Sometimes we don’t conciously pay attention to a product’s packaging. We don’t even see it. We rip a package open without giving it much thought.
On an unconscious level, there are so many cues and messages communicated to us. We aren’t thinking about how the package influenced our purchase decision. Packaging is a powerful element subtly controlling why we purchase. Often, the packagng fades into the background as if it were an afterthought.
An experienced product or marketing manager is making many conscious decisions to lead you to purchase. How they leverage, the packaging choices can be the difference between product success or failure.
The following isn’t an exhaustive or complete list but some thoughts to get you to pay attention and think about what packaging communication and messages are coming your way.
#1 PROTECTION
Packaging can help protect a product from damage. Eggs.
#2 PRESERVATION
Packaging can help extend the shelf life of food and beverage through consistent control of the atmosphere: shelf-stable meat snacks or EMAP (equilibrium modified atmospheric packaging). This Slim Jim will last for nine months.
#3 IDENTIFICATION
What’s in the package? What are you buying? Can the box play a role in cleverly communicating what is for sale or what the store sells? This clever and playful shopping bags from Staples is a reminder of what they market.
Or this playful way to merchandise ear buds.
#4 EASE OF USE
Packaging can help make opening easier or to make it portable or lightweight. Soup tubes are recent innovations starting to show some thinking outside of the can.
#5 POSITIONING
The package can help frame a product’s value, meaning, or purpose. When I gave my wife a new computer for her birthday, there was a sense of reverence and excitement opening this Mac Air. She never had that experience opening a Dell, HP or Gateway computer.
#6 VALUES
Printing on a product can help connect a customer with a substantial consumer value like protecting the environment. A plastic cork made mostly from sugar cane with appropriate messaging can shift perceptions. This Plantcorc (which I named), helped convey an important message about the raw materials and to bust some myths and misperceptions.
#7 DIFFERENTIATION
The physical shape of a package can be a core element of brand differentiation versus its category. Doug van Praet writes extensively about this idea in his book Unconscious Branding –
How can you disrupt the pattern?
Travaglini’s Gattinara shaped bottle is so easy to remember that I can ask my 93 year old Mom to get it for me at the store, and she will be able to pick it off the shelf quickly. The same is true for the pink sweetener Sweet n’ Low. These “visual hammers” as Laura Ries calls them help you find a product in the store.
#8 CONNECTION
it can transport the purchaser/user to an emotional state, place, or set of feelings. Corona takes you to the beach with their bottle-wrapped branding. Although since Covid 19, Corona’s name has sadly been infused with secondary meaning.
#9 BRAND
Packaging can offer cues (sound, visual, aroma) that signal and establish a connection to a brand’s essence.
Sun Chips had a bag that was biodegradable and very loud and noisy. It didn’t succeed with adults, but kids loved it.
Dr. Pepper’s flip-top can lid a distinctive pop that is different than Coke and Pepsi.
And Nike Air is wrapped – in air. Genius.
#10 UNIQUE USE, FUNCTION OR OCCASION
A package can make the product special or give it a unique convenience. It solves a problem that you may have like, I want to drink this wine now but I don’t have a glass.
Who hasn’t burnt a hand on hot pizza? this convenient packaging design solved that problem.
Serengeti Tea replaces the tea bag and makes the stirrer the teabag. Packaging can solve problems or consumer pain points.
Packaging – Part Art and Part Science
How are you using packaging to innovate, differentiate, and shift the conversation in your category? When you choose one package format, structure, or material over another, you have made an intentional branding choice.
Are there other roles for packaging I missed? Help me think outside the box.
Need help rethinking your packaging?
I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conver?sation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.
