Dissertation: Plan

A design can be beautiful but if it is not aimed at a target market then it won't sell. My dissertation will be an explorative study into packaging design with the focus being on the target market. Packaging design's purpose is to sell a product, having an understanding of the target market gives you an understanding of who you are designing for.

Chapters: 1. Market Research

Market research seems like the obvious starting point. It will highlight the importance of conducting market research, the different types and the benefits it offers to packaging design.

2. Understanding the Influences and Motivations of the Target Market 

This chapter will explore the subconscious influences over the target market such as culture, emotional drives/reasons for buying, shopper personality and self image. 

3. The Retail Environment

Since 70% of purchases are decided in the shop it is important to consider the context the design will be seen in and any accompanying limitations.  

4. Design Elements

This will look at colour, type, image etc... all the design elements that make up the visual appearance of the packaging. It will look at the affects that different elements have on the audience and will explore how whats appropriate for one target market is not appropriate for another.

5. Evolution/ Revolution

This will look at the constant updating that is needed to maintain brand values and keep the design fresh and exciting. Evolution will cover the more established brands, showing how tweaks and minor changes can be enough to rejuvenate the packaging. Revolution will look at the packaging that no longer works and has gone under a complete make over to make it appropriate for the target market.

The Practical Supporting Design

For the practical element I want to take an everyday commodity that everyone would use regardless of age, gender or social class. The packaging would then be designed for the item but it would be designed four different times for four different target markets. Four different designs seems like a good number because it perfectly supports my dissertation by showing a range of distinctive outcomes for the same product. The aim of this would be to illustrate how packages are designed to attract a certain target market; even when the product is the same inside different people are attracted to different designs.

I am aware that I am limited in both resources and time. Designing packaging for a bar of soap means I would have access to materials such as card, compared to designing anything that would involve plastic as it is outside of my resources. Equally I don't want to set myself so much work that it becomes unachievable or isn't finished to a high quality. For those reasons I think it would be best to design four separate soap packages in reinforce the points that will be raised in the dissertation.