Packaging design alone has emerged into a $1 billion a year industry--and can be a crucial determinant of sales success.  The experience of General Foods with its Birds Eye frozen vegetables is illustrative.

At one point, when Birds Eye's market share was threatened by less-expensive store brands of vegetables, a package design firm was called in. The consultants advised that Birds Eye needed a luxurious package whose foil appearance implicitly suggested its contents would stay fresher longer, in order to justify its higher price in the minds of consumers.

The strategy was adopted, and Birds Eye held its own against the generic brands. No one needed to ever make the direct claim that the vegetables had any actual superiority in freshness or quality.  The visual suggestion alone was enough to do the job.