Package Design | packagedesignmag.com

(January 2009) posted on Mon Oct 05, 2009

By Simon Gainey

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Package design is probably your best and last chance to make a sale. The package is the "ad" that communicates everything about you (i.e., your brand) to a potential consumer and has to work hard at getting him or her to notice you, understand, and believe you, and purchase you.

If you're a branded product, you hope that the inherent brand equity and years of brand building can carry some weight, but the package still has to work hard. For a store brand with hopes of taking share form the branded competition, you don't have this advantage, and so the packaging has to work just as hard to not only say "you are as good or better than the branded competition" but also "you are true to the value you offer as a store brand."

At the outset, the product has to deliver on the promise; however, one of the most important elements for any brand is how you use package design (graphics and structure) to sell at the shelf effectively. This single idea is not new, but as one surveys and assesses various store brands across the U.S., it is obvious that packaging is still completely underutilized (and often not well understood).

But this disconnect has started to change, and over the last 12 months or so one can now start to find private label products that have evolved into well developed store brands. These store brands have packaging that is working hard to get noticed, be believable, and take share from the traditional brands. Anyone can witness good examples of this evolution phenomenon at Safeway, Wegmans, Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or Target.

Defining spaces

There are perhaps few grocery stores better adept than Wegmans at using the opportunities of package design to compete effectively across the board. Visit any one of their East Coast stores and you will be transported to a shopping and food experience that rivals the very best. For many consumers, the Wegmans name is a promise of high quality, outstanding freshness, culinary expertise, great service, phenomenal experience, and—maybe most importantly—trust.

With these expectations as a foundation, the Wegmans brands are starting to use package design as one of the key elements to support their business growth. Here are just a few examples that highlight this approach.