Brand Identity Design: Key Principles for Achieving Winning Solutions

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We all know great design has a critical role to play in creating a powerful brand as evidenced by the many examples across every sector and category around the world. The question here is, where do you start and how do you ensure that your chosen brand design direction is relevant and appropriate to achieve that much sought after success.

 

Branding your business, product, service or organization effectively requires a combination of multiple factors, each of which must congruently communicate your brand story, positioning, values and so forth in a way that’s relevant to your primary target audience. Every touch point in your brand communications arsenal needs to maintain consistency across every channel and medium if it’s to be successful. In fact the visual cohesiveness of your brand is so important it can make or break your brand success.

 

 Massey Bros Logo 2012 72dpi

 

Brand design encompasses multiple elements, disciplines, specialist skills and strategies but for the purposes of this article we’ll touch on a just couple as examples. The principles of good brand design go beyond merely logos but include signature colour palettes, fonts, product packaging, digital design, uniforms, advertising, brochures, stationery, exhibition stands, digital presentations, videos, vehicle livery, signage etc., in short all your brand collateral and even the look of your physical premises or retail space, if you have one. Successful brand design identity incorporates and unifies every aspect of your business including both what your team, and your customers see and experience in the physical tangible sense offline and digitally or online.

     

  

 O Egg Logo 600px

  

  

The following principles will help guide you in creating, auditing or revitalizing your visual brand assets in order to achieve better brand recognition. They will also help you achieve a more sustained and powerful impact that resonates with your core target audience.

 

 

Brand Identity and Logos – The Power of Simplicity

Logos are vital as visual hooks for your brand, they are the tip of the iceberg so to speak. A strong brand logo, managed and protected through well developed brand guidelines, is a very important tool in helping unify all the visual aspects of your business and ensures that your products, marketing collateral, and company communications are appropriately underpinned cohesively by your brand visually.

   

Time Magazine Logo

 Image via www.time.com

   

However, many businesses make the mistake of allocating insufficient resources to really thinking through what their brand logo should convey. Many neglect to develop their brand profile, which essentially underpins the creative direction for their brand logo coupled with all the other elements of their brand identity.

 

 Noodle Mee Logo Horizontal Rgb

 

Your brand logo is a distillation of your core brand message, your brand values, the outward expression of your organization, product or service. It underlines who you are and what you stand for and is the fundamental means for customer recognition. It acts as the icon differentiator to your competitors, and yet so many companies and products have non-descript bland, forgettable, indifferent logos lost in a pool of meaningless mediocrity.

 

 

National Geographic Logo

 Image via www.nationalgeographic.com

 

It’s also important to note that great brand logos don’t need to be overly complex or excessively detailed either. In fact those that are the simplest are often the most effective and have that much sought after timeless longevity that carries them through all the fickle trends, turbulence and deviances in the market place over the years. Indeed complexity, or too many secondary messages can cause confusion. If the viewer has to work hard ‘to get it’ then its largely failing as the symbol for the brand. Think of brands like Time Magazine, National Geographic, the Olympic Rings, Twittter, Apple, Dell, Guinness and Tayto . All of these brand logos are instantly recognizable, timeless and convey the values of the brands behind them at a glance.

 

 Nike Swoosh Logo

 Image via www.nike.com

 

Simplicity is often the secret to a successful brand logo. Some of the most recognized logos in the world are also the simplest, like the Nike Swoosh. The Nike Swoosh is an instantly recognized dynamically curved line representing all the Nike qualities and lifestyle attributes. In fact, this simplicity underpins all of Nike’s branding, from the Swoosh to the iconic three-word slogan “Just Do It,” to the company’s latest gadget: the FuelBand fitness tracker, known simply as Nike+.

  

 Mcdonalds Im Lovin It 600px

 Image via www.mcdonalds.com 

  

In some cases, a simple logo can become a phrase, a slogan, and a beacon for the business it represents. McDonald’s yellow, stylized M is known the world over as “the Golden Arches,” and all it takes is a glimpse of this sign to signal the availability of fast, tasty food to customers.

  

La Moulière Logo 500px Rgb 

  

 

   

5 Principles for Effective Brand Logo Design:

 

1. Simple: Unique and recognizable, without being overdrawn or excessively complex

 

2. Memorable: Achieves an instant connection to your brand

 

3. Timeless: Will remain effective and relevant for decades to come

 

4. Versatile: Works in monotone black and white, spot colour or full colour, large scale or small postage stamp or thumbnail size

 

5. Scalable: Is fully legible and maintains its integrity in large scale high resolution, vehicle livery or side of building size format to small scale postage stamp or low resolution online thumbnail size

 

6. Appropriate: Reflects your brand profile, messaging and company brand values

 

 

A great brand logo is one that is distinctive, different and memorable and conveys a concept or meaning — the core values of your brand, in one strong distilled message.

 

The concept, shape, and execution of your brand logo should meet all these criteria in order to function effectively in its representation of your brand while also bolstering your visibility and recognition. Remember a logo is a bit like a tattoo, its not something you readily change, so give it the resources and due diligence it deserves from the beginning if you want to reap those long term rewards.

 

 

    

  

Brand Identity and Packaging Design

Packaging design is brand identity design at the sharp end, the art of promising and being believed all in the blink of an eye. Consequently your product brand packaging is critically important to your brands success from the moment of visual impact in grabbing the attention of your time deprived and visually overloaded target customer, to communicating your brand message succinctly while protecting its contents and supporting effective ease of use too.

 

If first impressions are mission critical then the challenge for your brand packaging is to engage your target customer through communicating your brand’s emotional and functional benefits, together with its core brand proposition in a way that’s relevant to them, all in a matter of seconds. In fact recent research would indicate you need to achieve all this in under nine seconds!

 

If the primary objective of great brand packaging is to communicate your core brand messages while achieving stronger sales together with consistent repeat purchases to ensure business growth and a healthy return on investment, then you need to do everything within your power to ensure your brand design leverages everything in your favour. The following packaging design principles are incorporated into every packaging design project we produce for our clients.

    

14 Brand Design Principles for Effective Brand Packaging:

1.    Demand attention

2.    Create impulse

3.    Communicate your brand proposition succinctly

4.    Project and amplify key brand messages

5.    Create emotional engagement

6.    Build relationships and encourage repeat purchase

7.    Be something worth talking about

8.    Use structure, shape, closure and materials effectively

9.    Provide easily understood product information

10.  Provide appropriate consumption or usage information

11.  Support and exceed legal mandatories

12.  Protect contents

13.  Support social responsibility

14.  Reduce your brand packaging carbon footprint

  

  

Strong brand packaging supports the story of your brand and reflects its personality and conveys emotion that resonates with your target audience. Remember how important emotional connectivity is, people buy with emotion, not rational. Packaging that is witty, clever, bold, challenging, luxurious, unexpected, feminine or masculine, stark or minimalist for example all make different kinds of statements and say something about your brand that creates expectations – all which work hand in hand with your brand promise.

  

Never forget, you can’t fool the consumer. Their value and perception of your brand is based on how they find them, experience them and engage with them. The bottom line for business is that great brand packaging design will almost always have a positive effect on the company’s profitability.

  

If brand packaging design is treated as a cost with a token cosmetic makeover or worse still, a plagiaristic blend of all your competitors designs, then the effect on the bottom line is likely to be largely ineffective. However when viewed as an investment and used as a strategic driver, the results can be very profitable on an ongoing basis.

 

O Egg Pink Ribbon

  

  

Branding and Managing Your Visual Assets

Effective brand design extends beyond logos and packaging to involve all aspects of your business, wherever it’s represented. Look no further than Google for an example of unified branding. One of the most powerful and recognizable companies in the world, Google’s designers follow a carefully crafted style guide of visual asset management to ensure brand coherence across every product and representation, from their instantly recognizable primary color palette to their fluid, ultra-modern iconography.

 

And just in case you’re thinking otherwise, you don’t have to be a Google to apply these brand principles and strategies. Establishing a brand style guide, or a set of guiding design principles to create and manage every element of your brand, is essential in helping you achieve brand unification and ultimately enhanced customer brand recognition.

 

 Google Logo

 Image via www.google.com

 

Your ‘Brand Style Guide’ can start as a very simple 15-20 page document, which can be developed and updated as your business grows. It doesn’t need to be encyclopedic in size to support the management and development of your brand. Many of the brand style guides we produce for our clients typically start at between 20-30 pages in size initially and are added to as the brand evolves and extends across the total business. For reference, Behance offers an exclusive look at Google’s visual assets guideline in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

   

Simple and Unified: The Primary Keys to Brand Design Success

Simplified brand design that is carried out uniformly across all visual aspects of your business is the most effective route to success. Consistent brand visuals can do more to solidify your brand than a library’s worth of text. When your customers can recognize, refer and relate positively to your brand at a glance, you’re well on the way to increased brand awareness and growing profitability. Invest in your brand properly from the start, appropriately aligned to your business strategy, and you’ll reap the rewards long term.

 

What do you think?

  

• Does your company logo meet the five design principles for success?

  

• Are your brand visuals truly different, distinctive and memorable?

  

• Does your brand packaging achieve the top 14 essentials for success?

  

• Have you developed, managed and consistently applied your brand using a properly developed brand style guide across all design elements of your brand?

  

• How can you unify your visual presentation and develop brand consistency throughout your business, online and offline?

  

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Private Label: Branding Tips for Own Label Brands

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Private labels used to be seen as the second rate offering in the retail world with a majority of consumers shying away from these alternatives to major brand products. They were viewed as knockoffs, cheap substitutes or poor quality ploys only purchased if you were trying to make your weekly shopping budget stretch a bit further. However the market view on private label brands has shifted considerably, especially with the recent economic downturn, and more consumers are willing to forgo the big brands in favour of lower-priced private labels—as long as the quality is maintained.

 

 

 

Time Magazine reported that since the latest recession, 93 percent of grocery store shoppers have changed their buying habits and now stock up on own label, also often referred to as private label store brands. Major chains stores have seen significant increases in consumer purchases of private label brands according to Bloomberg. In the USA, Safeway’s store brand has shown a 3-to-1 growth margin over major brands, and Kroger’s store brand sales accounts for 27 percent of total grocery sales.

 

 Kroger Logo

 

Image via www.kroger.com

 

Of course, in order to sell private label brands successfully, retailers must promote their own label brands to their customers and make them just as appealing compared to major brand names. It’s not enough to simply stock them high and sell them cheap, as in the early days of own label branding.

  

Brand positioning, the brand promise, brand values, the brand story and category segmentation together with consumer mindset and so forth, must all be very carefully developed and fully integrated into the brand strategy for private label items to be most successful, with the same level of intricacy as major brands, and perhaps more so, because they’re competing with the automatic perceived quality of big, familiar brands.

 

In fact it would be fair to say that private label branding has become extremely sophisticated in some of the retail groups with their ‘private label’ brands carrying significant weight and authority amongst their target audience consumers.

 

 

The Importance of Superb Private Label Packaging

As every marketer knows, presentation is key to selling products. In fact people’s willingness to buy, recommend, refer, work for and invest in an organization is driven 60% by their perceptions of the brand and only 40% by their perceptions of the product or services (source: Kasper Ulf Nielsen).

  

Perhaps one of the primary reasons for the underperforming sales of private label brands in the early days was the bland, generic packaging and questionable quality. Many retailers felt that a lower price would sell these own label brands so few bothered to give any significant thought to packaging. In fact private label products were noticeable, for the wrong reasons, with their generic and non-descriptive packaging that looked completely underwhelming next to the carefully designed major brands. Also plagiarism of major brands was a notorious problem in the early days until legal channels flexed their muscles accordingly.

 

Today’s successful private label brands incorporate appealing packaging design into their branding with a very clear focus on who their target audience is and how they’re going to grab attention and engage with them effectively, through their packaging design. Gone are the stark, single or two-color boxes that simply state the name of the product inside.

 

Waitrose Love Life Range

Image via www.waitrose.com

 

Many retailers are creating entire lines of own branded products carefully segmented and tied to their “brand name” such as UK grocery retailer Waitrose’s impressive portfolio of store brands including Seriously, Heston, Menu, Duchy Originals, Love Life, Good to Go and Essentials, each with its own specific brand strategy and distinct look or brand style.

  

Waitrose Seriously Range

Image via www.waitrose.com

 

These proprietary Waitrose brands are not always directly comparable to any other ‘brands’, be they national or private label, thereby making them unique all of which helps support growing consumer Waitrose brand loyalty and increased wallet share. Some don’t even mention the proprietary store owner, such as department store chain Target’s Simply Balanced health foods and beverages.

  

Duchy Originals From Waitrose 

 Image via www.waitrose.com

These private label brands and their relevant product lines feature distinctive packaging styles and well defined brand propositions with clear target audiences that are competing with major brands on the shelves. In fact, many are indistinguishable from standalone major brands as they’ve become ‘brands’ in their own rights, with the exception of the lower price segments.

 

The best private label brands are blurring the lines of ‘major brand’ or ‘own label’ brand distinction through ensuring superb product quality, creative brand packaging and compelling brand offerings all of which attracts consumers to choose the own brand product without compromises on quality or price. Many are now brands in their own rights without any of the old stigmas of the early days.

  

 

Embracing Environmental Causes and Sustainability

Sustainability and environmental consciousness in both food sourcing and packaging is another major brand selling point that some private label brands are adopting. For example Waitrose has made several changes to its private label products that reduce packaging waste significantly.

 

Recent changes to the packaging of a number of Waitrose’s private label brand lines is estimate to have saved the company almost 100 tonnes of packaging annually. Among other changes, the company’s line of prepared meals, Menu from Waitrose, now features a reduced-width package sleeve and a recyclable, lacquered aluminum tray that allows consumers to cook and serve the meal right from the packaging.

 

Waitrose Menu Beef Goulash 

 Image via www.waitrose.com

 

It’s effectively a ‘win win’ for all concerned, rubbish is kept out of the landfills, the packaging changes make life easier for the consumer – who now has less waste to deal with and less space used in their refridgerator. Waitrose has also raised consumer awareness of their rebranded, environmentally conscious private label packaging through a marketing campaign in which they pledge to reduce packaging by half, by 2016, all of which helps generate a very positive engagement with the Waitrose brand.

 

 

Encouraging Consumer Interaction

Just as with any form of branding, interaction and a personal touch can help to promote private label brands. Several companies have launched innovative campaigns that aim to introduce consumers to their brands, and give them the opportunity to experience high quality at a lower price—therefore earning repeat business and private label brand loyalty.

 

Co Op Tweet4a Table 

Image via www.co-operativefood.co.uk

 

As an example, business group The Co-operative in the UK recently launched a Twitter campaign called “Tweet for a table,” which offered a grand prize of a free, gastro-style meal for up to 4 people, served in one of the company’s pop-up restaurants. The winning meal was created entirely with private label products from The Co-op, introducing potential shoppers to a number of brand lines during a fun and memorable experience.

 

 Dm Foto Paradies

Image via www.produktdesigner.fotoparadies.de 

 

German drugstore DM uses an innovative way to personalize the shopping experience with private label brands. The company teamed with a product designer to create a website called “Foto Paradies” where customers can create their own custom labels for a range of private label items—choosing their own text, and even including photos.

 

 

Broadening Private Label Brand Distribution

Recognition and visibility is an essential component of branding, and some retailers are branching out by offering their private labels for distribution in other markets. Once again, Waitrose UK is demonstrating private label innovation in this area, offering several of its lines through international grocery corporation Dairy Farm’s retail locations in Singapore.

 

French mass retailer Groupe Casino is expanding its private label brands to the Asian market. The company works with Rustan in the Philippines, and A.S. Watson in Hong Kong, to distribute and sell several store brand lines through the retail chains Shopwise and Taste.

 

 

Expanding Your Private Label Brand Revenue

Consumers are no longer ignoring private label brands, they’re actually seeking them out, and often preferring them over major brands. In fact, shoppers are willing to pay more for store brands than they had previously. The Wall Street Journal (via Time Magazine) reported that average prices for private label brands have increased by 12 percent, compared to an 8 percent increase for major brands in the same time period—yet store brands still cost an average of 29 percent less than major national brands. If you’re a independant brand owner maybe supplying ‘private label’ along side your ‘branded’ product could also be a significant part of your growth strategy.

 

Its the combination of erasing the perceived quality gaps between private and major brands together with solid brand strategies underpinning ‘eye popping’ great packaging design, excellent customer experiences and consistently engaging customer campaigns, alongside maybe broadening distribution through strategic partnerships, that can collectively help increase sales of own brand for more profitable long term growth and increased customer loyalty.

 

What do you think?

  

• Is your private label brand packaging comparable in quality to major brands? Is it time for a redesign?

 

• What kind of consumer experience are you offering for your private label brand?

 

• Are your private label brands developed with the capability of range extensions, or are they simply single-shot offerings?

 

• Are there any markets you could investigate to broaden your private brand distribution?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Nostalgic Branding : Is It Right For Your Business?

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Looking back can be a profitable forward thinking strategy for many brands, with careful due diligence and appropriate application. Nostalgia often evokes positive emotions such as warmth, security and a sense of comfort in the familiar.

 

These ‘feel-good’ associations can then be successfully transferred to your brand. Nostalgic brands are somehow seen as more ‘authentic’ and truthful – a brand that can ‘trusted’ in its genuine and well-rooted provenance. A sense of continuity and stability in a world of fast paced change, transience, increasing consumer distrust and instant gratification.

  

Some brands such as Coca Cola already have a rich heritage of nostalgia they can drawn on, which is guaranteed to catch the imagination of older consumers. Conversely they also appeal to a younger age group, which wasn’t even born first-time around but still love the products for their now-fashionable nostalgic look.

 

The success of the relatively new make-up brand Benefit is a good example of ‘nostalgic branding’. Their entire range has a 1950s faux-vintage feel and is aimed at a market of 20 to 30-something females.

 

Benefit Makeup 600px

 

In these tougher post-recessionary times, evoking a time period where life was apparently better, in some respects, can be a very successful move. In fact many brands leveraging this kind of strategy have exceeded expectations and impressively boosted their ratings, according to the Brand Power Index (BPI). This quarterly ratings tool highlights companies who have grabbed audience attention using both traditional advertising and social media channels.

 

One of these brands is Herbal Essences who played on their original 1980s TV adverts to win a 27 per cent increase in brand popularity. To enhance the nostalgic feel their ‘new’ campaign kept the original packaging of the Shine and Smooth range.

 

  

In a short video Microsoft Windows listed what they considered the big trends of the 1980s and 90s and explained their script with the succinct tagline “You grew up. So did we.” This resulted in an 18 per cent rise in popularity on the BPI scale.

 

 

The California wine company Sangwine set out to evoke a late 50s and early 60s nostalgic feel with its minimalist new labels which were designed with the popular colour palette of that time – mustard yellow, turquoise and brown in a strong colour blocking style.

 

Sangwine Retro 600px

 

Tesco’s Mr Nicecream range again infers more innocent, happier times with its distinct signature turquoise and sweet pink packaging and use of evocative typography for a new range of ice cream sandwiches, cones, toppings and sauces. While avoiding all the typical clichés it reminds older consumers of a period when ice cream was bought from a much love ice cream van which called to their local home street, ringing a bell or playing a tune to announce its arrival, rather than getting it from the local supermarket, and the almost diagrammatic illustrative style of the fun cartoon character is set to appeal to a younger consumer.

 

Tesco Ice Cream

 

Vintage Branding : What are the Advantages?

  • It can create an attractive feel-good emotional connection and a strong sense of reassuring familiarity with consumers
  • Vintage style packaging can have unique distinctions which help it stand out from ‘modern’ contenders simply because it’s different to its more contemporary counterparts
  • The vintage look of some brand packaging can appeal more to certain target consumers, especially an older generation, who identify it with perceived ‘better times’
  • Younger consumers can view nostalgic branding in a ‘popular’ light
  • There’s no need to re-educate the consumer on what the brand is all about or stands for (provided it still has relevance) as the older generation know from first-time round and they’ve passed it on to their offspring. How many of you buy brands because your mother did?

 

Of course a nostalgic branding strategy doesn’t suit all companies. Reviving a brand line is all very well but today’s consumers expect more than just the original packaging or taste. A food or drink, which was popular in a bygone era, may not fit with today’s nutritional requirements, taste preferences or have the same relevance today.

 

It must also be noted too, that a brand’s ‘personality’ has to fit within the nostalgic context in which it’s placed e.g Hovis is a long established brand viewed by many consumers as a nurturing brand so nostalgia in this context has relevance. There’s no point trying to use nostalgia as part of your brand message if it’s incongruent with your whole brand offering. Is there room in your sector for another vintage style product? Or is it already over-subscribed and in order to differentiate itself it makes more sense for a brand to take an alternative approach?

 

It’s also important to look at the whole idea of nostalgia in a broader cultural and consumer sentiment context. For instance, once the recessionary sense of uncertainty and anxiety reduces and consumers start to feel more confident and forward looking again, while seeking out the ‘next big thing’, will reverting to a nostalgic branding strategy still remain relevant or have the same appeal?

 

When a Nostalgic Brand Fails

The owners of roadside café brand Little Chef finally admitted defeat last month when the company was put up for sale. A family – and truckers – favourite for more than 55 years the restaurant chain underwent a rebrand back in 2004. Fat Charlie (the iconic plate-wielding chef) was slimmed down and the plate removed. The product and service, however, remained much the same. And yet the nostalgic brand seemed to fit in with societal changes where thousands of Britons were cutting costs and holidaying at home.

  

Little Chef 600px

 

Last year in a last ditch attempt to improve sales innovative chef Heston Blumenthal arrived with a new menu and customers such as Victoria Beckham and Eric Clapton. The product changed, but it wasn’t what consumers were looking for. Little Chef is a sad lesson in the need to correctly assess both market sentiment and consumer needs before launching into any type of re-branding exercise – whether nostalgia related or not.

  

• Does your brand have enough relevant heritage to capitalise on a ‘nostalgic brand strategy’?

  

• If you are considering using nostalgia as part of your brand strategy, which era would your brand be most suited to?

   

• How crowded is the market place currently for nostalgia brands within your sector?

Limited Editions Packaging : Why They Work

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Most of us at some point in our lives have probably been triggered to make an impulse purchase (or at least considered purchasing) one of our favourite brands solely because of the packaging.

 

There’s a high probability too that the particular brand packaging in question was of a ‘limited edition’ variety. Brands tend to investment considerable effort into limited edition products and, as a result, the packaging design typically has even greater impact on its target audience.

 

Exclusivity Rewards Loyal Customers

However limited edition packaging isn’t always appreciated, as MAC executives discovered when they launched their Wonder Woman range in spring 2011. This was in collaboration with DC Comics who owned the rights to the cartoon character. The MAC range included lipsticks, eye shadow, nail polish and blusher ranging from €6. to €35.

 

Mac Wonder Woman Promo

Image via Flickr and Bruno Boutot

 

The look was bright, dynamic (like the character herself) and, some said, ‘tacky.’ Many of the brand’s followers didn’t approve of the MAC Wonder Woman packaging, believing it cheapened the MAC brand (which is seen as a quality cosmetics leader with a trendy, younger customer base). Other fans defended the brand saying they loved the “fun, funky look.” As a result the controversy received lots of varied opinions and comments on websites, social media and blogs – all which, of course, greatly stimulated brand interest even further.

 

Mac Wonder Woman Range

Image via Cult Beauty

 

MAC executives built up a significant amount of pre-release excitement and anticipation by sending samples to leading beauty bloggers and magazines. Each product in the limited edition range was supported with a detailed descriptions, ensuring plentiful coverage for its target audience to read about.

 

All this pre-launch activity ensured the Wonder Woman limited edition lipsticks, blushers etc. generated lots of online traction thereby making them easy to find on search engines and consequently in retail outlets too when finally released. Cumulatively this integrated pre-launch marketing strategy raised the MAC Wonder Woman limited edition range profile and stimulated greatly increased interest to potentially purchase.

 

In an effort to gain further traction for their limited edition packaging, MAC also initially limited the collections availability. The Pro Members on the MAC website were given access to the MAC Wonder Woman goods 12 hours before anyone else – thereby increasing the range’s exclusivity even further. MAC limited edition products have been known to sell-out within two days. The MAC Wonder Woman range was no exception.

 

Feel-Good Associations

Beefeater Gin chimed into the London zeitgeist last year when it launched a limited edition bottle aimed at celebrating the capital’s stupendous year with the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

 

Their new bottle, coloured pillar box red, celebrated London’s ‘inner eccentricity’ the company said, by showing glimpses of London life inside the outline of a beefeater to reflect the city’s vibrancy and diversity. Pre-orders for the bottle were the highest the company has ever received, which is a testament to its success as a limited edition range.

 

Where Beefeater really excelled with the limited edition brand packaging was in associating their brand with the ‘feel good and success factor’ that was very much an integral experience of London at the time. Beefeater is a London brand and by amplifying its association with key London characteristics around a significant event, Beefeater executives hoped that customers would associate the Beefeater brand with a happy occasion in their lives, and one which brought to mind the feeling of success as well as celebration.

 

Beefeater London Limted Edition

Image via Packaging of the World

 

Reinforcing Brand Identity

Another association which enhanced a brand (also a drinks company) was that of film director David Lynch and Dom Pérignon. The arty and cool Californian-based movie maker designed new ‘ghostly’ labels for the brand.

 

Dom Perignon By David Lynch Vintage Champagne

 

Image via Harvey Nichols

 

According to the brand’s website, the two have much in common. A spokesman for Dom Pérignon said: “The worlds of Dom Pérignon and the one of David Lynch have many points in common: mystery, intensity, commitment, time, the constant reinvention of the self, and above all, absolute faith in the power of creation.”

 

 

 

  

So Why Does Limited Edition Packaging Typically Sell So Well?

Apart from the above ‘success/feel good’ associations (Beefeater) and creating demand through exclusivity (MAC), limited edition brand packaging can also reaffirm to its target customer that he or she has made the right brand choice. Limited edition packaging tends to be of a higher and more eye-catching quality than the standard packaging for the brand, which in turn makes it look even more enticing and, importantly, more exclusive and thereby making it more sought after.

   

Limited Edition Packaging Can Be A Test For Permanent Packaging

And what happens when a limited edition brand is just too popular to remain a one-off? Ask Coca Cola. Such was the popularity of the drink giant’s exclusive diet coke design that it decided to resurrect it a year later and make the bold and more minimalist design its standard Diet Coke can format.

 

The design enlarges then crops the original Diet Coke logo which makes it more eye-catching on shelves, according to the company’s executives.

 

Diet Coke 

Image via CreativeBoysClub.com

 

 

It Can Result In A Whole New Brand Campaign Strategy

Kit Kat wanted to ensure its limited edition white chocolate bars were never forgotten – and managed to boost its free publicity quota as a result.

  

 

 

The Australian branch of the chocolate firm said they were preserving a piece of the brand’s history by saving the last 50 bars and handing them over to illustrator Mike Watt. He then proceeded to melt the bars down and form pictures from the gooey chocolate moulds using a knife. The process makes an interesting video and the final pictures were uploaded onto Kit Kat’s Facebook page leading to increased social media interaction, which in turn also boosted the company’s SEO endeavours and the Kit Kat brand profile.

 

Kit Kat White Final Fifty Posters Tiger

Image via Feel Desain

 

 

Limited edition brand packaging can have multiple advantages when used effectively to leverage a brand, not to mention of course increasing sales and profitability. It can also add greater perceived value to a brand’s existing core product range by making customers feel like they’re receiving something ‘really special’ with an added extra. It doesn’t just increase brand impact in the market, but it can also create an even greater demand for products by marking them with an exclusive tag, which its target audience consequently finds irresistible.

  

• What kind of limited edition packaging could your brand consider?

  

• Could you tie your limited edition packaging in with an appropriate significant event or occasion to amplify its significance?

 

• Who in your current target audience would be extremely attracted to a limited edition range of packaging for your brand?

  

 

Eco Packaging, Essential for Your Profitability and the Environment

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‘Made from recycled material’, ‘Eco-friendly’, ‘Sustainable’. Packaging terms have never been so popular as a means of distuinguishing and developing brand image.

 

The past 24 months have seen a transformative mind-set from many leading global brands willing to change their process to ensure ‘performance with conscience’.

 

From retail giants ‘Gap Inc’ to FMCG brands like PepsiCo and Heinz, companies are committing to sustainable choices that work for the environment. But is a commitment to environmental stewardship a product of collective corporate conscience, or is there more to sustainable packaging choices than saving our planet?

 

Heinz Ketchup Bottle

  

While a move to more environmentally friendly packaging and processes can only be a good thing where the planet is concerned, for brands ‘going Green’ can offer considerable benefits.

 

 

Environmentally-Conscious and Customer-Friendly

 

A committment to environmental sustainability is now frequently cited by brands looking to offer increased value to their customers. Changes to packaging is, for many brands, the most efficient way to display the company’s environmentally conscious efforts to the public, and build a positive image that can be leveraged to strenghten brand value.

 

Greener packaging design fulfills the needs of a business trying to connect with its target consumers without sacrificing the environment. And big brands have taken note.

  

Pepsi Green Bottle

 

Pepsi developed the world’s first 100% plant-based PET bottle made from fully renewable sources. Coca-Cola, Ford, Heinz, Nike and P&G quickly followed suit in embracing PET technology.

 

Pepsi and Coke’s Green bottle  brings to life the essence of ‘performance with purpose’. Customers are now offered added value to their purchase. In fact PepsiCo added brand value to all their products by committing in 2010 to protect the earth’s natural resources through innovation and more efficient use of land, energy, water and packaging.

 

 

Brands are Increasingly Understanding that Sustainability is Inevitably Linked to Increased Revenue.

 

While the ability to adapt all manufacturing practices to more sustainable processes may be restricting for small brands in the short term, embracing eco-friendly packaging could be a smart move both for costs and customers alike in the long term. 

 

Paper Bottle

 

The move by big brands to change their packaging to lighter recyclable material certainly helps these brands embrace a committment to the environment, but it also greatly reduces their packaging weight and avoids huge landfill costs.

 

Consumer and political pressure is mounting for companies to refine their packaging along sustainable lines. It is increasinly likely that most packaing will be required to be made from sustainable materials in the not too distant future. Early movers in the area are likely to benefit from improved brand image and offer consumer’s additional value compared to market competitors.

 

 

A New Tactic for the War in Shelf-Space

  

Over the past few decades brands have attempted to boost their presence by introducing more sizeable, eye-catching packaging. However, modern day consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally aware and market savy. Customers are now more sceptical of excess packaging. They think if something is over-packaged then they reason that they will have to pay more for it.

 

*Recent studies found the 2/5 consumers said they were more likely to buy a product if it had less packaging than a rival. 56% of respondents said they opt not to buy products that have too much wrapping or wasteful packaging!

 

Wasteful Packaging

 

  

Attract the Right Attention

Package design is challenging enough with the everyday evolution of products but now there is the added complication of trying to successfully integrate sustainability into branding.

 

Brands need to use insights and innovation to develop packaging that cuts out waste and keeps customers coming back for more.

 

Eco-friendly packaging needs to be well designed, streamlined, bio degradable, and easily recycled or reused. When designed well eco-friendly packaging can be a selling point in itself.

  

For some brands it acts as a point of differention from market competitors. Puma’s redesigned Clever Little Bag is a great example. 

 

 

You dont have to be a global brand to embrace green packaging, some of the best examples in innovation come from smaller brands too. The Irish O’Egg brand is a great example of sustainable packaging design.

 

In order to ensure best product quality the preferred packaging material for eggs is moulded pulp fibre rather then plastic or polystyrene. Moulded pulp material is made from recycled paper and is strong yet soft enough to protect the eggs against breakage during transport or storage. Its also breathable, the moulded pulp absorbs shock, prevents loss of moisture and keeps the eggs from picking up undesirable odours and flavours. It’s also very eco friendly, compared to polystyrene, not to mention functionally much better for maintaining egg quality. 

 

O Egg White Eggs Icograda

 

Looking for increasingly efficient ways to package your product may seem like an unnecessary hassle but it could be worth it, on multiple levels, in the long run.

 

*36% of shoppers in the US in 2011 said they were likely to choose environmentally packaging. This is a 29% increase on 2010. Half of those surveyed said they were willing to pay for such packaging. One third said they bought more of a product if packaging was labeled “recyclable” or “made from recycled material”.

 

Boxed Water

 

Going green is inevitable. Brands who embrace their environmental conscious now can offer consumers increased value and reduce their operational costs in the long run.

  

• Is your product packaging cost efficient?

  

• Is your packaging really meeting consumer needs?

  

• Could your brand packaging offer more perceived value and differentiate your brand more distinctly from your competitors?

 

Stats: *Toluna Market Research

New Lash Emporium Launch to Market !

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Exciting news for all you beauty aficionados, The Lash Emporium has launched to market with an exclusive range of easy to apply, long lasting, handmade lashes in their newly revamped lash packaging.

 

Lash Emporium New Packs 

 

With true commitment to market research the girls have all tried them out extensively and are now, needless to say, complete brand advocates ! 

 

With over 40 different sorts to choose from they’re selling like hot cakes. You’ll find them in your nearest Avoca Store, beauty salons and select pharmacies !

O’Egg Packaging – A Winning Exhibit with ICOGRADA Galleria International !

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Great News !

The new O’Egg Free Range White Egg packaging is a Winning Exhibit with ICOGRADA Galleria International, the world body for professional design founded in 1963.

Officially launched at Bloom in Dublin this month, these delicious large white eggs are only available from O’Egg, straight from the family farm.

Look out for the distinctive pink packs in your nearest supermarket and independent stores.

 

O Egg White Eggs Icograda

16 Tips to Writing a Hot Design Brief to Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck

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Over the years I have seen a lot of different brand design briefs of all shapes and sizes from the brilliant to simply dreadful, with too many in-between lacking sufficient substance to really get the best potential return for the resources invested. 

 

Why is the brand design brief so important ? This might sound obvious, but you need to know what you’re aiming for to hit the goal ! In short it’s a critical factor in ensuring your brand design project is successful and you get a real return on your investment. 

 

Think who, what, where, when, why and how ? Your brief should be, to some extent, an extension of your business strategy. It should reflect the desired commercial endeavours of your business and provide all the detailed information necessary to understand your business dynamics in depth and should clearly define the results you want to achieve i.e. the commercial objectives of the project. 

 

In many cases over the years we’ve had to write the client brief, following in-depth discussions, questioning and probing, to ensure project clarity on all fronts, which the client has then endorsed and signed off before the project commences.

 

The following are some tips on how, and what to include, to write a great brand design brief so you can get the best return for your money. The questions posed should give you roughly 80% of your brief content with the remainder resulting from and thorough an in-depth discussion with your chosen brand design agency.

 

Upside Down Man

 

1. What does your business/organisation do ?

Be clear and concise, providing as much detail as possible. Avoid industry jargon and don’t assume your chosen brand design company knows your company or market intimately.

 

2. What are your business/organisation goals and why ?

How do these goals relate to the brand design project ?

 

3. What are your primary communication objectives and why ?

Are your trying to create greater brand/product awareness or sell more product ?

 

4. How do you differ from your competitors ? 

Be objective and tangible in the description of your differences.

What are their advantages and disadvantages compared to your business/product/organisation ?

 

5. Do you have industry, market or category insights ? 

Are they up-to-date ? It is essential to share this information with your brand design partners so they can develop an in-depth understanding of your needs. Have you completed formal/informal market research into to your market, product etc. ?

 

6. Do you need brand profiling and positioning work ? 

This will provide the strategic direction for your marketing activities, distinction within your business’s market and drive the inspiration for the creative delivery of your marketing messages.

 

Upside Down Bald Man

 

7. Are you revamping, relaunching your business/product/organisation or launching a completely new product/venture to market ?

If revamping or relaunching, how does your old offering compare with the new ? Does your brand/business/product/organsiation have an existing brand style guide ?

 

8. Who is your primary target market ?

What are their demographics and psychographics ? Describe them in detail.

If you have a secondary market or multiple audiences ? List them in terms of priority.

 

9. Have you considered the text content required for your project ? 

Do you need professional copywriting input ? How many languages do you need and do you need professional translation services ? A printed brochure or website will have an entirely different requirement and writing style to a brand packaging design project. Compile some raw copy where possible, even in short bullet form, to give some indication of your text content requirements.

 

10. Does your business, industry, market or organization have legal mandatory information which must be included in all your communications ?

Does your product or market have mandatory information such as colour coding which must be used in specific ways, on or in, your communications e.g. European egg packaging has EU colour coding for designated egg sizes ? If so, it is essential you provide all this information fully proofed, up front with clear guidelines on usage.

 

11. Do you need commissioned professional photography or illustration ? 

Does your project have specific visual content which should be included ? If so why and what is it ? 

 

12. What is the full remit of your brand design requirements ? 

Does it have a printed requirement (product design, stationery, brochures, display or exhibition stands, vehicle livery, direct mail, packaging, point of sale etc. all of which is your brand collateral) ? Does it have an online marketing requirement (website, ezine newsletter, Facebook presence, LinkedIn presence, Twitter etc.) ? Do you need a branded digital showreel, video or sales presentation using, for example, Power Point or Keynote ?

 

Upside Down Girl

 

13. Do you have industry or market category benchmarks ?

If so what are they ? Are these industry, cultural or category standards ? Your brand design team needs to know as much as possible to understand what is mandatory, what has worked/not worked to date and where they can aim to exceed and excel, to be distinctly different for long term competitive advantage. 

 

14. Do you need market research or focus group activity to test your new brand design outputs ? 

Don’t proceed with your launch on a hunch or worse still, your own personal preferences. Your personal preferences are not relevant if they don’t mirror those of your target market and even if they do you should still test and measure !

 

15. What is your budget ? 

Your chosen brand design experts need to know what your limitations and budget boundaries are to avoid a valuable waste of time and resources. They need to understand where and how they can achieve the best return for your money. 

 

16. What is your lead time or deadline for launch to market ?

Develop a detailed schedule with key milestones indicated e.g. consultation, concept development, market research, testing, photography, production, delivery and launch to market etc. Be realistic in your expectations. Unnecessary mistakes can be made if a complex project is rushed to market prematurely. Alternatively if the project must hit the market by a critical date then be upfront and honest. Some elements may need to be dropped or postponed to another occasion and a simpler solution offered to meet the deadline.

 

If you need a new name for a product, business or organization most of this information is just as essential for a brand name origination brief too.

 

Tip:

Try not to be too prescriptive on the aesthetic aspects of the brand design brief. You want to get the best out of your chosen brand design team so you need to give them room to manoeuvre creatively.

 

 

Do you have anything else you’d like to add to these tips ?

 

Drop us a line, we’d love to hear your thoughts. 

 

 


Surviving & Thriving: Innovating Through Recession to Success

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Innovation, that oh-so-elusive yet desirable trait touted as the engine for economic growth by our hackneyed politicians, is actually the life blood of any business but never more so then in our current economic market. 

 

Fresher, smarter thinking is critical in business for ongoing growth and prosperity. Product and service development is a constant, iterative process to respond to competition and market demands.

 

New products, methods and ideas are about constant change which for some can be uncomfortable and stressful while for others it’s the essential variety on which they thrive. 

 

Take the humble egg, largely overlooked and seen as a commodity purchase with generally poor packaging, weak brands and negligible consumer recognition. Clonarn Clover, a small Irish family artisan egg producer has launched a new brand, O’Egg, to market with white eggs in a pink box ! They are the only artisan free range producer of white eggs in Ireland, said to be far superior for lightness in baking, and sold at a higher price to the common brown egg. 

 

O Egg White Eggs Icograda 

 

The O’Egg white eggs are packaged in an unlikely bright pink box, ensuring on shelf impact, targeted at a female consumer. Also the O’Egg brand is supporting “Action Breast Cancer”, with the logo for same prominently displayed on pack which also resonates with their target market. Product, brand, packaging and marketing inventiveness on a modest budget to shake up a sector which has seen very little ingenuity in a quite a while.

 

In this period of economic fluctuation, armed with the immeasurable online resources at our finger tips, we are actually presented with multiple opportunities unlike any generation before.

 

Ebookfling Logo

 

A great online example is EBookFling, a startup that creates a virtual e-book swap, facilitating lending of e-books between consumers using lending features enabled by Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. 

 

Ebookfling How To

 

Borrowers upload titles of what they own and can swop with anybody signed up to the service for a temporary swop enabling them to “try before they buy”. Readers get exposure to try new authors without the risk of up front expense and the author gets a type of exposure not previously available. It’s a win:win with a service facilitating more fluid transactions between buyer and seller. 

 

Poopourri

 

Some might say our economy is in the toilet but Poo-Pourri is a fantastic example of entrepreneurship and product innovation. In a little over three years this start up business has grown to a €3 million enterprise. Poo-Pourri is made from a secret mix of essential oils sprayed into the toilet bowl and used to mask the smell in the bathroom before the deed is done, rather then after, like traditional deodorisers. Its far more effective and eco friendly ! Today the range consists of more then 60 products successfully selling in five countries.

 

Poo Pourri Sign

 

It is essential to become a fast discoverer with low cost, swift experimentation, prototyping and piloting, all of which leads to new insights and opportunities. Successful innovation (product or service) requires key ingredients some of which include:

• Ideas which solve important problems for your customer whose needs you must understand intimately

• An ability to get to market quickly before the market changes or your customer needs shift

• A fully integrated branding, design and marketing strategy focussed on your target markets needs

• Knowledge of barriers, adoption cycles and inertia within your target market

• Adequate resources and funding

 

Start with the end in mind. If your solution solves a problem that real customers have, your chances of success are increased. If your innovation is easily adopted by your target customers, based on a thorough understanding of their needs, then you have a much greater chance of success.

 

Country Crest Range

 

Country Crest is another Irish food manufacturer turning the highly competitive ready meal market on its head with innovative packaging and added pack functionality to meet their customers needs with its From the Orient range. A “collectibles” range of complete meal solutions in a NY style deli box, which is very different and distinctive on shelf compared to its competitors (all in trays and carton sleeves), the food is a “grab and go” solution which can be heated in 3 minutes and eaten from the box.

 

When you produce something really successful you can’t afford to slide into complacency. Your competitors are aggressively assessing the market looking for the next big thing or how they can topple you or take a chunk of your market share. Even when you’re on the crest of the wave your business must have a proactive strategy to relentless innovate, develop and search for new opportunities to stay ahead.

 

Most importantly though you have to get noticed to sell your product or service, capture your target markets imagination and create excitement through powerful branding and great design.

 

Do you have a great new innovation ready to bring to market ?

Is there an area of your business or market, tired and overlooked, crying out to be reinvigorated and transformed? 

 

Drop us a line or give us a call.

We’d love to help you make your brand the next big success story.

T: +353 1 8322724

E: [email protected]