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

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

It turns out we do doodle!

It's been a week since we posted about National Doodle Day, and it turns out you guys really like to doodle! So much so that we are here doing a follow up post for those who sent us doodles in the last week:



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Credits:
1. Tom Woolley
2 - 4. John Kilburn
5. Ben Kirchner
6 - 12. Paul Oakley
13. Simon Henshaw
14 - 24. Kate Pankhurst

Thank you to these brilliant and super talented illustrator friends for taking the time to send us these awesome doodles!

We are really pleased that we are able to support Epilepsy Action through the simple act of doodling. The campaign helped to raise over £14,500 for Epilepsy Action! 

We'd just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who got involved with us to support this cause. 

If you have any more doodles we would love to see them, we might even make it a regular feature! Tweet us @ubd_studio

Let's keep on doodling!

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Love? Consumerism? Or because we love consumerism?

Valentines Day cupcakes
Cupcakes in the studio (baked by Lucy)
So it's that time of year again, when people go out of their way to show that special someone how much they care with an overpriced teddy bear or a dozen red roses that cost a fortune. Valentine's Day causes such a stir, with retail businesses loving every second of our need to find the perfect card and gift. Quite often we do this last minute, despite the weeks of warnings around us in every shop we visit.







But why Valentine's Day? Where did it come from? 
And why are we so 'in love' with it?

 
The origins of Valentine's Day could go as far back as the Roman Times, however there are many stories of St. Valentine, and so the true roots of the day of love are still a mystery. Written Valentine's started to increase in popularity in the 1400s, and in the UK the day has been celebrated since the 17th Century.

Now, in the 21st Century the once humble sentiment of Valentine's Day is worth millions of pounds. According to EZBOB, you can expect the average consumer to be spending around £76 on gifts and cards. And if that consumer is female, she may even be buying gifts for her children, pets, or her friends!

Buying in to Valentine's
 
The biggest money maker is cards, with 60% of money spent on Valentine's Day lining the pockets of companies such as Hallmark. But florists, restaurants, and confectioners also get their fair share of revenue. Amazon are even offering same-day-delivery on the day itself, for those forgetful ones amongst us!

We buy into it every year, but are we doing it because we want to treat the one we love, or because it's forced down our necks? Valentine's Day is consumerism in its perfect form, everyone scrambling over each other to wow their significant others with gifts, driven by the hype caused by retailers. And, let's face it, we're all suckers for a good gimmick. But, as The Gauntlet points out, isn't every purchase decision you make just consumerism? The car you drive, your choice of coffee shop, the shoes on your feet, you had been given choices for all these items, and consumerism lead your decisions.

Let's look at it from the other perspective: brands. Without a brand, you have no identity, and without an identity, you're not very likely to have a consumer, let alone lots of them! And without a consumer, how do you expect to take advantage of consumerism? The simple answer is you can't. Your brand is everything! It will cause people to dismiss you or inspire them to queue down the street. Getting it right is paramount, especially when it's a necessity to stand out from the crowd, and on a day like Valentine's Day, that is a must!

If you feel like having a consumerism-free Valentine's Day, why not strip it back and make something for that special person in your life, or those special people if you're all about sharing the love. Here in the studio we are celebrating with cupcakes!

We hope that whatever you decide to do, you have a lovely day. Tweet us with you plans @ubd_studio


Sources of information:
http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/
http://www.thegauntlet.ca/story/valentines-day-and-consumerism
http://www.ezbob.com/valentines-day-consumerism-at-its-best/

Friday, 8 February 2013

Do you doodle?

Happy National Doodle Day! Didn’t know it was doodle day? Well where have you been? Today people are encouraged to doodle to help raise money for Epilepsy Action, who help people up and down the UK who suffer with, or who care for people with epilepsy. Lots of celebrities are involved in the campaign, and you can buy their doodles on eBay here.

In the office, we like to doodle. Some of our doodles are more impressive than others, and it’s pretty clear who doodles the most, but we won’t name names. So here is a little slide show of the random scribbling that we found around the studio:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


You can tell a lot about a person from their doodles. The National Doodle Day website has lots of information about how to interpret doodles. See what yours say about you here!

But our doodles weren’t enough! We decided to get everyone we know involved in the doodling and have reached out on Twitter and Facebook to get our lovely followers to submit their doodles, check out their talents below:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Credits:
1. Love&Humphries @LHnow
2. Samantha Dunn @Samanthaldunn
3. Emma- The Yankee Candle Company
4. Rosie Artley @RosieArtley
5. Frank van Houten @FrankvHouten
6. Jeni Kelly-Blackburn @mowsprout
7. Steph Artley
8. Jamie Robertson @jimmac140
9. The Gateway Warrington @TheGatewayWarr
10. Elisha Waterhouse @elishawaterho
11. Matt Witt @creaturemag
12. Simon Wallace @simonwallace136
13. Ian Nicholson @ianvincible

We are most excited to have received a doodle from Jon Burgerman, the New-York based illustrator.

Doodles by Jon Burgerman

We’d love to hear which is your favourite doodle. If you would like to send us your doodles feel free to tweet us @ubd_studio and we will blog about more doodles! Happy doodling!