Packaging perfection

Packaging is important to the marketing of a product in two ways, initial consumer attraction and brand identity. Packaging is important to attract the customer while in the store, if a company can create a design that stands out people are likely to pick it up and check it out which is half the battle. Brand identity is important once people have found a specific package that they like or product and their ability to identify with that package and design helps build customer loyalty creating life long customers. Packaging influenced my decision to buy chips, recently i went to the store and Lays changed their font and i had identified with the previous one so i almost did not purchase the Lays, Doritos on the other hand has maintained the same color scheme and i feel very comfortable buying their product.
Heineken has very iconic packaging they use a different style bottle and use a unique green color that makes their beer stand out from others. When i think of iconic packaging two other packages come to mind and those are the design of the Swiss army knife and its case and the design of Gatorade bottles because they stick out in my mind.
Usability issues for packaging are normally only applicable when the actual product is either very hard to access or a new way of packaging is used to make an old product easier to access. Examples of good packaging include the new Heinz bottles that are automatically upside down and are easy to squeeze and craft cheese that has packaging which is re-sealable. In my mind the worst designs are computer mouses, DVDs, and video games all of which are nearly impossible to open up and often frustrate me.