Branding

Coke are relaunching the original lemon flavour after being discontinued back in 2006.

Interestingly, here they have opted for a background vignette from red to yellow which moves away from the usual solid background flavour signalling across the portfolio. This new design also features an illustration of a fizzing lemon.

The first thing to note here is that they’re moving away from an architecture that has already been established. In my opinion, this undermines this pack architecture and creates more of a ‘differentiated’ offering rather than a flavour extension.

The addition of the fizzing lemon also conjures up certain ‘plink plink fizz’ connotations from the pharmaceutical sector.

I’m not sure of the logic behind any of the above. If you have a robust architecture, it’s there for extensions to fit into rather than to be challenged on a whim when a new or previous flavour is re-introduced into the portfolio.

The ‘white out’ and ‘black on’ colour options for the logo type are the only things kept, and clearly this causes an issue for the full sugar white logo on a yellow background.

Maybe, this robust architecture isn’t quite as robust as they thought.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

Play was a built-in feature to many snack and confectionary brands aimed kids when I was growing up.

You only have to think about Sherbet Dib-Dabs, Whistle lollies, and those really strange lipstick sweets that turned your mouth blue!

It’s fair to say this has been lost in recent years, so it was nice to see that, nostalgic snack classic, Golden Wonder create a range of Transformers snacks that you can build, or transform into a crispy version of the real thing! Well, almost!

Both my kids, who are probably far too old now to be playing with this sort of stuff found this captivating and immediately started talking about what other brands could do along a simmilar line.

Getting the consumer to engage in your product offering is a fantastic way to add an additional layer of appeal.

Could, the pack design be better? Absolutely, but who cares! Look what I’ve made!

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One of the first and most obvious things a brand needs to communicate to a consumer, is ‘what am I’?.

In the case of infant milk, it also needs to build reassurance and trust with the, probably very anxious new parent!

At first sight, these may look more like something in a paint aisle. Believe it or not, it’s infant milk.

Getting the balance between function and emotion is incredibly important on these types of product, one step, too far in either direction tends to dilute the other direction.

Always remember your audience and their needs. If these needs aren’t met, the consumer will quickly find a replacement.

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Here’s something I see a lot in supermarkets with cylindrical packs.

There is little to no chance that the shelf stacker is always going to arrange things facing forwards, therefore it’s advantageous to repeat the branding so that the pack is recognisable from multiple orientations.

If dual facing is not an option, you should look to find ways of extending the brand communication around so that, unlike the example, below the packs are recognisable.

This approach doesn’t often require radical rethink, it’s just about splitting the back of pack into two and arranging it down the sides in the same way as a can of Coke does.

A simple trick but makes the world difference in store and ensures that consumers don’t miss you.

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If you’re going to make a bold claim, ensure it makes sense.

Stripping the pack down and focusing on a key claim is a successful way to convince consumers why they should put the product in their basket, but it’s important that claim makes sense.

Have a look at this example from Duck. I’m not fully sure what a 360° efficacy is? Is the message about cleaning? Disinfecting? Or freshening? From a consumer point of view, it is much more efficient to focus on the end consumer benefit. Especially if, as here, it is tricky to work out what exactly the product is!

Simplification of message is a great way to cut through to consumers quickly at the fixture and command attention, but always ensure the messaging is quick to decode and pushes the key benefit.

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Why do I need it and how will it benefit me?

This is probably the most important thing that a pack needs to communicate to a consumer about the product inside.

I had a long conversation recently with a client that wanted us to look at the range of mobile phone cases and my challenge back to them was, how does your product differ from something I could get on Amazon or eBay for a fiver? It’s quite a challenge to answer, but if you don’t have a viable and believable answer for that question, you’re never going to convince a consumer.

Have a look at this great example from an O2 shop. The pack only shows a photo of the case, it makes no attempt to justify the very high price point for the item, nor explain how it is meeting a consumer need.

How the product benefits the consumer needs to take centre stage on pack.

Consumers decide emotionally, then justify logically.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

The devil is in the detail.

There aren’t many brands that can boast 150 year history. This is something any brand should be incredibly proud of.

Pedigree, speaks of trust, tradition, craftsmanship, and a timeless quality and needs to be handled in a way that celebrates that tradition. So it’s important that this is communicated with a suitable visual shortcut on-pack.

I stumbled across these drinks from Ben Shaws recently, a brand which is proud to boast this sort of tradition. I have to say the front of pack, rather than be a celebration of rich history, was constructively speaking, a jumbled mess.

The logo is far too fussy and busy with excessive ornamentation that only serves to remove legibility. Supermarket brands need to work successfully from a couple of metres away so that you can immediately decode their USP. This ornamentation could have easily been reduced and handled in a more subtle way.

It doesn’t help that much of the front of pack is taken up by the dog illustration which when doing a bit of a deep dive into the brand, has no relationship to the story.

Successfully communicating tradition on pack is not about piling, multiple ornamental details onto something which only serves overpower the brand logo.

In many cases, less is more. The devil as they say, is in the detail.

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I am, it has to be said a little confused by the direction of Easter egg pack design.

Many of the big brands are keen to fly the sustainability flag and virtue signal, however, when it comes down to Easter eggs they move in completely the opposite direction!

“But Al, we’ve reduced the amount of cardboard by 65.276%“… Brilliant, your mum will be proud, but why is the box still 12 times larger than the egg?

There is a huge waste of packaging material and volumetrics in these items. Crack one open and it clear to see the amount of dead space. This over-packing increases the amount of materials used and also reduces efficiency in logistics, shipping the things around.

Sure, plastic has been removed, and some of the card components have been reduced, but do we really need this amount of packaging aimed at a younger generation who will only then start to see this as the norm?

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Sustainability

Getting your hierarchy right on pack can be the difference between standing out or disappearing on shelf

Have a look at this example from Deliciously Ella. Compared to some of the competition, the logo is relatively small due to the fact it has so many more characters in it.

This often means that the resulting logo is much smaller and so tends to compete for attention with other elements on the pack.

One of the best ways to combat this is to add a holding shape to to the logotype in order to create some contrast.

This as the triple effect of increasing stand, making the logo more recognisable and much more transferable.

If you’re unlucky enough to have a brand name with a large amount of letters in the brand name, it’s better to find a more efficient way to compete for attention in the pack hierarchy.

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Intentionally naive nostalgia, or just bad design?

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell whether something has been intentionally designed in a naive, nostalgic sort of way, or if, as in the attached example from Camp, it is just dated and lacklustre design.

I picked this up because I was incredibly confused by it. It was in the coffee fixture, but doesn’t utilise any coffee cues or explain how it is best used.

Whilst it promises to be a ‘firm family favourite’, I’ve chatted with a few families and they all shared the very same confused look! The two blokes sat outside the tent aren’t helping matters either. This sort of illustration can normally be a good visual shortcut to pedigree or tradition, however, judging by the looks on their faces, they look as confused as the people I asked earlier!

If you have an ‘unusual’ product and you want to break new ground, it’s important to showcase what value you can add to the consumers day.

Be clear and concise rather than vague and naive. If you are using nostalgia, ensure it is made relevant.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing