Now is the time to believe in your brand

Recession always increases the market share of the retailers, and as supermarkets and hypermarkets become more established, the battleground for brands has become more intense. Supermarkets have had years of practice and understand how to exploit their shopping environment to the full, by using strategic price positioning coupled with brand portfolio management and refined design techniques like bold graphics, design structure, ‘colour blocking’ and effective versioning etc. to achieve the maximum stand out and effect on shelf.

If brands are to survive in this environment they will need to play in the same league (after all they sit right next to supermarket packs on the shelf), brands will have to learn to embrace a more holistic approach to package design by understanding the role that effective packaging has in creating a bond with consumers.

Packaging is the face of a product, it says who you are, what you offer, it positions a brand and informs consumers of the benefits a product offers. In the long life of a brand, the relationship between the brand’s packaging and its consumers creates a bond of trust that can transcend generations. But at the same time we need to be aware that consumer’s lives evolve and a brand packaging must reflect this evolution in it’s own evolution too. To stand still is to go backwards, as everyone else is moving forwards.

This is why as we move into 2010, I believe that packaging design must demand a much higher priority within brand companies and why in order to survive in the competitive world of the supermarket, brand companies need to be aware of the value of packaging to both the company, the brand itself and it’s consumers. This in-turn means allocating a higher level of management resources that can understand the importance of package design and drive and support the process internally at a very high level.

Just as senior management need to be involved in the process, key to success is also about accepting to work with professional design experts who understand how brands can navigate within the modern sales environment and who can bring expertise from both sides of the fence, international experience coupled with local knowledge. Experts who can help elevate a local brand’s packaging to the same level as their competition and reassure consumers that their brand is keeping up with their own evolving lifestyle

The future of brands, lies in the hands of the brand owners, now more than ever, is the time to reassure consumers with highly professional packaging. Clearly, the winners will be those who invest in their brands and their brand packaging in 2010 and the losers will be those who don’t.

Rowland Heming©