packaging design principles

Whilst surfing the Internet I found an interesting account on the principles of packaging design. The article talks about the roles of packaging, the purposes and mentions statistics about packaging design.

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Design-Disciplines/Packaging-design/

I have learnt from this article that product packaging serves as much more than just a 'sales canvas' and they can serve as a part of the product, in the form of puzzles on the back of cereal boxes for example.
It also tells me that perhaps advertising that your product has eco-friendly packaging material and is recycable might entice more people to buy your product, as they feel strongly about environmental issues.

There are also a few statistics in there:

• over 70% of purchase decisions are made at point of purchase.
  
• A pack on a supermarket shelf has less than 3 seconds to grab attention.