It is essential that brands get it right first time, especially with increasing pressure to maintain sales during periods of difficult market conditions and on crowded retail shelves.
A good package delivers a visual narrative about the brand, the product and the people who purchase the product. This message is clear, consistent and often aspirational. At the same time, the package must deliver the full functionality expected: the ability to safely contain and protect the product; security to ensure it is not subject to undetected tampering; integrity to assure consumers that this is the genuine article, in every way backed by the brand.
Today, packaging is also required to carry a variety of statutory and voluntary contents information, safety features, track and trace devices and other features for consumer protection. The challenge for brands and packaging designers is how best to include that information without disrupting the brand's messages.
Another significant factor to consider is meeting the demand for sustainable packaging, and packaging that is less wasteful. These expectations and challenges should be addressed in the research, design and engineering of successful packaging.
The process of seeing possibilities
My experience as a designer for over 30 years, including 14 years at Mattel, has taught me that an established way of actively pursuing new ways to engage the consumer and understand how they interact with packaging in the aisle is essential.
An approach that immerses the designer in the brand, its values and its target audience to ensure a connection at point of sale is Visioneering. This approach is unique to Leo Luxe. It creates in-depth ways of looking at how design can create new opportunities to connect the brand and its product to the customer. The result is a creative collaboration between all of the stakeholders in the project, everyone has had input from the start through to the delivery of an end product.
So what is Visioneering? It is a process that bridges the gap between the brand strategy, the design strategy and the customer's preferences.
A project begins with an initial design brief, this gives us a concept, sometimes with specific parameters and an aesthetic direction, but the Visioneering process takes it deeper and immerses the designer and one or more sales people in the brand. They conduct research to more fully understand both the customer and the brand, and bridge the gap between them in the most effective way.
The importance of connection
The first stage of understanding the brand looks at its perception by customers; its position in the market and with customers; its drivers (what values it's most closely identified with), and its performance. By looking at each of these, the complex relationship between the brand and its customers can be understood.
Essentially, this brand mapping process should demonstrate a harmony between customer dispositions and the brand strategy as conceived by the brand owners. This harmony is a combination of rational and emotional reactions to the brand. At the same time, a clear picture emerges to show where the opportunities are for differentiation.
At Leo Luxe, we think this is a valuable process as the best design is always informed by some form of research. At best, it gives designers insights into the spectrum of factors that affect the brand and its consumers (existing and potential). These factors are cultural, emotional and cognitive and play an important part in consumer attitudes and buying decisions.
The design strategy is built to complement the brand research. It uses a similar process that looks at the aesthetic elements that can be brought to the brand through the packaging design. The design elements comprising of formats, graphics, colour, secondary processes and finishes and technologies where applicable are part of aesthetic mapping process.
Technology is also playing an increasing part in the format category as new materials and "smart" features including sound and light can be incorporated into a package, adding value, differentiating the brand and enhancing the customer experience. Through the choice of materials, new printing processes and technologies, the senses of sound, smell and touch can be brought into play as well as sight. For example, Leo Luxe has created packaging that emits subtle smells when touched and that has membrane switches for initiating sounds to articulate brand messages.
Speed to market
The designer's comprehensive knowledge of the brand and its desired relationship with the customer gained through the Visioneering process enables knowledgeable, research-based decisions about which design techniques to use and how best to use them.
Ultimately, the research and packaging development is about capturing the customer in that brief time when the buying decision is made. While customer behaviour will vary depending on the product, it will typically move from initial attraction, to picking it up, squeezing it or smelling it as appropriate, and looking for the visual cues that will inform the final buying decision.
We try to design packaging that generates a response sequence that moves from curiosity, "Huh? ; to temptation, "Um?"; to understanding and a decision, "Ah!"
The formalised Visioneering process creates what we call a "supply chain of thought" which involves the diversity of stakeholders. Our experience is that Visioneering makes for more effective design outcomes, with packaging that works better for the brand owner because it works on different levels. Also, as a company we deliver an end-to-end service, supporting clients from designing the packaging concept, throughout our manufacturing line and even after the packaging has left our production line. We offer complete supply chain management, taking this process one step further.
Visioneering has enabled us not only to bring the different aspects of product development, design, marketing and sales together, but improve the quality of packaging, reduce time to market, and increase sales.
Steve McAdams is vice president, creative services at Leo Luxe
