Branding

Stay true to your values.

If you are launching a sub-brand or variant, it’s important that this variant is a true representation of what the parent brand stands for.

Line extensions in a portfolio create intrigue and help get new users into the category, but it’s paramount that these new offerings sit comfortably within the same tone voice and brand story as the brand that spawned it.

Jimmy Chu is a brand synonymous with swanky shoes. So, I suppose it makes sense that any of these high fashion brands can switch easily from one end of the body to the other and Introduce fragrance.

But this latest offspring seems to make no sense at all. Why would a brand with such a high-end positioning undermine these premium credentials and create an urban offering that looks more like the cover of a Speed Garage compilation from the late 90s?!

Instead of creating a new twist, this approach has the tendency to undermine and devalue the brand.

Always look at how to extend your portfolio and your offer, but remember to stay true to the values that created your offer in the first place.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

One of the most visually striking sectors for packaging design is often the bottles in fragrance category.

Well, for the primary pack I think that’s true, but for the secondary packaging, the cartons that the bottles go in, it is incredibly bland with most of the big players following the same minimal rules.

In many cases it would be hard to guess which carton some of the bottles came from as there is little correlation.

The net result is that few of these, standout or showcase the same excitement or brand story as the bottles hidden within.

The default seems to be simplistic type on a plane carton, a mile away from what some of the bottle shapes are doing.

It’s not for the want of cost saving either, the markup on these items is huge, so there is plenty of budget available for brands to inject a little excitement into what is the main facing in store.

A strong design system should run through all items within a portfolio. Its this consistency that creates more recognition and brand recall.

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This may be the most boring photo you see all day.

There are on average some 30,000 items in a typical UK supermarket, that’s a lot of choice. A brands role is too get the consumer excited and interested.

For many sectors, this is quite a challenge non more so than for kitchen electricals. This tired looking apologetic space doesn’t seem to have changed since the mid-80s.

It does seem that there is a huge opportunity in this area to break the mould and do something, well, more challenging.

Whether that’s dispensing with the clipped product shot and doing something more lifestyle based or being big and bold and focusing on a single minded claim.

Always keep the consumer interested. A boring pack hints at a boring product experience.

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Craft and consideration are hugely important, especially in the Beer category.

It communicates authenticity and a respect of time honoured traditional brewing methods.

There seems to have been a trend over the last few years of stripping things back which has sometimes meant taking the pedigree and prestige out of brands in favour of a more simplistic, look and feel, often to the detriment of the brand.

There are examples, such as the one attached that seem to remove this consideration and expertise from the illustration to the detriment of the brand. If the style doesn’t fit as here, it works against this.

Some of this could be down to following design trends, but some of it is also down to budgetary restrictions. Illustrations of brand icons are normally done by employing illustrators that are experts in their field. These illustrators can create powerful memorable icons that support the brand and are crafted in a particular style. Where budgets are an issue, these illustrations are sometimes tackled in-house rather than using an external illustrator.

Whilst it may be cost effective and remove a pair of hands from the invoice, it also removes some of that expertise for the brand communication.

If craft is important, allow budget for bespoke illustration.

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If you have a masterbrand use it.

If you have invested time and energy in an instantly recognisable, master brand, it’s advantageous to use this navigational aid across the entire portfolio.

This consistency creates reassurance in your consumer and links the wider portfolio together.

It also ensures that your product looks like it is from the brand leader rather than one of the copycat discounters.

Have a look at this example from Red Bull, they seem to have forgotten that unique checkerboard identifier from the parent pack.

This inconsistency creates sub ranges and product lines that don’t seem as though they are part of the portfolio and so risks them disappearing into the background on the shelf.

A robust masterbrand serves as a beacon to reassure the consumer of their choice. If you have one, use it or risk losing it to the competition.

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Differentiate through use of an unexpected format.

Sometimes it’s good to play around with different unrelated formats for products, especially when those formats are better recognised from completely different sectors. This helps add intrigue and excitement.

Have a look at this fantastic example from the world of gin. The normal square, green bottle has been dropped in favour of a format more familiar in the world of engine oil.

Whilst ths may seem odd, it serves 2 purposes. Firstly it creates a focal point and visual noise on the shelf and secondly it supports the more utilitarian brand proposition of 70’s and 80’s motor racing and Engine’s retro Italian roots.

An great way to differentiate from the usual artisan offerings!

Sorprendente! As they say in Italy.

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Be different, different is good.

Now, I imagine, some of the main reasons that you would colour your hair, are to get a different look, make you stand out or feel refreshed.

It is maybe then surprising that in this entire category of hair colouring brands, they all opt to do exactly the same thing with their packaging design.

The fixture resembles one of those rather tired hairdressers/barbers window displays adorned with sun bleached photos of models, where wide eyed punters point and say “I want it like that”, in the slim hope that they will look even slightly like the model after 12 hours of chopping, washing, dyeing and blow drying.

Doing something different will immediately make the brand stand out from a competitive set that are all doing the same thing.

Allocating a large portion of the pack to the brand colour or logo creates impactful signposting and draws the consumers eye.

If you try to shoehorn too much onto the pack, you risk disappearing into the shelf with the mass of messages from the rest of the competition.

This doesn’t mean removing salient pieces of information, remember a pack is a three-dimensional item, there are multiple faces on which to convey messages and introduce a hierarchy of information.

Be different. If all the competition show ‘head shots’ then why should you? If all the other packs are symmetrical then break symmetry. Each element on pack has a valuable role to play at different points for the consumer.

Entice first, Educate second, but remember to always be different.

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Is word overload on pack becoming the norm in pharma and personal care?

Over the last week, I’ve been looking at pharmaceutical and personal care packs that have issues with their branding, be that orientation of information on pack or not establishing an accessible brand architecture.

Here’s a brand that struggles with both of those issues! All of the information is presented at the same weight and the vertical orientation accentuates this inaccessibility.

Clearly, they’re trying to put too much information on here. If you’ve got lots of great benefits to share it’s advantageous to focus on one of these and be single minded.

The net result of this decision is that it looks like it’s been created purely using chatGPT, with the prompt ‘write me a research paper 5000 words long!’

If you have a key benefit, push this. Be the brand known for that.

Cramming on everything you know about the product can be detrimental. Consumers will score claims and information on a pack in order to reach a mean average. If you’ve got underperforming claims on there, it’s only going to drag down the overall performance and clutter the whole pack.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #health

It’s very easy to overwhelm consumers at the fixture.

If you have lots of information that you need to convey, it’s good to separate it into bite-size chunks and if possible, be single-minded.

Creating elements on pack at a similar weight or size causes them to compete for attention and mean that the consumers skim over it without ever actually taking anything in.

Take this example from Floradix. The brand name, descriptor and benefits are all executed in a font with a similar weight and look.

You wouldn’t actually realise it at first glance but there are also two variants here, Floradix and Floravital. However, because of the overwhelming visual clutter and similarity in both communication and illustration they merge into one.

Overwhelm the consumer and you will invariably create confusion.

Brands are there to solve needs and problems. Not create more.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #health

Consistency in your communication is incredibly important. This is even more true if you are an iconic brand.

Brands that are consistent, have much greater consumer recall and build more trust.

Jiff for example has recently undergone a bit of a brand makeover, possibly partly to distance itself from certain cleaner with the same name.

It’s a brand synonymous with pancake day and something I remember fondly growing up with as a kid as apparently lemons didn’t exist up north back in the 80s!

There are a couple of key issues here, firstly, even though these two products are fundamentally the same they are treated very differently so they look almost like different variants. On the bottle, the logo appears on a completely different colour background to the plastic squeezy lemon.

Secondly this latest iteration is actually quite difficult to see on shelf. This is probably due to the amount of visual clutter and thin keyline around the logotype which from a distance causes the letterforms to disappear into one another.

If you are an icon, It’s important to be confident, proud and single-minded in your execution, never dilute this through inconsistent replication or poor standout.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing