PACKAGING THE BRAND - GRAVIN AMBROSE, PAUL HARRIS.
- Physical products require packaging to protect them from damage and to present both the product and its brand attractively to a target group of consumers.
- Packaging also works to convey the brands characteristics that will position it within the minds of consumers and that will ultimately differentiate it from its competitors.
- A brand cannot be positioned as a high quality or luxury product if its packaging is fragile and low quality.
- A piece of packaging is a story that conveys a narrative to an audience. It is more than a mere container adorned with graphics; it is a message, a medium, and a conversation between buyer and seller.
Is Packaging Branding?
- 'Packaging is branding' - Richard Gerstman
- A package and a brand are essentially inseparable - for example a can of Coca-cola: the can is a means to contain liquid, while Coca-Cola (the brand) represents a set of values related to the product. Can the two really be separated or are they inextricably linked?
- If you separate the brand from its packaging, you are left with the physical packaging (a metal container) and a set of fonts, colours and graphics that constitute its branding. But together they magically form a 'packaged brand', and the product thus gains value.
- Branded packaging design can take this a step further by creating unique packaging for a brand.
- 'Packaging and branding are different' - Darrel Rhea.
- To create truly effective packaged brands, designers need to consider how both packaging and the brand can be dovetailed together in a way that mutually and effectively serves both the packaging and branding goals of a product.
- Some would argue that packaging is branding; that packaging represents the manifestation of the brand and the brand lives through and is enlivened by the packaging.
- The marketing mix, a collection of activities to maximise product awareness and sales: 'four P's' - Product, price, promotion, place.
- Product is the combination of physical characteristics and service elements that will meet a customers needs.
- Price is how much people will pay for the product.
- Promotion is the effort made to raise awareness of a product or service through various activities such as advertising and sales promotions.
- Place is the location where a product will be presented to a consumer.
- Packaging is the visual face of the product.
- The 'four C's' has been put in place of the 'four P's' as it was seen as out of date by some marketers - the four C's consist of Convenience, Cost, Communication and Customer needs.
Branding and Rebranding
- Branding and packaging have a lifecycle, which means there is a need for regular evaluation and alteration in order to maintain a brand, its attributes and personality. When a brand no longer resonates with its target consumers, it is often time to undertake a rebranding of the product or line to correct this.
- The first step when undertaking a brand review is to identify and focus on the attributes that are really important. Once this has been decided you can review where the brand sits against its competition. An existing brand will be known fin the marketplace and may have both good and bad associations for buyers.
Audience and sectors
- The first step to a successful packaging design is to identify the main audience that the design will appeal to.
- 5 types of shoppers:
1) Loyal customers: who represent no more than 20% of the customer base, but account for more than 50% of sales.
2) Discount customers: who shop frequently but make decisions based on the size of markdowns.
3) Impulse customers: who don't have buying a particular item at the top of their 'to do' list but who purchase what seems good at the time.
4) Needs-based customers: who go out with a specific intention to buy a particular type of item.
5) Wandering customers: who have no specific need or desire in mind, but who rather hope to gain a sense of experience and/or community.
Sectors
- There are sector cues that a designer needs to become familiar with, which define or suggest where the parameters of audience expectations lie in relation to a particular product category.
- These cues are made up of the conventions and shared visual language that have become established about a given product over time, and their presence partly explains why packaging for products within any one sector often look similar.
- The existence and power of sector cues frequently results in shared aesthetics being adopted within the same product categories, which then become a common visual currency for the presentation of competing products within the marketplace. Therefore, innovative packaging design often has to strike a balance between fitting in and standing out from the generally accepted norms and cues present in a given product sector.
Purpose and intent
- Purpose concerns what the packaging is physically required to do in order to protect and present a product. Packaging is designed to contain a specific volume or measure of a product, to store it without contamination throughout the transportation process and during its in-store display, to preserve product qualities for a defines period of time and to ensure that it is protected against numerous forms of damage, such as moisture, heat, bumps and the impact of being dropped.
- Intent of branded packaging is altogether different from its purpose and is concerned with captivating an audience. Within retail environments, a package needs to grab the attention of potential buyers and rapidly communicate various brand values.
Retail environment
- Packaging is often designed for a retail environment, such as in a supermarket, where it will represent one item amongst many thousands displayed on generic shelving. Retail environments can also be created that are sympathetic to packaging needs, such as in a boutique store, where greater control can be exercised over the retail experience.
- Generic retail - Packaging does not need to be loud and garish, but it must communicate quickly and clearly to the target audience for which it is intended.
- Impulse purchases - Over 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at the point of purchase; therefore, obtaining prime locations on shelving is both very competitive an often a privilege that manufacturers are prepared to pay for, in order to display their products where they will be most seen.
The dual functions of branding and packaging
- Branded packaging has a dualistic nature due to the need for its purpose and its intent to function in both the pre- and post-purchase environments. Branded packaging has to stand out and communicate its qualities to consumers more successfully than its competitors.
- In order for brand loyalty to grow, branded packaging also has to make a successful transition to the consumers home or wherever the product will be used or kept.
- An outlandish intent may persuade a consumer to buy a product once, but if it looks ridiculous once home, it will reduce the chance of a consumers repeat purchase.
Boutique retail
- In a boutique store, consumers are an essentially captive audience of the manufacturers brand message, with no environmental competition from other manufacturers messages present.
- These controlled and sympathetic environments allow branded packaging to focus on things other than merely grabbing buyers' attention.
- The retailer can take and extend the brand characteristics and attributes presented in the packaging design to fill part of or even the entire retail space, if desired.
Bespoke to Global
- Packaging and branding has to connect with the particular aspirations and expectations of the target market, and this will vary from one geographic location to another.
- Appropriateness: There is a great difference between designing packaging for a regional or national market and designing for an international or global market. For a local product it might be important to stress the use of locally sourced materials, or that the product meets a particular local need. Humour also varies according to region and nation, so using it within design may not be totally appropriate for a global product due to the possible lack of translation or transferability.
- The more international a product is, the less specific the cultural references need to be.
- Bespoke: a bespoke industry is one of small-scale production that is typically performed in a home or small premises by the owner and/or their family using their own equipment and resources.
- Packaging at this level may focus on the fact that a product is handmade or made with traditional methods and that it has artisanal qualities due to the use of traditional or natural materials.
- Regional products - Many food products use such regional strategies, particularly when they benefit from 'protected designation of origin' status, such was cheddar cheese, champagne and certain beers.
Proprietary and own brands
- A main distinction that can be made between brand is between proprietary brands, and those which are own brands - that is, those manufactured by one company to be sold by a retailer, or which are made and sold by the same retailer or outlet.
- Proprietary - standalone brand that competes with all other brands in the marketplace. Manufacturers like Persil, Pepsi, and Heinz make products that operate in direct competition with other brands.
- Own brand - Developed by supermarkets and other retailers, particularly in the areas of food and home products, to offer a broader, more generic appeal to consumers that is firmly tied into the brand of the store itself.
Luxury and value:
- Packaging design often associate itself with the qualities of luxury or value. Both seek to enhance the appeal of a product to consumers, but by focusing on very different concerns and lifestyles. Designing for the luxury markets tend to add to the volume of product packaging, while designing for value products often reduces product packaging.
Luxury:
Luxury products convey prestige, and this quality is often projected in packaging through the use of high quality or exclusive materials and by presenting a sense of refined aesthetic values.
Value:
Value in this context, is a state of mind whereby a person feels that the rewards or benefits that they receive from something are equal to or greater than the effort or expense incurred to obtain it.
Value is relative to the individual
Examples:
- Waitrose:
Less Moberly adopted a new approach to generic branding for a basic range of cooking ingredients for Waitrose supermarket in the UK. The labelling was created for over 60 products sold in generic packages that simple state what the product is, with a light hearted introduction expressing a suggested measurement for use. The labels create a sense of strong branding due to their consistent and visually arresting typographic presentation. Formality has been replaced by friendly conversation and ongoing dialogue - giving the user a sense that someone is in the kitchen cooking with them.
'You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel tat may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than to hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.' - Beatrice Warde, 1932.
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