Packaging – Your Face to the Customer

by Jeff Hilton, Integrated Marketing Group, 2005

Beauty is only skin deep. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. Words to
live by. In life, perhaps. But when it comes to marketing your products,
beauty, aesthetics, and personality are what you need to get noticed.
Unfortunately, too many supplement and functional foods manufacturers rely too heavily on what’s inside their packaging. They go through the arduous process of research and development to create a truly unique new product. A scientifically researched formula. The highest quality ingredients. State-of-the-art manufacturing. Solid market positioning. Substantiated claims. Then, when it comes time to package the product, they treat it as an afterthought. Throw it in a bottle or box. Make the name big. Use loud colors. A starburst with a claim in the corner. We need art by tomorrow
afternoon. Get it on the shelf. It sounds almost comical, but it happens time and time again. The result is often a box or bottle designed in the most confusing, forgettable way imaginable. So this great new product sits and gathers dust on the shelf at retail. And everyone wonders why.

The Challenge to Compete at Retail
Confusing and forgettable are not what you want to be on the retail shelf. Yet so many good, high quality supplement packages are. Take a walk down the supplement aisle of your local drug, health food store, or supermarket. Isn’t it amazing how similar the packaging looks?
Granted, there are a few standouts, but it’s mostly a mass of red, yellow, and green. Graphics that look like they came from the same royalty-free art CD. Big, bold typefaces with room for little else. And design that screams, “My daughter’s boyfriend drew this at home.”
The retail store shelf is a war zone where competing products battle for attention, loyalty, and ultimately, the consumer’s money. See, the shelf is the great point of purchase. It’s where the moment of truth happens. No matter how much you’ve spent on advertising, promotions, or education, often all the consumer has while standing in the aisle, trying to make a decision, is packaging. Either she responds to it or she doesn’t. It attracts her eye, brings her in, and gets her to try…or it doesn’t. Sure, what’s on the inside counts. But she needs to be drawn to the outside first. And that’s why packaging is so important. If I had a dollar for every time I hear a consumer in a focus group say she bought a particular product because, “I don’t know, I just like the packaging,” I’d be retired by now. Despite our never-ending attempts to educate and cognitively persuade the consumer, ultimately, she’ll buy what she feels comfortable with. And she’s comfortable with what she’s attracted to. That’s really the bottom line.

Get To Work
Luckily, your packaging has no genetic predisposition. How attractive or horrific it looks is entirely up to you. You’re in control. So consider these suggestions for more effective retail packaging.

Keep Your Finger on the Pulse of the Market
It is important to keep your eyes on packaging trends not only in your industry, but others. For example, packaging in mainstream grocery is becoming more compact as the battle for shelf space intensifies. This carries over to health food retailers, who increasingly eschew excess packaging in favor of taller, slimmer packaging that allows them to face more SKU’s. Colors in packaging are like fashion…always changing. In the 90’s, warmer earthier tones became popular, particularly in natural products channels. Now, over the past few years, more vibrant colors are making their way into packaging with teal, fuchsia, lime green and red experiencing a major revival. See Example. Other trends of note include:

• Use of textured packaging material to enhance brand personality.
• Cleaner packaging with simpler graphics and visuals, reflecting the growing belief that often times less is more.
• Sleeker, more esthetically pleasing packaging with curves and angles in place of traditionally square or boxy lines.
• Use of cap stickers on supplements to create dimension and help like-everyone-else bottles stand out on the shelf.
• Innovative use of supplement delivery systems such as chocolate balls, pumps, effervescents and powdered supplements in a sealed straw or tube.

Remember Product is Hero
Particularly when it comes to food or other consumables, consumers increasingly want to see what they are buying. Thinking about functional foods, research shows that consumers are willing to make some trade offs for healthy or organic, but taste is usually not one of them. So seeing the product presented in an appetizing or attractive way is more important than ever. More and more companies are featuring the product, be it chips or cereal, on the front of the package as a way to take some of the guesswork out of the point-of-purchase shopping experience.

Give Your Consumer Some Credit
It’s a big temptation to play to the lowest common denominator. Supplement manufacturers have been doing it for years. But in so doing, they often offend their consumers. For example, the product name does not need to be set in a 36 point sans serif face to register
with most consumers. And every color doesn’t need to be on the brink of neon to attract attention. Try some white space for a change. Your consumers are generally sophisticated people. They appreciate subtlety. So while everyone else is screaming, maybe you’ll be better heard by speaking in a calmer, lower-toned voice. Don’t underestimate the intelligence of the person buying your product. Design for them. See example.

Packaging Should Be An Extension of Your Brand
Your packaging doesn’t have to communicate everything if it is part of a larger integrated marketing plan (which it should be). And unless it’s the size of a large detergent box, you probably can’t. The best you can hope for is to conjure up the brand images and messages of your advertising, sales promotion, and PR campaigns. Ideally, your customer sees
the packaging and he suddenly remembers the ad he saw in a magazine last week. In other words, if you are a premium, high-end products company, your packaging needs to deliver a distinctive and exclusive brand personality that complements the price. Use a glass bottle. Higher quality paper. Embossed lettering. Be creative. After all, your customer is buying more than product; she’s buying image. See example.

Different Is Good
Sometimes grabbing attention is as simple as being different. Different how? Break up the blasé flow of the faced-up shelf. Use unique and visually distinctive graphics, custom photographs, or colors that aren’t used by your competitors. Play with packaging materials. Try different cap colors. Who says you need to be confined to a square box or standard bottle? Experiment with a bottle-in-a-box format. What about an angular box? A round container? The possibilities are infinite. But make sure you’re being different from your competition, not from yourself. All your packaging decisions should be guided by your overall brand image. See Example.

If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It
Dynamic packaging can only go so far if it doesn’t say anything. Since DSHEA regulations allow the use of approved structure/function claims to tout product effectiveness, use them. Here’s how the structure/function claim can work, “Ah, CoQ10. I’ve heard of that. What does it do again? Oh, right. I read an article about that. I was going to try some.” And for those consumers who know exactly what they’re looking for, set your product apart with a point of differentiation. Do you have science to back your product? Sum it up and get it on your label. Even the smart shopper needs to be reminded about how well your product performs, particularly if the validation is from a third party. Don’t be afraid to tell her.

These steps will get you started. Packaging can create a lasting first impression, and looks are no small issue. Packaging is also the last impression you make on a prospect before she makes her purchase decision. And it’s the only part of your marketing materials that she’ll
take home with her and hold in her hand every day. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

Jeff Hilton is president of Integrated Marketing Group. He can be contacted at (801) 538-0777, or visit www.imgbranding.com.