What version are you up to with your packaging design? Will Brenner, Evelyn Hussain and John Pabon from The Silk Initiative provide five tips to help you not overthink it. This article first appeared in the July 2021 issue of Food and Drink Business.
Your idea has spent years going through the R&D process, countless planning meetings, and too many prototypes, focus groups, and tests to count. Now there’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s almost time to launch your brand new product to the masses. All that’s left to do is nail the packaging. Yet, even after all the time and money spent to get to this point, it can sometimes feel like pack design is the biggest hurdle of all.
Maybe that’s why so many companies get packaging design so wrong. They see this as a trivial final step, only made worse by being tired and often overwhelmed.
We can’t stress enough how important packaging design is to consumer conversion. It’s the first thing people see on the shelf and what attracts them to your product over a competitor.
Beyond that, labelling is what keeps them hooked and (hopefully) gets them to purchase. This is a huge deal that goes well beyond just ticking a box.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing, don’t worry. Over the years, we’ve identified five key tips that not only help defog packaging design, but also take things to a new level.
1 If it ain’t broke…
There’s the age-old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. When it comes to packaging design this is definitely fitting. For established brands with very recognisable branding, straying too far away from what consumers know can be confusing. It could also have unintended consequences, as coconut milk brand Coconut Palm found out.
Founded in 1956, Coconut Palm is the largest producer of plant protein soft drinks in China and across much of southeast Asia. Their cans of coconut milk are a mainstay from local restaurants to state banquets.
But in 2019, a controversial rebranding of their famous cans, which added a provocatively positioned woman with the slogan “…a can a day and you will be white, tender and bosomy”, didn’t sit well with fans. Some questioned why an established, popular brand needed to resort to gimmicks and outright lies. Government watchdogs brought the company to court for false and misleading advertising.
So if you’ve got a good thing going, just stick with it.
2 Collaboration to break through
From fashion houses to restaurants, coffee shops to cars, cross-industry collaboration is the star of the moment. Why not go with the trend? If you’re feeling stuck, need to reach new market segments, or just want to ramp up the look and feel of your pack, find a way to collaborate with someone new.
Probably the most famous brand among Chinese millennials, HeyTea is notorious for hours-long wait times at their tea outlets. They’re also constantly collaborating with different brands, a likely reason for their widespread success. This materialises itself in fanciful flavour combinations, interesting pop-up store designs, and inventive packaging. Their latest collaboration, with one of Shanghai’s oldest cosmetic’s brands, has been called a bridge between generations. It’s also allowed HeyTea to extend packaging design ideas beyond just cup sleeves and into posters, gift sets, and totes.
For the record: it doesn’t have to be with a brand in a totally different space. Companies are having just as much success partnering with other food and beverage brands.
3 Heritage & culture always sell
Perhaps the inspiration you’re looking for is right in front of you. Consider elements of national heritage, insignia, or other semiotic cues that will immediately resonate with local audiences. This is a time-honoured approach to packaging design, and one that often leads to success.
Some of our favourite examples include brands tapping into Indian, Thai, and Australian heritage.
Considering other cultures can also add an element of the exotic, especially when a global pandemic brings travel to a grinding halt. Of course, you want to be cognisant of, and respectful to, cultural particularities. If implementing this idea, do so with thought, consideration and research to avoid unintended offense.
4 Try adaptation, not reinvention
Sometimes pack design seems overwhelming because we think we need to create something totally different. That’s not the case. Often a simple adaptation works just as well and can be a real cost saver in the long run.
ANZ-based dairy manufacturer Keytone Dairy needed to better understand local consumers so they could develop a brand platform and identity that held relevance in the Chinese market. We worked with them to facilitate that process. Engaging various stakeholders, from consumers through to chefs, revealed much of what the brand needed for China it already had. Instead of overhauling the brand identity, we made simple tweaks to imagery and labelling. These small changes resonated well with local consumers and made it easier for local managers to stay on brand.
5 It’s time to stand for something
Modern consumers are savvy, better informed, and more socially conscious than ever before. A recent IBM study found cost and convenience were now secondary to brand purpose in the minds of consumers.
There are endless statistics on consumer willingness to pay a premium for eco-friendly products. Even if your product isn’t exactly green, that doesn’t mean your packaging can’t be. Consider ways to reduce the amount of packaging waste produced (and, as a bonus, reduce your total cost of production). You could potentially incorporate plant-based packaging or circular design, too.
Coca-Cola Amatil received recognition in 2020 for its work converting all of their single serve PET bottles to 100 percent post-consumer recycled PET resin (rPET). This industry-first translates to 70 per cent of all bottles sold by the company in Australia coming from rPET, with a total reduction in virgin plastic use of 16,000 tonnes a year.
