Branding

Be the brand that solves the problem rather than accentuates it.

When you have a limited canvas area, in order to get the brand name large and accessible, we often look at running the logo type vertically, as on a book spine.

This works in most instances as long as other elements of the communication work horizontally in order to make them accessible, especially if they are much smaller.

Here’s a great example of were this approach doesn’t work so successfully. Voltarol is a brand aimed at people with back and neck muscle pain, so there is some irony in providing an SKU where you have to tilt your head in order to read the information that’s on the pack!

Should you take this vertical approach, it’s also worth ensuring that the logo is visible above the SRP!

If you are a brand with empathy and therapy at the heart of your offering, you should always endeavour to show this and make it front of stage communication, rather than accentuate the problem they came to you for in the first place.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

T’is the season to be sniffly. As the temperatures drop, and the daylight hours fade, cold and flu season starts to rear is ugly head again!

With bleary eyes and nose is running like Niagara Falls, there is nothing you want more than to go into the local chemist and navigate to fixture without a fuss.

This is always been a bit of an issue for cold and flu treatments, I’ve worked on many over the years and they all seem to have suffered with the same old problem. They leave the consumer saying, “What does that one do?”

Claim is king, although you wouldn’t think that when you look at some of the packs as the active ingredients seem to take centre stage above and beyond any of the apparent benefits.

Sure, this is all because somebody with a clipboard in a laboratory somewhere needs to rubber stamp these, but it does seem to be getting more bonkers by the year at the expense of the consumer.

Have a look at this example from Lemsip, where you need to be actually sat on the shelf in order to decipher any of the benefits on the pack.

Whilst the big brands may endeavour to offer relief for some of the symptoms of this seasonal trauma, they don’t seem to have cracked solving some of the issues of legibility.

Always ensure that the most important information is made accessible. Empathy and action rule for brands that need to cue efficacy.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #health

If the pack looks bland and washed out, then so to the benefits.

Yellow on white, or even white on yellow, is never going to give you shelf stand out or legibility on pack.

It’s an issue that pops up often on packs that are lemon or banana flavour. In these instances you have to be clever with how you utilise colour.

Take a look at this rather insipid baby food example from Aptamil.

Even when you zoom in on the photo, it’s quite tricky to read the information that’s on the pack and can turn consumers off.

Once you’ve built lots of time building busy new parents trust, the last thing you want is not to be able to communicate that through the on-pack narrative or appetite appeal.

Yellow is much better utilised as a background colour to an environment or holding shape with a bolder colour copy instead of white.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

I’m quite partial to a crumpet. There is something really warm and homely about it.

It conjures up lots of really happy memories. Every time I see an image of them it always gets my mouth drooling!

Well, almost every time, that was until I saw this iteration on a Warburtons pack.

Normally for a crumpet to get this dark, all of the smoke alarms have gone off and the Fire Brigade are on the way!

Printing on flexibles can often be tricky, but if you’re going to show a picture of your product is paramount that drives taste appeal. Also, that it resembles the tone and the colour of the product you can see through the window right next to it.

Your image creates the mood and the environment to enjoy the product. That’s how you connect emotionally to the consumer.

Maybe Warburtons need to invest the same amount of money in their packaging as they do in the A-list celebrities for their adverts.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

Your assets have an important role to play.

Ok, it’s not got the kudos of a Tiffany bag but there is something powerful about the famous Ikea blue bag.

So much so, it has been used to signpost the location of a new flagship Ikea store in central London.

It’s functional and utilitarian, but then I suppose so is scaffolding that it has been set up to cover.

This wins on 2 levels: firstly it creates a strong visual shortcut to an brand and secondly, it creates a strong emotional connection using humour.

If you have assets, however, functional and utilitarian, they seem, they are all part of your design system and can be used to connect to consumers.

Proper clever!

#Advertising, #BrandDesign, #Marketing, #Innovation

Many of the supermarkets are now creating mini brands in order to hold their product portfolio.

They are moving from the traditional own-brand pack format to the mock brand, in order to emulate what many of the discounters are doing.

Whilst this clearly begins to work from a storytelling point of view and adds a bit more ‘value’, it’s interesting to note how some of the multiples are trying to stretch these pastiche brands into multiple sectors.

Last year, Sainsbury’s launched Stamford Street Co. across many of their own brand foods and have since followed this trend by moving into into a personal care sector.

This raises a huge question mark over how this story can flex into other segments. In Sainsbury’s instance, whilst this may work from the food storytelling point of view, and conjures up an idea of artisan street food, it works less well when it moves into areas, such as mouthwash.

This brand stretch works best if the brands are associated or linked in specific categories. Wouldn’t a personal care equivalent of Stamford Street Co. be better?

What are your thoughts?

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

Your brand cannot rely on authenticity alone.

In a supermarket world of ‘own-brand value’ where many of the products borrow heavily from the leading brands its important to find a way to differentiate your offer.

It’s clear that in this area, many of the big brands have a lot of catching up to do if they are trying to own authenticity as a cornerstone of the brand.

That’s the same, whether it’s authentic recipes, authentic ingredients, or relying on provenance.

A quick look at some of the own brand offerings, such as this Sainsbury’s curry highlight at point.

Authenticity was once the go to for the big brands but is now fairly ubiquitous across the category.

Many of the own brands have moved from simplistic packs to put more of a focus on ‘made to an authentic recipe’ or ‘inspired by’ specific regions and use well crafted, appetising food shots.

Trying to be authentic alone to differentiate just doesn’t cut it anymore.

It’s never be more important to have a credible and compelling brand story to help differentiate you from some of these own brand offerings and the ‘expected’ look of the fixture.

Consumers do not buy buy features, they only buy benefits.

#PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #BrandDesign, #Marketing

A memorable brand name is absolute gold dust.

It’s what people use to ask for your product and also what consumers use to recommend your product

Therefore it was quite strange to see this new product on shelf.

Now clearly, it’s a margarine or spread of some type, or that’s the conclusion that I came to based on its location in the fixture (just call me Sherlock). But what is it called?

The name on the lid is different to the name on the side of the pack, or hang on, maybe it’s not a name, it’s a benefit?!

Your brand name can be the most memorable part of your product for a consumer. It’s a fantastic combination of graphical signposting and (verbal) sonic branding.

A successful brand name is part of a wider design ecosystem. Consistency is key. The tone of voice and replication needs to be consistent across the whole of the ecosystem.

If I don’t know what to ask for, how do I know what it is?

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

A client recently wanted to know why they needed a brand guidelines document, so I thought I’d echo that conversation here.

Your brand guidelines are the rulebook for your entire brand. They offer a wealth of information to ensure consistency across all consumer touch points.

Brands that can successfully manage consistency have been proven to perform better and have higher recall from consumers. Consistency and repetition is key.

Brand engagement needs to happen between five and seven times for consumers to remember you.

Brand guidelines should provide both a consistent direction, so that executions borrow from the same set of principles, and also allow flexibility so as not to to constrain further creativity.

Also, always ensure there is only one version of a brand logo and packaging artwork in circulation.
Having one agency as the library and gatekeepers to manage this is always the most efficient way to ensure consistency.

A robust brand guideline document will ensure that your messaging is consistent across all touch, points and across all assets.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

There seems to be a little bit of a buzz around ketones at the moment.

For those that don’t know, this is an alcohol alternative, which promises ‘all the buzz but without the booze’.

Ketones are a type of alcohol that are metabolised in a completely different way in the body. As it lacks ethanol (as you would find in alcoholic drinks), it allegedly breaks down into a less toxic by product, providing the kick from an alcoholic drink, but without the subsequent hangover!

Quite a promise!

With new sectors comes the requirement for a new level of consumer education. If you are creating a whole new category, then there is a great opportunity to create a whole new set of rules.

This story is a lot to try and get across on the pack as per the example below, its executed more like a hard seltzer product. Therefore, it’s always going to look ‘alcoholic’.

I wonder if this would’ve been better approached creating a slightly less aggressive tone of voice in order to communicate its apparently less aggressive outcome!

What do you all think?

#PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #BrandDesign, #Innovation