Your brand only has two seconds to earn a glance. On a good day.

A new deep-learning study on visual attention in packaging found that logo placement, orientation, and even nearby faces dramatically impact whether a brand registers in the first glance.

And that moment matters: research shows 81 % of purchase decisions for new products are influenced by packaging design, and 72 % of shoppers admit it sways them.

From a cognitive angle, shoppers scan shelves on autopilot.

But their attention budget is thin.

Eyes dart to contrast, faces, or anything unexpected.

Choices are being made by the super-fast, impulsive Dog Brain that I write about in “I Need That”.

If your brand isn’t in the visual “anchor zone” within two seconds, it might as well not exist.

Buyers have never been so busy, or anywhere near as preoccupied.

Humans have never had nearly as many choices as they do right now.

So when designing packaging, make “glance visibility” a KPI, never a guess.

Run shelf tests.

Heat-map the first second. (There are some amazing tools for doing this)

Try a tilt, or a human face looking toward your logo. Techniques like that can be effective in capturing attention from ridiculously busy shoppers.

Because in the retail jungle, your brand doesn’t win the deep read.

It wins the first look, or it risks losing altogether.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.