The maritime shipping and transport industry boasts a rich heritage founded in the very beginnings of international, transnational, and domestic transportation. Specifically in parts of the world where the location of cities and abundance of natural waterways is conducive to shipping by boat, it’s only natural that it would become a critical part of that area’s shipping and trade infrastructure. In modern times, in spite of the rapidly developing ground and air transportation industries, shipping by boat continues to be a critical part of both local and world trade economies. Shipping by boat is advantageous for several reasons, the most important of which are probably its cost, low environmental impact, and versatility.

Cost benefits

Depending on the origin and destination of the cargo, shipping by boat can be a lot more economically practical than shipping by air or ground. Often, the overhead of operating and maintaining a maritime cargo vessel boasts a vastly more efficient cost to cargo ratio than other forms of transportation. There’s no shortage of shipping ports, either. With shipping by boat being such a historically critical venture, many ports have been established and routes mapped for literally hundreds of years. The amount of combined experience that has been gained in the centuries of the industry’s history has gone a long way in refining techniques, eliminating unnecessary expenses, and otherwise increasing the efficiency of the trade.

Environmental benefits

Shipping by boat can also be far less damaging to the environment than other forms of shipping. In regards to the quantity of cargo that is delivered in each trip, the amount of fuel that boats burn is competitive with that of ground transportation, and certainly less than most cargo carrying airplanes. By burning less fuel and consequently producing less harmful green house gasses, freight transporting ships make up a much smaller contribution to air pollution than other shipping industries.

Versatility

Sea faring cargo vessels are incredibly accommodating when it comes to the size and nature of freight, as well. While ground transportation and even air transportation are more strictly suited to the delivery of large quantities of small goods, maritime freight vessels are versatile enough to ship a wide variety of cargo in addition to consumer goods. Cars, trucks, agricultural and industrial equipment as well as vast amounts of raw materials can all be shipped by sea. In fact, while large shipments of small manufactured goods by air and ground both domestically and internationally are commonplace, the shipment of industrial goods, raw materials, fuels and other large freight is altogether impractical using these forms of transportation.

No matter what kind of food you’re selling, it’s critical that your product stands out on the shelf. There are many different strategies for doing this, and the one that you employ will largely depend on the type of food you’re marketing and the audience that it’s being marketed toward. Below, we highlight a few common strategies for designing the right kind of packaging that catches people’s eye.

Colourful packaging is always a bright idea, especially when it comes to marketing food that is geared toward children. Kids like bright, happy colours so it makes sense to package food intended for them that way. Neon colours and bright primary colours work great for kids, but may not work so well for more mature audiences.

Elegantly designed packaging is a good idea for food items that are being marketed to a more upscale crowd. For example, it is recommended to pack a high quality cheese in an elegant and sophisticated packaging.

Wholesome images of fresh fruit, vegetables and grains work very well when it comes to packaging health foods. It’s also smart to include a lot of verbiage on such packaging that highlights the healthful benefits of the food that you’re selling. Above all else, you want health food to look nutritious and delicious, so that people will actually want to buy it.

Chocolate bars and sweets generally make people feel carefree and happy and as such, should be packaged in brightly designed and fun packaging. Eliciting those feelings in consumers encourages them to buy snack foods in the first place, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for a suitable design for your candy or snack food item.