The need to deter theft while attractively displaying smaller items in brick and mortar stores has resulted in packaging which is both difficult to open and environmentally unfriendly. Products which are shipped directly to consumer’s homes do not face these issues, yet most manufacturer’s simply use the same packaging for both channels. The large online retailer, Amazon has recently announced an initiative to end this difference. Manufacturers are now being encouraged to provide packaging that is both easier to open and more environmentally friendly. The full story is in the New York Times.
Posts Tagged ‘Packaging’
Different Channels Different Packages
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Reading 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.
Don’t Use A Down Economy As A Crutch
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010It’s no secret that we’re clawing our way out of a brutal recession. But what does it mean for your business? How are your customers impacted and more importantly, how are they responding? The media is saturated with tales of hardship. It’s easy for us to become desensitized to the details of our current financial woes.
We’re all people. We all still eat. Those fortunate enough to be among the employed still commute to work. We take care of our children’s needs, clothing them, feeding them, and tending to their health. To say that spending has declined across the board and write it off as a loss is one of the biggest mistakes many customer-facing organizations are making right now. (more…)
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…)
Sometimes Modesty is the Best Policy
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010From the Wall Street Journal, Companies Find Consumers Respond Better When Sodium-Reduction Isn’t Emphasized on Labels.
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?
Package Design Levels the Playing Field
Friday, December 11th, 2009In the past, leading national brands could simply outspend smaller brands on paid media advertising to buy brand preference and market share. Thanks to the proliferation of consumer media options, there are fewer places to reach big audiences- and now these audiences don’t trust advertising anyway. Leading brands have woken up to the fact that the most cost effective way to boost sales is to focus on where sales actually happen, in the store, through their widest reaching marketing tool, the packaging.
You can see this by the frequency in which leading brands are updating their packaging, now almost annually. The beauty of this shift is that the playing field is leveled for smaller brands to compete. Where a leading national brand could outspend you in advertising dollars in the past, that doesn’t matter so much anymore. They can’t outspend you in package design dollars. Yes, in actual dollars they can spend more by hiring an expensive national design firm, but that world has changed too. An agency’s big reputation or a big-city address doesn’t mean they can out-design the shop in Topeka who’s cost are inline with what you can afford.
Now’s the time to get off the bench and on the playing field while you still have an advantage, the first place you should look to grow sales is your package.