Structural Branding and product profitability go hand in hand. This form of product branding has the greatest potential impact on the profitability of a product over any branding tool available. If approached correctly, a package can better communicate the product benefits and provide a clear competitive advantage.
When package costs can be reduced, and manufacturing efficiencies improved at the same time, product profit margins can grow dramatically. Higher margins + growing sales volumes = greater profits!
There are three distinctive approaches available when undertaking a Structural Branding program—each with an impact on product profitability.
Improve visual brand communication
While most consumers are not really aware of it, their opinion of a product's performance is greatly impacted by how it looks and feels. Package form has a language all its own—and it is fairly universal. Attributes such as "natural ingredients," "gentle on your clothes," "energy kick," and even "will help you meet girls!" are all communicated with product form. Years of consumer testing and product performance evaluations have demonstrated that a product will "taste better," "glue stronger," "last longer," or just all around "work better" in a consumers mind based on physical cues provided by the packaging.
For the SkinMedica line of cosmeceuticals, the packaging was recently designed to communicate the scientific foundation behind the products, while also fitting the brand's premium price point. A form language hinting at graduated cylinders in a platinum metallic resin was the key to providing this message.
A few years ago, new packaging for the global Gatorade brand helped reinforce the imagery of a sports functional beverage. Design cues from sports equipment were integrated into the functional hot-fill panels to differentiate the product from just another beverage into an essential piece of sports equipment. Global sales volumes increased dramatically in each market with the launch of the new packages.
The Tag line of deodorant products targeted young men with an unspoken promise of "helping you meet girls." A gloss black simple form with masculine grip details supported this positioning very effectively. Certainly it is "not your father's deodorant."
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