s protective value is only one of the design features under consideration when developing supplement packaging solutions. In addition to keeping goods safe and secure during transit and merchandising, supplement packages also provide opportunities for brands to stand out in an increasingly crowded category.
Niche brands, in particular, lean on well-executed supplement packaging designs to elevate their presence on store shelves. Even more than name recognition, packaging can help supplement manufacturers make lasting connections with consumers.
According to Nutritional Outlook, niche and mainstream companies alike are tasked with making personal connections with shoppers, even in mass markets. Unique, disruptive packaging designs are essential marketing tools for progressive supplement producers striving to break through. The best designs share important brand messages, conveying values that resonate with consumers.
Appealing to each buyer on a personal level while marketing to the masses poses challenges for supplement manufacturers. The process has been described as marketing from the inside out, beginning with natural food and supplement producers’ values and then working outward to convey brand identity and messaging.
Turnkey contract packaging companies help makers find their voice, tracking industry trends that stimulate sales. Successful campaigns utilize packaging designs illustrating the product attributes and company values that are most important to consumers.
Modern Packaging Design Reflects Product Innovation and Consumer Values
Natural product shopping trends emphasize innovation, as health-hungry consumers seek the latest breakthroughs in healthy food and supplements. In order to reach modern buyers, effective packaging designs find ways to promote forward-looking product innovation without sacrificing simplicity, a feature that is also important to supplement buyers.
Although simplified, successful supplement packages remain bold, often utilizing striking colors and purposeful graphics to make the desired impression with shoppers.
Supplement packaging innovation aligns with consumer expectations and mirrors advancements in the industry. As new dietary supplements emerge, competing for consumers’ attention, transparency plays a dual role in the marketing process. Not only do modern supplement users demand transparency in ingredient sourcing and production practices, but shoppers also literally want to see what they are buying, before making purchases.
To satisfy both requirements, supplement sellers and packaging companies have increased the amount of product information available to consumers and frequently use translucent supplement packaging to put their products on full display for buyers.
In much the same way modern consumers embrace brands committed to sustainability and supply-chain traceability, supplement users also identify with packaging conveying similar values. In today’s healthy food and supplement marketplace, buyers embrace recyclable packaging and expect streamlined solutions whenever possible. Manufacturers and their packaging partners have responded by removing secondary packaging and reducing the overall amount of material used for packing dietary supplements.
Moving away from plastic packaging is an important value shared by young, responsible consumers driving supplement sales, so makers have not only shifted packaging methods but have also directly integrated sustainability into their brand identities and messaging.
Supplement Solids, Powders, and Liquids Require Diverse Packaging Solutions
Dietary supplements come in many different forms, promising wide-ranging benefits. Marketing success in the expanding segment requires solutions for powders, liquids, capsules, tablets, and solids in various sizes and configurations. Packaging companies are up to the challenge, starting with eye-catching designs.
Package designs typically include must-haves such as ingredient lists, quantities, product names, dosage, manufacturing origins, distributor information, and barcodes. Beyond these requirements, consumers appreciate captivating presentations that are also functional for their contents and intended uses. Among the many effective packaging choices available within the industry, supplement packaging innovations include design trends such as:
Dropper Bottles
Small glass bottles featuring screw-on droppers are effective for dispensing some types of dietary supplements. CBD products in tinctures, for example, have emerged as a natural cure-all, drawing curiosity and sales from health-minded consumers. Dropper bottles facilitate precise dosing, enabling users to dispense a drop or two as needed.
Traditional Screw Top Vitamin Bottles
Proven pill packaging solutions provide effective, economical containers for capsules and tablets. In addition to traditional vitamin applications, screw-top bottles are also ideal for gummy bears and supplement gummies. These chewy supplements are in demand, offering an alternative delivery method for vitamins and other dietary add-ons. Vibrant colors and texture upgrades from glossy shrink labels can help elevate the appeal of labels found on traditional screw-top vitamin bottles.
Blister Cards
Blister packaging designs are ideal for daily vitamin and supplement usage, offering efficient dispensing and visual confirmation of each dose.
Canisters
Wide-mouth canisters are a mainstay for packaging protein powders and other dietary supplements. The versatile containers facilitate measured portion control, utilizing scoops to dispense doses dissolved in liquids. Often wrapped in multiples for bulk users, canisters are not necessarily limited to plastic options.
Though plastic versions are typically recyclable, some supplement powder canisters are constructed of cardboard, appealing to users committed to plastic alternatives.
Various Wraps
In addition to functional liquids and powdered vitamins/supplements, wholesome snacks and bars are also in demand among health-conscious consumers. Whether they are formulated to boost protein or deliver vitamins, solid supplements are well-served by various wrapping techniques, such as pet products. The single-serving wraps are both portable for consumers and economical for manufacturers.
Glass Jars and Bottles
Advanced materials often eclipse the benefits of glass, but fish oil supplements, coconut oil, and functional health drinks may be good candidates for glass packaging designs. Honey packaging is a prime use-case example for glass containers.
Flexible Pouches
Pouches are among the most versatile packages available for supplements, accommodating both liquids and powders. As substitutes for plastic canisters, powder pouches incorporate sliders and zipper locks to reseal the containers between uses.
At the same time, their tough, multi-layer construction streamlines supplement storage and shipping footprints. Spouted pouch designs are ideal for liquid dietary supplements and baby food packaging, incorporating upright construction and screw caps for functional liquids.
Stick Packs and Single Serving Pouches
Packaging design trends reflect consumers’ call for convenience and portability. Single-serving pouches and stick packages enable supplement users to dispense powdered mixes with the greatest possible ease, precisely regulating individual servings without needing to measure each dose.
Conclusion
Effective packaging design choices account for a product’s target market and the goals established by each brand. To that end, the latest trends in supplement packaging design leverage innovation and aesthetics to form connections with consumers and reflect values shared by producers and consumers.
