Congratulations to our client Noble Juices for placing third in a recent taste test beating out several of the biggest brands. The quality of their juice was the reason, but we’d like to think that our package design didn’t hurt!
Archive for the ‘Packaging’ Category
It’s What’s Inside
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010An Ice Cream Legend Passes Away
Sunday, May 16th, 2010Richard LaMotta, a true entrepreneur and inventor of the Chipwich sandwich passed away last Tuesday. Over the year we have designed many variations of the iconic Chipwich package . You read details of his life in the New York Times obituary.
Reading the Labels
Sunday, April 18th, 2010We all know that more and more consumers are reading the nutritional labels of packaged food contents for calories, sugar, salt and fat. Now more and more of them are also reading the ingredients. And the media is telling them what to look for as in this article from Healthy Living. What are you doing to eliminate ingredients that consumers perceive as unhealthy? The time to act is now.
Another Opportunity to Benefit From Updating Packaging
Friday, April 9th, 2010
The Center of Science in the Public Interest is taking on food manufacturer’s for deceptive packaging. This time, it’s for the size of packages that have little relation to the amount of content inside and not for the usual target of questionable claims. The story was in the Baltimore Sun but look for it to show up on broadcast media as this group has been quite successful in getting media attention for their point of view in the past. The target is air, the extra air that is in packages they deem as unnecessary and dishonest in that it deceives the consumer about the amount of product inside.
I’m surprised that companies like WalMart have not made a bigger issue of this as part of their environmental initiatives to reduce waste in packaging, in shipping and in shelf space. This is an opportunity for a brand to differentiate themselves by right sizing their packages ahead of the competition.
IMPRESSIVE Package Design
Monday, February 15th, 2010Let’s say you’re inviting people over for dinner, you’re making Chicken Mole.
Your guests are mingling in the kitchen, watching you bring their meal to life from scratch. You’re the type that when you entertain, you pull out all the stops. As you pull out each ingredient, you want the packaging to make your guests feel special, that they can anticipate a great meal because you’ve carefully chosen each component. You want it to say something special about you.
This is a great question to ask yourself if you market a CPG, especially if it doesn’t possess the fame of a Coke or Lay’s. How would you feel pulling your package out of the pantry or a shopping bag? Step one is leaving an impression, most packaging is unremarkable, unimpressionable. It should make people feel indulgent, even if its a value brand, no one has to know. It should make them feel smart, as if they’re onto something others are not. It should exude or reflect who your customers want to be when they use your product – sophisticated, logical, whimsical, daring, bold…
Brands using the same old approach to packaging will struggle to create this connection. Most packaging today is literal and status quo,”another brand of X, only with X% less sodium.” They’ll wind up in a cycle of winning and losing customers shopping for discounts. It’s time to shift thinking away from what the brand thinks a package should look like to what the package can say about the customers who buy it. If you’ve ever bought an Apple product, you’ll know what i’m talking about.
Another Big Brand Shifts to Sustainable
Monday, January 25th, 2010New bottle from Coca-Cola is more sustainable. This will put more pressure on other brands to make a serious investment in sustainability as consumers start to demand it.
From this morning’s WSJ, Coke Bottle is Part Plant
Specialty Food For Thought
Friday, January 15th, 2010The world is changing quickly, are you?
Does Your Package Appeal To Gen Y’ers and Younger Gen X’ers?
Because surprisingly, people ages 18 -24 are most likely to buy specialty foods!
Are You Too Focused on Getting Your Products into Specialty Food Stores?
Believe it or not, more than 80% of people buy their specialty foods in supermarkets – coffeehouses and online markets are emerging channels. What would need to change to get your products sold in here?
Are You Living Where Foodies Live?
They’re watching cooking shows on the Food Network, Travel Channel and HGTV. Can you rally PR to get your products featured? They’re hanging out on food blogs like thedeliciouslife.com, sharing photos on Flickr, and following recipes on YouTube. Get out there! (more…)
The Future of Regional Brands
Friday, December 18th, 2009Regional brands are facing shrinking shelf space and a choice. They can either give up the fight and simply take as much cash out as possible and the ride the brand down and out of business like many other 60 year-old family-run businesses. Or they can stop competing with national brands and private label by making them irrelevant.
You’ve been thinking about your business in the wrong way. If you’ve been thinking about how big you are as a regional brand. Its time to start thinking about how small you are. You aren’t a regional brand, you’re local brand and local is HOT! Consumers want to know where and who their food comes from. In the age of informed shoppers, national and private label brands are perceived as big corporations run by financial interests, not by passion for quality and time-honored traditions.
This is the perfect time to champion your small staff, your unique processes, your age-old recipes, your superior quality. Bring these to life on your packaging, in cool viral campaigns, in the Sunday FSI’s you run. Make it important. Make it cool. Make it hot. Make it different from what you’ve been doing.
Don’t forget your other advantages – because you’re smaller you make decisions much quicker than the big brands. You’re closer to your customers than the brands run by people crunching numbers day in, day out. And get off the low price bandwagon! Look like a brand that doesn’t need to always be on sale. If you’re always on sale you’re the same as every other sale brand. Which choice will you make? To fight or die?