What packaging actually does

Packaging has a job. Most packaging forgets what the job is.

The job is not to look expensive. A thing that looks expensive is trying. The job is to make someone feel, at the moment they hold it, that the price they paid was correct. That the price was, in fact, conservative.

This is a much harder thing to achieve, because it requires the packaging to communicate something true about the product rather than something aspirational about the brand. And most brands do not know something true about their product that is worth communicating. They know what category they are in. They know their USP. They do not know what makes their product genuinely different from the thing beside it on the shelf.

Good packaging is the visual translation of product truth. When the truth is strong, the packaging can be minimal. When the truth is weak, no amount of embossing or weight of board will save it.