“Does this look good?” is the wrong question to ask about your packaging.
Packaging Audit
Most packaging audits start with the wrong question:
“Does this look good?”
It sounds like a reasonable question. After all, packaging needs to be visually appealing.
But the more important question is:
“Does this work?”
There is a significant difference between the two.
Looking good vs. working
Looking good is usually evaluated by the founder, the internal team or the designer.
It's presented on a screen.
It's viewed in isolation.
Everyone already knows the brand.
There are no competing products around it.
And in that environment, almost any well-designed pack can look impressive.
But packaging doesn't sell in a presentation room.
It sells in context.
Working is evaluated by the consumer — on a shelf, in a few seconds, surrounded by competing products.
A packaging design that scores 9/10 in a meeting can easily score 2/10 on shelf.
Because the context changes everything.
Packaging has to work where the decision happens
Put the same pack into a supermarket category with 30 competing SKUs.
Suddenly, the questions change.
Can you identify the brand from a distance?
Can you understand what the product is?
Is the most important benefit immediately visible?
Does it stand apart from the products around it?
Does it look appropriate for its price point?
Does it attract the right consumer?
And most importantly:
Does it give someone a reason to stop?
These are very different questions from whether the typography is beautiful or whether the colour palette feels premium.
Because consumers aren't evaluating your packaging the way your team does.
They're scanning it.
Comparing it.
Filtering it.
And making decisions incredibly quickly.
How we audit packaging
When we audit packaging, we don't look at the pack in isolation.
We put it in context.
We look at it against the category.
We look at the competitors.
We look at the visual hierarchy.
And we try to understand how the consumer's eye actually moves across the pack.
Then we ask one of the most important questions:
What does this packaging communicate before a single word is read?
Does it feel premium?
Affordable?
Healthy?
Traditional?
Modern?
Trustworthy?
Indulgent?
Expert?
And then comes the second question:
Does what it communicates match what the brand intends?
Because that's where things get interesting.
A brand may want to communicate premium quality, but the pack may look ordinary.
It may want to appear innovative, but look dated.
It may want to justify a premium price, but communicate value-for-money.
It may want to appeal to a younger consumer, but feel designed for an entirely different audience.
The packaging isn't necessarily badly designed.
It's just communicating the wrong thing.
The gap is where the opportunity lies
The most important part of a packaging audit isn't identifying what's visually wrong.
It's identifying the gap between intended perception and actual perception.
Because that's where sales can be lost.
Your packaging doesn't exist to impress the people who created it.
It exists to influence the people who might buy it.
So the next time you evaluate your packaging, don't ask:
“Does this look good?”
Put it on the shelf.
Put it next to the competition.
Give it three seconds.
Then ask:
“Does this work?”