Package design for nutraceuticals

Last month, Richard Gerstman discussed healthcare packaging design changes. In this article, Herbert Meyers explores nutraceutical packaging design. Recognized thought leaders in branding and design, the two founded Gerstman+Meyers (now Interbrand) in 1971. The marketing of nutraceuticals is a fairly recent phenomenon. Many of these products relate to or are an outgrowth of prescription and OTC drugs. Their challenges to marketers: How to identify these products in relation to their pharmaceutical cousins? How much to differentiate them, and how to identify their benefits vis-à-vis pharmaceuticals?

I would expect the labeling of nutraceuticals to become less conservative than that of pharmaceutical packages. Graphics will be more unconventional, more colorful and "jazzy," especially if they're targeted at the baby-boomer market. They will be visually more promotional than pharmaceutical labels, less serious, more nutritional looking, and more like packaging graphics for food and grocery items.

Structurally, nutraceutical packages may be more experimental and unique than pharmaceutical containers in order to intrigue the novelty-oriented baby-boomer generation.

--By Herbert Meyers
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