Alan Gilbody

What do you see here?

Is it a cleaning product for hi-fi equipment?

Is it lubricant for a bicycle?

When I first saw it, I actually thought it was suncream. The bold graphic on the black background and the prominent 30 which I miss took as 30 SPF!

It is in fact an energy gel for sports.

The truth is we have a habit of decoding things very quickly. It’s in our nature as we want to make sense of the world around us

In order to do this, we base our assumptions on what we’ve seen previously in order to back up these assumptions and draw a conclusion.

We draw these conclusions based on either intuition or reason, what is our gut feel or how do we decode this?

It’s fine to stand out by doing something completely earthshattering and category breaking but you run the risk, especially as here if you borrowed heavily from another category, that neither intuition or reason takes you in the direction of what the product is.

That has two main pitfalls firstly if it doesn’t immediately cue the thing you need you’re going to ignore it and secondly it means you won’t tend to remember the distinctive brand assets associated with that product.

Having a successful pack is a fine line between breaking category rules to be distinct whilst playing other others to back up credibility.

#Marketing, #Design, #BrandDesign, #Packaging

Negative space on pack is powerful if used well, but don’t let its usage be detrimental to your communication

A little moment of calm on packaging can be a great way to own the shelf. It gives somewhere for the eye to rest and can aid in shelf blocking.

However, this should never compromise the rest of the communication on pack. Have a look at this example from Hartleys. All the communication has been squished into a small area on the front of the packaging making it impossible to read at a distance.

The net result is that the whole pack becomes unbalanced and the information inaccessible with the sugar-free communication taking more of a lead than the brand communication part.

Brands should always adapt their communication to fit whatever canvas it’s going on. What may work on a pot doesn’t necessarily work on an outer carton.

Negative space can be an incredibly useful tool but never leave the communication fighting over the remaining space.

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Always ensure that your packaging matches your brand personality.

I was introduced to this brand by my youngest son. It’s another one of those YouTube influencers bringing a product to market. The difference here from some of its recent counterparts is its complete lack of presence.

This is quite odd considering influencers are all about putting themselves out there and showcasing their talents!

Rodd’s is an iced coffee brand in a small plastic black bottle and as you can see from the image it is incredibly recessive when positioned next to some of its contemporary’s.

There are a couple of reasons for this….

Black is never a good colour as it disappears into the background on shelf.

As the bottle has quite a small canvas much of the on-pack information seems to be spread around the cylindrical surface, so creating no real hierarchy of information.

Small packs like this need a beacon, something to catch the eye and draw you in. It would also help having a recognisable front of pack in order to maintain consistency in both appearance and how it is placed on shelf.

If you’re launching something you see as different, make sure the brand and tone of voice capture that uniqueness, and if you are known for your personality, make sure your product doesn’t lack it.

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Sometimes, all the information is there, it’s not presented in an engaging way.

Branding is all about storytelling. It’s capturing the imagination of the consumer and communicating how you meet a specific need.

Remember, the consumer decides emotionally and justifies logically. They have to be attracted and invested in what you have to offer.

Take this example from the cooking oil aisle. Arguably all the information is there to sell the product to a consumer, however the story is missing.

It immediately feels very worthy, almost like popping into Holland and Barrat’s to buy some multivitamins rather than a staple for the food cupboard. That tends to communicate hard work and compromise rather than benefit.

A great way to think about this is how would somebody described this pack and brand to me if I wasn’t there?
How is this going to make me feel?
How does it benefit me?
Why should I use this instead of my normal brand?
What visual sign post and triggers would they describe?
What tone of voice is it using?

Apologies for all the questions but it’s important to understand this. If the pack leaves you asking more questions than it answers, the chances of you picking it up and putting it in your basket are very slim.

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Your choice of ink colour can dramatically affect your ability to be seen in store.

Never sign off colours until you see a proper colour proof and especially until you have seen metallic colours under supermarket lighting conditions.

Those subtle metallic details that look fantastic on your design visual invariably disappear under unflattering lighting.

In some instances, such as the example below, the brand logo can disappear altogether.

Whilst metallic substrates and inks can produce a powerful visual shortcut for quality they’re not always the best options to go for in the retail environment.

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If you are going to spend money on retail, make sure your expenditure adds value.

In retail that means ensuring that you capture attention and get your brands message over to the consumer in a succinct and efficient way.

For most brands requiring an SRP it’s normal to utilise 2, sometimes even three colours for this. Any more than this tends rack up an unwarranted expense.

Which brings me neatly onto this Haribo example. Here they have utilised 6 colour print to replicate the pack on the lip of the SRP!

Yes 6. I know!

Now, if this adds additional colours, doesn’t improve stand out, increases print cost and makes information on the visual illegible, why do it?

The printers have now all retired and bought themselves a small Caribbean island with the profits!

This is clearly an extreme example, but it highlights an important point. You often see examples of brand logos replicated on the SRP that are much smaller than on the pack inside the SRP itself and for me this is a real waste of valuable real estate.

It’s much better to use this free space to showcase a brand statement, or break some symmetry on shelf with an eye catching graphic.

If you’ve got the budget, great, but always make sure the outcome is worth the initial investment.

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Meal kits have provided consumers with quick ways to make meal time magic for a good few years now.

Their success lies in providing all the bits and pieces need to bring fast food or restaurant favourites to life with the minimal amount of fuss.

The key to great packaging in this arena is the clear communication of what’s in it and how long it takes. Consumers don’t want to fuss over what else is needed, as that defeats the whole object.

Now whilst not having partaken in a doner kebab since my student days, this kit grabbed my attention as I was completely stumped as to what was in it and what I still needed once I’d bought it.

If you look at a competitor, say Old El Paso enchiladas for instance, they clearly present what’s in the kit on the front of the pack in a check list type of way followed by messaging that builds reassurance on its ease to prepare

If you are in the business of providing a quick and convenient offer to a consumer make sure all the most salient pieces of information are also quick and convenient to discover otherwise you might end up making a bit of a meal of it!

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Capturing tradition and authenticity can be a superpower when done well. Particularly if your brand has a particular pedigree or provenance.

The downside however, is that sometimes this can cause brands to look a little dusty and old-fashioned to f not handled correctly.

It’s a very fine balancing line.

Have a look at this brand for a great case in point. While it is arguably steeped in heritage and provenance, because it has been executed with both feet in the past, it looks like it’s from the 70s or 80s.

Use tradition if it’s relevant to your brand but always make sure it’s balanced in a contemporary. A dated brand will never capture the demanding and evolved tastebuds of today.

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There is no denying that the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range features an amazing lineup of products across all sectors in the food aisles.

In fact, many of the packs are nicer than some of the big label competition. However one thing that started creeping into some of these packs, particularly the ones with the most awkward canvas is the Introduction of a long narrative onto the front face.

It’s a great opportunity to use the language of the menu and evoke appetite appeal but in some instances such as the tins in the image attached it can create a bit of a barrier.

The fantastic food shot tends to get a little overwhelmed by the amount of copy. As consumers only have around seven seconds to make an impression, it’s asking a lot of the consumer to read through all of these narratives across all variants in order to make a purchase decision.

The text is clearly legible and accessible but tends to overwhelm the packs. Were you only have a limited amount of time to impress, it’s much better to focus on more immediate visual shortcuts to draw the consumer in and use the copy to seal the deal once they picked it up and explored the pack.

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These are a big favourite in our house. It’s a fantastic product but incredibly difficult to find in store.

That’s not as you may think because of availability, it’s more down to the camouflage.

Some brands, particularly those in flow wraps can have very awkward surfaces with areas towards the peripheries of the pack disappearing due to the crinkling of the pack. This is something you often get around the crimp zones at the top and the sides and you see a lot with products in freezer cabinets.
They get round this by putting the most important bit of information right in the centre of the canvas.

This pack however doesn’t have that technical issue, as the inside product is held pretty flat so there is a nice big canvas on which to present all the product information and the brand logo. And herein lies the problem.

The brand logo rather than be placed in the centre of the pack, is squished right to the very top going over the crimp zone. Because this crimp tends to bend over as here it’s only legible in around one in every four packs.

The other problem is the classic yellow on white print. Now, whilst yellow may be a fantastic colour for butter popcorn is not a particularly good colour to let the popcorn stand out so when you take a few steps back from the shelf, all you see is a light yellow haze.

And that’s exactly what I mean about camouflage. Whilst the product may be mighty, its on shelf presence definitely isn’t. Addressing those very minor concerns can be the difference between a consumer putting you in the basket or missing you altogether.

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