Drug makers are still paying little attention to structural and graphic design. Those are areas where OTC products can cement sales and win evangelists for a brand.
By many accounts, medical device and pharmaceutical packaging could be ready to head into an age of improvement that both medical professionals and consumers would welcome. In many ways, products from medical devices to prescription and OTC drugs long have been all about the product and not so much about the packaging’s effectiveness in selling the product.
Look for medical device and pharma packaging to take a big step forward toward user-friendliness in the next decade, says a report on plastemart.com. Medical packaging will become more interactive, requiring different materials that are used in these packages today. In addition, laws requiring critical on-pack product information in the European Union are expected to gain favor elsewhere around the world.
However, still absent from many discussions about packaging and pharma products is an acknowledgement and understanding of the marketing power of packaging. Leading design and brand consultancies say that few OTC brands are leveraging packaging to make a deeper connection with consumers. Most drug manufacturers, they say, still view structural and graphic package design as an afterthought rather than as a tool to win over influencers for their brand and cement deeper relationships with consumers.
Also consider this: More OTC products are coming out from behind the pharmacy counter and onto store shelves. In these instances, no longer does the consumer present a pharmacist with a prescription to fill. Now, the consumer has to make his or her own product selections. Facing so many product choices in which the package fails to assist in the selection process, consumers risk purchasing the wrong product or leaving the store in frustration without making a purchase.
