Package Design | packagedesignmag.com

By Ron Romanik

Is there any other place to start with package design? Of course, the power of a strong brand is undeniable. But if that brand is not engaging the consumer on a number of levels, it will often lose ground to competition from startups, innovative competitors, and private label.

What are the most important ways to engage consumers? That, of course, depends on the category, the product, and the method of delivery. In the case of healthcare and pharmaceuticals, delivery is becoming ever more important. Package design should make consumers feel comfortable with the delivery of their product or drug and make them feel compelled to stick to a regimen.

In this issue, we examine the delivery of products through packaging in a number of ways, from small "universal design" ideas that can make a huge difference to innovative structures that introduce new ideas to old paradigms. It is our belief that there lessons that can be transferred across categories to improve the consumer experience and engender brand loyalty.

Our Cover Story this month on GlaxoSmithKline's PacXperience teams illustrates how dedication to delivering a natural and intuitive consumer experience can yield very positive results. A consumer's interaction with a package is only beginning when he or she first looks at-or touches-a package. The rest of the journey of a package is one of a relationship that either delivers on promises or falls short of expectations.

Today's consumers are more likely to remember when those times of delight or disappointment happen. They hold those memories and "vote with their wallet" the next time they face a choice in the retail aisle.

Consumers' opinions are also more likely to spread like wildfire through the internet when packages do not deliver on promises. PepsiCo recently announced that they would abandon Tropicana's ill-advised package redesign after reaction in the blogosphere was roundly negative (see our eSolutions link below1). What was most amazing was that a Tropicana president maintained in The New York Times2 that their consumer research did not indicate that there was any risk in making a major package design change. I guess they just didn't ask the right people.

Ron Romanik
Editor-in-Chief

Footnotes:

1 eSolutions newsletter #54
2 "Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging" in The New York Times Feb. 22 edition, Media & Advertising section.