I recently talked about how packaging is the unsung hero of marketing. It’s one of your most important tools and deserves a lot more attention than we often give.
During my talk, I discussed how to nail the messaging hierarchy on-pack. I also shared a few tips that can help make a packaging redesign project successful. Read on to hear my answers to some common packaging questions.
Do we need to change our packaging?
First things first, you need to work out if your packaging does the job or not.
Good packaging will get customers to pick up your product, even if they haven’t heard of your brand before.
The best way to find out if you’re missing the mark is to go in-store. Watch someone shop your category and see if they consider your product.
You can even chat to customers to find out more. Say you work for a market research firm (don’t mention your brand) and ask open-ended questions to find out how they decided what to buy. If they don’t talk about your product at all, it’s likely they didn’t even consider it.
How much should I spend?
There are lots of options when it comes to packaging redesign.
You could get a cheap freelancer from someone like Fiverr who could theoretically do the job. Or you could pay upwards of £100K to work with one of the top agencies (think the geniuses behind Heinz’s packaging or similar).
My recommendation would be to find a middle ground. It’s too risky to go cheap with something so important. Bodging it yourself or working with someone you’re not paying much could be great or it could be a disaster.
Invest as much time and money as you can. That means making sure you spend time doing the strategic work as well so your project is as informed as possible.
How do I know when we’ve got it right?
The most important rule of packaging design is never sign off from a screen.
Your creative might look beautiful on your high-res Mac. But take it to a store and it could get lost on the aisle.
So that’s exactly what you need to do. Make a mock-up by printing off your potential designs. Ideally, you should then take it to a shop and put it on the shelf to see if it works. See what jumps out at you from 10m, 3m and 1m and try to figure out if it’s the right information to entice the customer.
Get other people involved too. Packaging affects more than just marketing, so make sure you work closely with your Ops team throughout the project.
If you’re a brand that has packaging, you need to watch the full talk to find out how to unlock this key tool.