Almost every supermarket and grocery has a few cereal varieties. For many households with younger children, cereals are a must-have food staple. Many adolescents and teenagers also prefer a quick breakfast or snack of cereal over other old school alternatives. The cereal industry has progressed far ahead from the old cornflakes days. Now, there are cereals of rice, oats, whole wheat and bran. These include a wide range of flavours such as chocolate or strawberry and may also contain fruits and nuts. These fruits are usually small, dried candied fruits such as berries or raisins and sultanas. Nuts such as almonds or coconut give an added crunch to the cereal as well as added nutrition. Some cereal producers may be focused on one flavour and style only, such as chocolate pillow cereals. Others may market their cereals as a mix of all the good of the cereal industry. This mix can be imagined to be a healthy cereal mixed with chocolate bits, rice crispiest, nuts and sweetened with some classical honey flavoured corn flakes.
When a retailer shop displays cereal brands, they may have several brands to offer. Thus they arrange their cereal display to look attractive, colourful and eye-catching. These displays of cereal are often most attractive to younger children. Cereal brands also advertise in TV shows and these advertisements try to be the most interesting and engaging, cereal packaging is the box designed to safely pack, transport and sell cereal. Thus the cereal packaging matters to both the manufacturer as well as the consumer. Appropriate packaging is required to ensure quality preservation when the cereal is brought from the seller to the final consumer.
As with other kinds of packaging, the colours of the cereal box make it stand out in a big cereal display shelf. Some colours are more appetizing than others. Some colours appeal more to youngsters while other colours appeal more to young adults and adults. Cereal boxes have predominantly 3 colours based on their type of cereal. Healthy, fibre rich or fat free cereals are often packaged in white boxes. Cereals with chocolate fillings are often brown, while plain sugared cereals. Are packaged in yellow boxes? However, this is a trend rather than a rule. Cereal packaging is open to various colour combinations. The colour also depends upon the brand name, logo or mascot. For example, some cereal brands have aimed their product and advertisement at young children around the age of 6 to 8. There is a lot of fun and excitement in these cereal advertisements, such as a jungle play or a pirate theme. According to their adventure, the cereal brand has a mascot such as a cartoon animal. The colours of the theme, the mascot and the box must harmonize together in order to create visually appealing cereal packaging.
For the use by kids especially but also for adults, practicality of the cereal box makes it attractive and gives satisfaction to the consumer. Side slits, Pull-to-open or flaps are well suited to make pouring cereal an easy, one hand job. Cereal packaging thus involves the cereal being transported in standard, rectangular shaped boxes with vacuum sealed preservation bags to prevent the cereal from becoming soft, damp or crusty. Another aspect of practicality is the re-sealing of an opened bag of cereal. Some will just close the bag with a rubber band or clip; some cereal brands have re-sealable packets.
A sure way to make cereal packaging design more attractive is by including freebies with the pack. These freebies may be small toys hidden in the cereal or attached to the outside box. Other types of freebies include gift coupons, scratch cads or raffle tickets. These make more sense to adults. Some cereal boxes have match-the-following, spot-the-differences or crossword puzzles on the back or side of the box. These also count as freebies as they entertain the consumer while they eat. The back of the cereal box is an ideal place to experiment the brand vision and image. The consumers may be encouraged to buy more cereal in order to achieve a goal written at the back.
Cereal is often made to be more attractive by portraying it in real-life situations. For example, a happy family is shown enjoying a great morning in their home. As they sit down for breakfast, the brand name and cereal box is shown on the table. This promotes the idea that a certain item may make you happy and confident. By associating the cereal packaging with a positive advertisement and the feelings of luxury and style, the custom cereal packaging automatically becomes more attractive.
