Why Has the Wheaties Box Stayed so Iconic?

With so many things coming and going in the world, especially with branding and package design, it is hard for brands to keep old designs relevant and intriguing.

General Mills has been able to do that for one of their flagship brands, Wheaties. The box's design has stayed the same over the years, with some very minor modifications (such as the addition of the shadow to "Wheaties" and changing the shade of the shadow, etc.)

One thing that is effective, and popular, in package design is using bright colors. Next time you are at the store, take a look at the packaging on the shelves, your eyes will gravitate towards the packaging that use bright colors, such as orange. Bright colors get noticed twice as much as dark or mute colors.

Another reason why the Wheaties box is still iconic to this day is what we can expect from it, this is two-fold.

• The first part is that we can expect a quality cereal that is valued by families, especially moms, and we will like the taste of. Part of great package design is having something worthy of being in that package. People will be intrigued by a product when they see a cool design but if the product's contents don't live up to the hype of the packaging, consumers will stop caring about the packaging and the product altogether. 
• The second part is that we can expect an incredible and noteworthy athlete to be on the cover. This represents greatness, along with their tagline, "The Breakfast of Champions". Consumers now care about the quality of the product inside but also what the product represents. To change the package design would impact the love and care consumers have towards the product & its meaning on their lives. It sounds stupid but it's true; look up how much people cared about the design of the Tropicana cartons. 

Great package design begins with great graphic design. The colors have to match, the fonts have to look good and be readable, and there has to be good usage of whitespace and images. Wheaties has accomplished that and it hasn't done anything to mess with that.