That is what every marketing department will tell you. It is the bright shiny new exterior that sells the product - the packaging is often more important than the contents. Don't worry about what is under the hood or inside the packet, just make sure that the exterior is clean and shiny or the package is full of colour and glitz.
That is why those pictures of delicious, freshly cooked hamburgers and chicken above the counter at the fast food shop always look better than the actual product you end up with.
But without all the new customers lured in by the glitz and glamour there would eventually be no product to sell.
My (marketing) opinions.
This reminds me of the olden days...
About 35 years ago, I worked for my family's graphics business as a typesetter. I've mentioned that a few times here regarding the equipment. One of the clients was a food distributor that private-labeled food products for various supermarkets to sell with their own private label. This time around, the product was some frozen sirloin burgers for a local supermarket chain.
The design, typesetting, and the rest of the artwork was done at our in-home art studio.
The burgers were cooked on our grille, French fries were baked in our oven and that was placed on a plate with some fresh lettuce and tomato slices. The problem was the grille marks weren't prominent under the studio lights and a Sharpie marker was rubbed on the burgers to make the grille marks prominent. The fries looked withered so they, along with the lettuce and tomato slices, received a spritz of salad oil to make everything look fresh and the photos were taken with and without burgers sitting on mum's spatula with a wooden handle. Another shot was set up with the burger on one of the store's own hamburger buns with the lettuce and tomato slices visible along with the withering fries looking rather forlorn by this point placed on a plate next to the burger.
The two photos were then combined to make a package that shows the hamburger on a bun in the background with the spatula holding the burger. The lettuce and tomato prominently display their oil droplets to show freshness, and the fries, freshly oiled to show they are hot from the oven.
All of this work to make some horrible dried out frozen sirloin burgers look appetizing in the frozen foods section of the local market and those sirloin burgers taste like... I'll let you fill in your own choice words.
