Packaging News You Can Use

Hey branders, marketers, product development managers and packaging pros. It’s time to step up to the plate with your product packaging. Mainstream advertising is losing ground. No one is paying attention to it any more. That puts packaging in line to take its place and capture the consumer’s attention and get up close and personal.
 
So what are you waiting for?
 
Over the last several months, I have shared with you in my articles the reasons that it is imperative for packaging to positioned at the right place at the right time.

• “Retail’s First Moment of Truth: The Package”
• “How To Make Your Product Packaging Newsworthy” 
• “It’s Easy Being Green – Packaging Your “Green” Brand” 
• “Launching a Brand at the Super Bowl With Dreadful Packaging”  

Now, it’s your job to make your packaging work for your brand and your company.
 
So what constitutes compelling packaging brand? How “connected” are you to your consumer? Here are a few emotion descriptors that your package must convey.  Does your packaging Engage, Evoke, and Engross the consumer?
 
Let’s look first at ENGAGE: to attract and hold by influence or power. Can you say that about your product packaging? Or is your product packaging just the opposite? Boring!
 
Think about what you can do to improve the odds that your package will engage a consumer: Colors, features, shapes, value and benefits are all ways to reach out with your package.
 
EVOKE: To call forth or call up as in evoking memories. What about your package will make the consumer recall a successful or enjoyable product experience? How can you make them remember that they were satisfied in buying your product? In case they haven’t purchased before, what is going to “connect” them to your product on your package? What is so special about your package that they have to take a closer look?
 
ENGROSS: To engage the whole attention of (and that’s the key point). You have to get their attention to pick up our product before they can even consider buying it. Use features that will capture their interest in seconds because that’s all the time you are going to get before they move on.
 
Another “feeling” word that conveys a strong and compelling brand is TRUST. You must create a place where people look for information and feel more secure doing so.  It’s important to understand the strength behind the brand and why people turn to it for a sense of security and information. So what about your product packaging conveys the experience that consumers can trust your brand? 
 
Regardless of the reason a consumer may be in the store or looking at your product, introduce them to a “lifestyle” experience . . . trust, security, necessity or even peace of
mind.  Your package presence needs to call out “Buy Me” because I provide the experience of all of the above emotions.  

Product branding is a powerful influence on everyone. It’s important to understand the strength behind the brand and why people turn to it for a sense of happiness, satisfaction, security and information. The best of all brands cross gender, ethnicity and age demographics. That is to say that everyone will recognize and identify with the brand. In my presentation “Does You Packaging Speak Human” I spoke about “Universal Truths” in
packaging that cross these boundaries also.
 
If you have to pick one, the best single word emotional response you can give to the brand is “ENGAGE.” People are connected to the brand at all levels. That is a great position to be allied with. So that’s what you need to do with your product packaging. You have the brand statement behind you now you need to “ENGAGE” the consumer.
 
When you capture the power of the package people will integrate your product into their everyday life. They will not just turn to it as a convenience but as a necessity for comfortable living. So create your own story through powerful product packaging. Whatever your category, you should strive to engage, evoke, and engross the consumer to revitalize your brand through product packaging.

If you want to know more about how to package products people will buy? Come hear me speak at this event. If you plan to attend email me for the special code that saves 15%.
PROOF: Market Research & Development for Package Design conference is scheduled for Sept. 25-27, 2006 at The Drake Hotel in Chicago. 
 
The Senior Factor: How To Motivate Them To Buy Your Products
 
Every seven seconds, someone turns 50. With 76 million U.S. boomers in command of today’s buying decisions, the potential for profit and growth from this group is enormous. With 70% of all purchase decisions made in the store your product only has about
2.6 seconds to compel seniors to pick it up. (Or do they even want to be identified as seniors?) 
 
This is your product’s first moment of truth: your packaging. Is it on target to capture the attention of the fastest growing and most affluent group of consumers – the Baby Boomers? 
 
Do you know the right “hot buttons” on or in your packaging to compel this group to purchase your products? 
 
Gain insights into the senior market and find out what packaging sells product, and the best ways for your packaging to connect with these lucrative underserved consumers. 
 
Conference link for more details http://www.iirusa.com/packaging/1585.xml

Smart, savvy, sophisticated, educated, intelligent and informed This is your consumer that will be buying your product. (we hope).
 
Dumb, stupid, difficult, idiotic, overpackaged or just plain dopey… This is the package that is supposed to persuade them to buy. Big gap between the two.
 
So how can your package “Connect” with a smart consumer? Let’s find out.
 
What is a package any way? It could be a box or a container or anything similar. We all know it conveys a product from point A to point B. Besides the obvious of getting it there undamaged or not broken, what’s a package supposed to do? 
 
Consumers barely take the time to look at all the new product offerings. Most of the time they shop on autopilot and buy the same brands they always do, so the role of the package has changed dramatically in the last decade. The package has now become the “first moment of truth” at retail. 

And now, especially the package is going to decide whether someone will buy your product, or not. So you better pay attention to not only what goes inside but what’s on the outside of the box. 
 
Just because you have a great product doesn’t mean it’s going to sell. Or even if you have it in the right retail environment that it’s going to fly off the shelf. Packaging a product the right way entails much more than just creating a box or package to put your product in. Sure, you are going to get it there in one piece, we hope. But gone are the days of the box acting as only a protective shipping container. The box today IS the “retail” salesperson. The box or package is expected to provide the necessary information to help make an informed shopper’s decision since there is not a salesperson is available to answer a
question. So the package must be the silent salesperson to tell all there is needed to know. What should the package be saying?
 
“What is this product going to do for me?”
 
More importantly, how you convey the information about what is inside and how it’s going to help the consumer solve a problem. That’s an important factor to remember. When someone looks at your product in their minds they are saying, “What is this product going to do for me?” You know WIIFM, what’s in it for ME the consumer? 
 
So think about your package from a consumer’s perspective and not a package designers or package engineers. Consumers are smart, educated and savvy about their product purchasing. Don’t get caught up in the notion about what has to be “ON” the box rather
what needs to be ON the package to pique or satisfy the consumer’s interest. Remember you have to get them to pick up the product first!
 
Hope you enjoyed this teaser. It’s only a small portion of my presentation at Cosmoprof NA. Smart Consumer Vs Dumb Packaging
 
Can’t attend this innovative session in Las Vegas? I don’t want to spoil all your fun in advance. Email me back to order the special report “Smart Consumer Vs Dumb Packaging?” or Does Your Packaging Speak Human?
 
Please feel free to use me as a resource when it comes to understanding what packaging markets are hot and what are not. Or what companies are developing the latest in innovative packaging technology. 

This article “Premium dog biscuits suffered from a pricey image” Just appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press (subscription)  – Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada

… “The packaging design is something we’ve consistently seen people fall down on because they don’t realize how important it is. It …

Cos. Sign Up to Give Detailed Food Labels
MSN Money – USA
… companies said they planned to start rolling out the new packaging by the … policies to better combat obesity, which is becoming a problem among young people. …
 
Organic beer sales grow, Anheuser-Busch enters market
Boston Globe – United States
… a Burlington, Mass., resident who founded Peak Organic Brewing Co., says people are embracing … name on the Wild Hop packaging, and the Crooked Creek Brewing Co. …

New Tetra Pak cereal packaging could boost product appeal
BakeryAndSnacks.com – Montpellier,France
… Using this packaging instead of traditional cereal boxes will not necessarily be cheaper- or more expensive … “People are fed up with traditional cereal packs. …