Package Design | packagedesignmag.com

(July 2008) posted on Wed Sep 30, 2009

By Ted Mininni

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To many in the marketing and design businesses, "interactive packaging" denotes images of soon-to-be-realized nanotechnologies: futuristic barcodes; new substrates; even more imaginative take-offs on the "Try Me" concepts of today; and better clamshells that make entire products or key product attributes clearly visible to consumers.

While these ideas have great merit, some of them are unattainable at present. Yet, marketers know that all of their initiatives—including packaging—must engage consumers. So how can we get packaging to "speak" to consumers today?

Getting on message

The very idea of engagement or formation of a relationship between consumer and brand implies an emotional connection. Packaging helps deliver a brand with emotion when structure, color, imagery, and copy come together effectively. Aspects of brands that leverage the highly-charged emotions surrounding enjoyment, for example, resonate with the consumer.

Packaging can making a consumer pause—and maybe smile—due to an unexpected element, a sense of whimsy, fun or fantasy, a promise of enjoyment, an engaging story, a sense of nostalgia, a promise of luxury, indulgence, or a bit of self-pampering. All of these can elicit profound emotions. Well-designed packaging cues can bring these emotions to the fore. In addition, used with lifestyle imagery, these cues can deliver a story and become powerful motivators.

Beyond graphics, imagery, and emotive and lifestyle cues, packaging must still deliver a specific hierarchy of information. But this needn't be a dry exercise. Consumers are human beings, and as such, they respond to stories. When a brand has a human face, sharing stories connects consumers to it on an emotional level. This is far more compelling than dry features or benefits.

I've gone on record in the past stating: "Products come alive in packaging that speaks to the consumer. As one of the most important consumer touch points, packaging has the power to move an audience. " Packaging will always be the only marketing tool that delivers products into consumers' hands. Experts know that packaging must be a synergistic part of the overall brand expression continuum. Packaging isn't a one-off marketing initiative that lives in a vacuum.

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