Tuesday 26 February 2013

Gone are the days of the humble box

Here at United by Design we love quirky packaging. A link on Facebook captured our attention and got us looking at some innovative packaging ideas. After a little more digging around on the internet we came up with this slideshow of packaging ideas that got us talking, laughing, and thinking, exactly what good packaging should do:



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

We think these are great, which one is your favourite?

It is quite clear to us that in a world where innovation is king and standing out from the crowd is key to success, it is no longer enough to just have a good product. Sure, without a good product you have nothing, but without the tools to sell it, then you just have a lot of product, and not a lot of pennies! Your brand packaging is what makes your product great; it’s what sells it. Packaging should say, “Hey, you, look at me! Pick me up! I am better than that product there, look at my exciting packaging!” Ok, so packaging doesn’t really talk, but a picture is worth 1,000 words, and your packaging needs to tell your consumer everything your product has to offer. It needs to ooze personality and help tell the brand story.

So you’re happy with your product, you think it’s the bee’s knees, but the masses don’t seem to agree with you, what do you do? You need to get some insight from market research, from the people who buy your product but also those who don't, to find out why they don't! Then you need to look at category cues, your competition, those who do amazingly well – so you can benchmark and of course look at your brand story and see how you can express it to entice and draw people in.

Never be afraid to change things! This may be through evolution or perhaps you need to employ and more aggressive approach and innovate in your sector. Do not be afraid to do thing differently to help differentiate! It will ultimately help you to develop your business. Gain insight and act on it!

Take SLOEmotion for example. We continue to enjoy work with the team to evolve their company and the way they do things – ‘evolution rather than revolution’. The basics were already there, a great, award winning product and a signature bottle shape. United by Design has brought the SLOEmotion range of products together, whilst differentiating between the various spirits (gin, vodka, brandy, whiskey), using category cues to help instant recognition; the characteristics that people associate with certain products, e.g red is associated with vodka and purple with sloe gin. The distinctive shape of the SLOEmotion 35cl bottles enabled us to extend the brand to a large 70cl size and a gift range of 5cl bottle, all accentuate the originality of the SLOEmotion brand story. Focussing on finer details such as the hedgerow sprig, strap-line, and focus on the actual fruit help the consumer to be clear on what they are buying.

We also helped to reduce packaging costs for the truffle ranges by designing a generic signature box with a range of product stickers depending on the contents of the box. It’s these simple yet effective ideas that make all the difference in such a competitive market for a business that is thinking about the bottom line as well as making profits!

Sloe Motion Gin before and after

Early last year we worked closely with the company to launch a new product that’s packaging design has a completely different feel to the others that have been developed to date. SLOEmotion No. 7 fruit cup (gin based mixer) has a fun and fresh design but is still easily identifiable as a SLOEmotion product. Compared to its competitors it has a contemporary design that makes it stand out on the shelves. SLOEmotion have embraced change and challenged the norm to help them define themselves in a very competitive market where other companies have lead for a long time and other brands have decided to create 'me too' products that look lifeless and very much a lesser product due to the strength of the brand leader. This approach, although calculated, is enabling SLOEmotion to make a name for themselves as being different – in a good way!

Sloe Motion No.7 collage

What we’re really getting at is that packaging no longer just serves as a means of housing a product, it’s a strategic design process, and to get ahead you really have to ‘think outside the box’ (see what we did there?).



Images from: 
http://humorcamp.com/view/6251/
www.thedieline.com

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