Packaging as Marketing: The Playbook for Winning in the New Consumer Era

Products that flop fail for all sorts of reasons. Products that fly, though, usually give the same answer: packaging that performs.

Coca-Cola's quote bottles, Jiangxiaobai's bottle copy, the sleeve creativity behind the “little blue cup”, Lü'ai's candies — the roster of brands that turned packaging ideas into market traction keeps growing. Put simply, when sales slow down, reworking the pack is often the lowest-cost, fastest-acting lever you have.

1. Start by pinpointing the demand gap behind the concept

Before you package a concept, you need to know exactly which demand gap it answers — what consumers expect and crave from a given idea. Only by reading their psychology and behaviour accurately can you align the concept with real demand and spark resonance and appeal.

1. Social trends and shifting context

Watch how social trends and the communication landscape are moving, and make sure your concept's context doesn't fall out of step. Catching consumers' appetite for emerging ideas is how you get out ahead of the curve. That calls for an understanding of young people's subcultures and micro-cultures — especially their habits and logic of communication — so you can speak insider language to insiders.

1. Psychological and emotional needs

Dig into consumers' psychological and emotional needs as well: a concept that lands “sweeter than first love, cooler than an ex” makes its way into people's hearts. Uncover the points of emotional resonance, touch those feelings, and consumers will drop their guard and find you hard to resist — which is what gives a concept more pull and more resonance.

1. Mapping the scenarios of use

Concepts take effect inside scenarios, so nailing the scenario is central to developing one. Is your concept headed for advertising, for product packaging, or for a leader's speech on an important occasion? Different scenarios steer concept packaging in different directions. In a nutshell, understanding the demand gap means knowing whom you are talking to and where — settle that before development begins.

1. Techniques for capturing a concept

Once the demand gap is clear, brainstorming can start. The routes are many; here are a few common ones worth borrowing:

English abbreviations: concise, forceful abbreviations carry a concept with more precision and brevity, so people remember it at a glance.

Numbers and formulas: pairing numbers with formulas makes a concept read crisply — we live in a fast-food era, after all. Numbers and formulas are intuitive and compact, and because formulas already carry shared meaning in people's minds, they push a concept's core message out fast.

Symbols and codes: symbols and codes are visual and symbolic, conveying a concept's core value quickly. Wrapping an idea in a distinctive symbol is the most direct form of value association, since symbols sit deep in people's minds and carry rich meaning. Codes work in a similar way but leave more room to play; they are typically used for internal R&D plans or new product development, uniting a project under one name while sounding impressively sophisticated.

Analogy and contrast: analogy and contrast are common routes as well. A concept has to be novel and unique, and it has to be grasped instantly — ideally to applause — which is precisely what contrast and analogy deliver. In packaging a concept, the outer form matters, but what matters more is communicating its core value and meaning and building emotional resonance and connection with consumers.

Only by truly understanding consumers and creating concept packaging of real value can a brand get ahead in the market. Treat insight and innovation as your weapons, build more eye-catching concept-packaging cases, and bring the market more surprise and creativity.

1. “Packaging” at the level of brand strategy
2. Packaging delivers an immediate visual impact

Strong packaging lifts a product out of a sea of lookalikes — Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the classic proof. Even without high brand recognition, a product with superior packaging will outsell comparable items.

1. Packaging opens up markets

When sales hit a plateau or returns run thin, changing the packaging can turn things around entirely: an older product can pull a new one along, and design alone can lift sales. Coca-Cola's “maid's silhouette” bottle is a case in point.

1. Product packaging value > product functional value

Once technology reaches the ceiling of its era, the room to differentiate on tech keeps shrinking — so effort put into packaging is more readily recognised. Take vivo and oppo: while rivals fought over value for money and functionality, they moved earlier, starting from phone packaging and appearance, and held their ground in a brutally competitive handset market.

1. Give consumers a reason to pay a premium

Plenty of products are not inherently valuable, yet once they are set in a gift box or given new packaging, the price climbs. That is another job packaging does: it hands consumers a reason to buy at a high price.

1. Packaging is a necessary stage in building a brand IP image

Packaging can carry more than a product — it can carry corporate culture and a founder's image, and a corporate image can even be shaped through celebrity associations of the same type. The process of packaging is the process by which a brand IP image takes shape, and a brand keeps sharpening its focus.

1. A communicator that walks around

Great packaging can also generate a second wave of sharing. Some brands, hungry for visibility, blow up their logo or cover the whole pack with it, stripping the packaging of any premium feel — so who would want to carry it out again? If you already have brand power, that approach can work: one supermarket promotion, for instance, gave away a luxury-brand bag with a 20-yuan vegetable purchase, and many shoppers threw away the vegetables they had just bought to get the bag. To turn consumers into spontaneous advocates, respect them: keep product quality high and design the packaging a little better.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379365.html