Package design is the dark horse of the marketing world. So says Nielsen.

I quote from the Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Report

Package design is the dark horse of the marketing world. Compared with other marketing levers, it often receives little attention, and its impact is vastly underestimated. However, optimized package redesigns—identified using objective consumer feedback—have been shown to generate an average 5.5% increase in forecasted sales revenue over existing designs.

I couldn't agree more. So much packaging design assumes the customer has 20/20 vision, a knowledge of how the packaging works and the hand and grip and strength of a wrestler.

When you get older consumers talking about the marketing industry it doesn't take long for the subject of packaging to surface and it is rarely to complement, but to damn the industry, on the awfulness of the design.

Maybe a New Year resolution to pay more attention to the subject is another to add to the long list of others? Dick Stroud