The Package Design System: Your Most Important Strategy

Package design should never be viewed as a “one-off challenge” for a single product. That thinking leads to missed sales opportunities, which in turn fails to build consumer trust, loyalty and equity. Why? Without a sound package design strategy in place, consumer brand and product recognition doesn’t happen.  

Given the overwhelming number of consumer products in every category, intense competition and faltering consumer loyalty, failure to develop a system may lead to slowing sales and even outright failure for products that carry high expectations.

All of the traditional and new media platforms in the world cannot ensure the success of products that are poorly packaged. Marketing campaigns are designed to bring consumers into retail stores to purchase specific brands. However, consumers scanning shelves often make a final purchase decision at the point of sale. So what can tip the scales, causing consumers to favor one product over another at retail? Packaging.

According to consumer studies, the last three feet and several seconds at the retail shelf make or break the sale. That’s how crucial it is for consumer product manufacturers to invest in a viable package design system and packaging standardization style guide for every brand. As pressure mounts to maintain sales and deliver top line increases with new products as well as stronger bottom line results for every product in the brand portfolio, package design systems are one of the smartest strategies companies can develop.

Pre-design research.

A brand’s most powerful assets are uncovered by conducting research. Its drivers – overt and hidden – must be uncovered. Then an alignment of brand to consumers’ needs and aspirations is the next step. Tapping into cultural and lifestyle drivers reach the targeted consumer on an emotional level. Thus, research is a substantial part of the pre-design process.

Armed with insights on the brand and consumer and finding the place where they intersect, enables package design experts, in collaboration with suppliers, to develop an overall strategy before revitalizing packaging, adding line extensions or filling pipeline with new product lines. That strategy implicitly points to the need for package design systems and packaging standardization style guides.

Functional package design systems and standardization through style guides lead to visual consistency. Visual consistency leads consumers to immediate brand and product recognition. When a properly positioned brand identity, graphic architecture, color, imagery, structure and communication hierarchy are part of a cohesive system, packaging is maximized at retail. Translation: it enhances the customer experience with the brand.

Sounds simple. In theory, it is. In practice it’s anything but. Some brand managers have a tacit understanding that packaging has cost but also revenue implications; even profit potential. However, conflicting demands arising from various managers, sales and marketing executives sometimes lead to poor decision making. Internal issues arise, often leading to making final design decisions that result in one-off packaging as the “solution”. This is not desirable, is it?

Package design systems and packaging standardization style guides help avoid these inherent problems during the entire process, save time and maximize the package development spend. A well-developed style guide takes the guesswork out of packaging new products by standardizing, yet allows for flexibility.

Package design system components.

Key package design system components include brand and sub-brand identities, package design architecture, segmentation system, imagery and brand communication methodology. By establishing consistency in these areas, and standardizing them within a style guide, package designers and manufacturers basically give themselves working blueprints. The resulting packaging enables consumers to connect across the brand’s entire product line. Consistency and standardization makes some brand managers and their design partners shudder. Many think this sounds boring. It doesn’t have to be.

Suppliers need to understand that developing a system enables them to create packaging that becomes “ownable”. Distinctive package structures can be developed for each product category. Remember that people are primarily visual. As shoppers, they’re often making purchase decisions in a scant few seconds. Few packages on the retail shelf can be scanned in that period of time – experts say that consumers take in five or fewer. Package structure: a distinctive shape, graphic architecture or color palette enables consumers to easily and readily identify a specific brand. How important is that in a few seconds?

The brand identity, design architecture and color used in a consistent manner for each product segment are crucial. Key brand communication is easy to scan and quickly conveys the information consumers are looking for. Imagery that speaks to the consumer – “this brand and product is for me” – clearly identifies with the target consumer’s aspirations, desires, needs and lifestyle choices and helps seal the deal.

What about segmentation? Segmentation is necessary for packaged products that target different consumers under the brand umbrella. With a segmentation strategy in place, products can be packaged in a readily identifiable and predictable manner as part of the overall brand. This helps consumers find the variety within the line that best meets their needs. Then they invariably continue to purchase that variety; it’s easy to identify and verify.

By standardizing package design components in a style guide, the brand can be consistently leveraged. Without style guides, companies make the costly mistake of developing one-off packaging solutions, losing the consumer in the process. Also, a style guide ensures marketers won’t make the mistake of emulating competitors’ latest packaging rather than being consistent with, and contemporizing their own. Constant packaging changes as a reaction to competition lead to customer confusion and have a detrimental effect on brand recognition.

Like everything else, package refreshes are necessary but they should be managed, planned and well executed. A package design system and style guide take the present and future need for revitalization, as well as various products and their package structure, size and material needs into account. A style guide makes provisions for a number of potential new product segments. Package variations are also provided for in a style guide as new product lines that appeal to various consumer demographics, behaviors and attitudes debut.

Packaging is one of the most important touch points for every consumer product brand. It is the only marketing vehicle that actually delivers branded products to consumers in a tangible manner. As such, packaging is one of the most important parts of the overall brand expression continuum. So why leave it to one-off solutions?

Isn’t it time to reconsider consumer product packaging in a marketplace that has become a sea of sameness? Isn’t investing in a package design system and a packaging standardization style guide one of the smartest marketing spends companies can make? Isn’t this the right time to execute a proper package strategy to strengthen the brand?

 

About the Author

Ted Mininni is President and Creative Director of Design Force, Inc., the leading package and licensing program design consultancy to the consumer product and entertainment industries. Ted's articles have been published in many noteworthy trade and marketing publications, in print and online, such as such as Brandweek, Adweek, Playthings Magazine, Brand Packaging Magazine, Package Design Magazine, Packaging Digest, brandchannel.com, TheDieline.com, MarketingProfs.com, License Magazine and Shelf Impact!, among others. Ted’s articles have also been picked up by international business blogs in Asia, Europe, Africa and the U.S. He is also an ongoing contributor to MarketingProfs.com’s “Daily Fix” blog, POP Online and Beverage World Magazine.

To contact Ted, please call 856.810.2277 x10, or send an email to tmininni@designforceinc.com.