Branding

It’s that time of the year, when we invest gazillions in protecting ourselves from the summer sun.

Sunscreen (or suntan lotion, as some people refer to it as, I’ve no idea why has it doesn’t actually give you a suntan!) Is top of the shopping list over these first few weeks of the post school summer holiday.

How do you navigate and choose your brand of choice?

I saw this example from Nivia, and it’s a great example of the branding and structure not being designed in harmony.

Clearly the bottle needs to be gripped by oily hands to stop it flying off into the Mediterranean Sea. However, the way this particular structure has been designed, reduces the branding area significantly, rendering it very difficult to see on the shelf.

Packaging is a three-dimensional item, both structure and graphics need to work together in synchronicity in order to communicate to the consumer why you are the best brand.

If these components are designed in isolation your brand will suffer the consequences.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #3D

It’s that time of the year, when we invest gazillions in protecting ourselves from the summer sun.

Sunscreen (or suntan lotion, as some people refer to it as, I’ve no idea why has it doesn’t actually give you a suntan!) Is top of the shopping list over these first few weeks of the post school summer holiday.

How do you navigate and choose your brand of choice?

I saw this example from Nivia, and it’s a great example of the branding and structure not being designed in harmony.

Clearly the bottle needs to be gripped by oily hands to stop it flying off into the Mediterranean Sea. However, the way this particular structure has been designed, reduces the branding area significantly, rendering it very difficult to see on the shelf.

Packaging is a three-dimensional item, both structure and graphics need to work together in synchronicity in order to communicate to the consumer why you are the best brand.

If these components are designed in isolation your brand will suffer the consequences.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #3D

If you ever want to annoy one of your kids, then simply suggest that you’re going to have freezer pizza instead of proper takeaway pizza.

Obviously this convincing that a freezer pizza is “just as good as a takeaway”, takes a lot more work if instead of ‘thin and crispy’ the freezer, pizza looks ‘limp and lazy’!

Take this example from Goodfella’s. The photography is far from inviting! The toppings look artificial and the angle of the shot is too low to show off the toppings.

Food photography is hugely important, as it’s a thing that builds an appetite appeal immediately.

When you’re competing against some of the own brand offerings that now introduce much better quality photography than some of the lead brands, you’ve got quite a challenge on your hands.

With food, great taste and value for money are more important than ever. Make sure your photography projects this .

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Food

Championing environmental credentials is not always simply about not using plastic.

Its about being clever with the packaging.

It’s also about considering the extended use of the packaging beyond solely retailing the product.

Take this fantastic example of a paint roller that uses the paint tray as the blister pack to contain the roller.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Sustainability

Always encourage, inspire and inform the consumer.

Now, I’m not the best baker in the world, so when recently looking for a particular type of pastry, after being inspired by a ‘one-pan-mid-week-wonder’ (Jamie Olivers words not mine!) It was a bit of a mission to try and find the right one.

Little did I know that there are five basic types of pastry dough: shortcrust pastry, filo pastry, choux pastry, flaky pastry, and puff pastry (I really should have listened to Mr Oliver a little more closely!)

So, it was really handy to see these example shots on a Jus Rol pastry pack.

These are a fantastic way of showing the versatility and destination dishes for consumers that may not be familiar with them.

Show consumers that you understand their needs and can ‘be the on hand expert you can trust’ and you will have a customer for life!

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

Big bold claims are fantastic, but not at the expense of your brand.

I saw this washing up liquid from ecover recently and thought it was a quite interesting way to approach making a single-minded claim on pack.

Each bottle has a slight variation on a key claim executed in an informal and lighthearted way.

It’s an interesting approach, varying the hierarchy of brand versus claim and I really love the tone of voice, but this does come at the expense of the brand logo

Also, it doesn’t work particularly well on the shelf where this much reduced brand logo is obscured behind the SRP.

Playing around with the hierarchy can be an interesting way to grab attention and exert a refreshing tone of voice with your storytelling, but the brand should always be accessible or you may come across as a private label fallback rather than a big brand choice.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Marketing

Use every aspect of the pack to help tell the brand story.

Packaging design is three-dimensional experience. It’s not just the graphics that tell the brand story.

Have a look at this fantastic example from DelicChoc in France where a touch of ceremony is added to the opening experience to help convey the crisp break of the biscuit.

It’s very easy to overlook these simple things, but every consumer touch point can help with the storytelling and strengthen the brand recall.

(Thanks to Flo for sending this over)

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #Innovation

If you’re going to invest in branding and packaging design, ensure your print can match the designs expectations.

One of the toughest challenges in launching new pack design is ensuring that the final product looks like what has been designed by the agency and signed off by the client.

Often the limitations of the final print may not match the initial expectations due to certain setup requirements. Take this example from Quorn.

There are two key issues here. The print method of flexo doesn’t readily allow for fine detail or smooth vignettes, so trying to replicate photorealistic elements will always reduced appetite appeal on images.

Secondly, this print method relies on colour fields being setup slightly larger than required and overlap, so that if the plates drift there isn’t a white edge around them.

The downside of this is that you often then get deep dark lines around images and holding shapes as you can see it here with the red lozenge and red chilli.

Having that conversation with printer regards set up right from the off, ensures that the design of the pack and set up of the artwork allows for this and mitigates these sort of ugly executions.

#BrandDesign, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging

The world of plant-based foods has taken a bit of a pounding over the last couple of months.

Sales and consumer interest have both waned in the face of increase prices and market saturation of products.

Has the time come to take a slightly different approach with plant-based offerings?

I saw this example, from GU in a store the other day. Now, GU is underpinned by unrivalled, throw caution to the wind, indulgence. This indulgence doesn’t seem to translate that well when plant based becomes the hero of the pack.

Introducing sub ranges is a great way of building excitement in a portfolio but it should not be at the expense of your core brand values. (Especially when your product is so yummy!)

Is there an argument here that plant based could work better as more of an endorsement, rather than a hierarchal lead on pack?

#Plantbased, #PackagingDesign, #Packaging, #BrandDesign

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