Branding

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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Here’s a sight pretty typical in a lot of supermarkets. These are the pans in the kitchen equipment aisle. Believe it or not there are three different brands here all vying for attention but failing to showcase any of the key benefits.

This is something you see a lot on kitchen equipment because rather than the product be inside packaging, the packaging is often inside the item, the pans are a good case in point.

Additionally, they tend to be merchandised on their side leaving a small and insignificant canvas.

There is huge potential here for any of these manufacturers to look at a solution similar to Crosta & Molilca where they utilise a bold pattern along the edge of the packs so that even with a reduced canvas, they never fail to capture attention .

It’s not just pans, you see the same issue with Pyrex dishes although they can rely on a certain amount of transparency for the inside out of packaging to catch the eye.

So if space is a premium and you all look the same on shelf, be different, be bold and you will be sure to stand out.

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When I was at Design College, I read a book by Victor Papanek called Design for the real world. That is a fab quote in this book, ‘form follows function’, it’s something that’s stuck with me and resonated.

It’s something I judge many structural designs against almost subconsciously. The attached picture is the latest in that line!

This is Sainsbury’s very own concentrated washing detergent. It’s in a tetra pack which makes sense for juices but much less so for things like laundry detergent.

Ignoring the fact that it creates category confusion by using something not normally associated with the area, the functional aspect is completely wrong for the job it’s required to do.

On opening the lid which is rather inconveniently attached even when it’s in the full open position, you are left with an ugly sticker that falls directly in line with the direction of pour ensuring half of this concentrated wonder drips down the front and ends up on the floor of the cupboard that we keep it in.

Yes, it may be a cheaper option for the supermarket and the consumer may be misled into thinking this is a more sustainable option but never try and pitch something to a consumer as a benefit when it’s actually working against what it’s meant to do.

Consumers are rarely idiots and remember this sort of thing!

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Clarity is everything, especially if you want to introduce something new to consumers.

Have a look at this drink I stumbled across at the weekend. It was buried away midway down the shelf and it took me lifting it out of the SRP in order to work out exactly what it was.

As I’ve mentioned on posts before packaging has a few roles, the most important of which is, what is it and why do I need it?

Neither of these were particularly clear. Whilst there are a variety of restrictions regards claims on CBD products, it was incredibly difficult to extract a benefit or what the brand stood for. Two huge strikeouts when you are new to the market.

The only iconography on the pack is a hand making a V for victory, or is that the peace symbol? Who knows? Is it signalling to hippies or friends of Winston Churchill? It’s hard to tell.

The overall look and feel is incredibly minimal and in these instances it’s important to make sure all of the assets work together and support one another. Here, you can see part of the illustration cutting through some of the copy almost turning the C of CBD into a G!

Now I can hear some of you strip everything back purists telling me how wonderfully simple this is but going back to my initial point. By doing this have they helped clarify what it is and how it benefits me?

Sure, simplicity is fantastic as it creates a single minded approach but that should never be at the expense of communicating a comprehensive brand story.

Confuse your consumer at your peril. When adding functionality you need to convey trust and reassure the consumer

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Making sure that your information is accessible on pack is incredibly important and can make the difference between somebody making a purchase or moving onto the competition..

It’s fairly safe to say that most owners of budgerigars are in their advanced years so ensuring that all the important information is front, centre and easy to access should be high on the to-do list for any brand occupying this space.

The copy on this pack feels way too small to access easily. The most ironic feature being next to the Vitamin a segment it states for good eyesight!

Always know your core customer and design the pack to meet their immediate needs

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