When Does Package Design Defy Gravity and Rise Above the Noise?

By David Brier

Whether it's El Paso Chile Salsa, TAZO tea, Starbucks' doubleshot, Nike's latest sports accoutrement, or the ubiquitous iPod, consumers everywhere start their day with an element of design. And the trend is growing into "the way things are."

In recent years, design has catapulted to the frontline of consumer awareness. Consumers want products—and their packaging—to look as good on the outside as it's supposed to be on the inside. Cool is as cool does.

The National Cooperative Grocers needed one package solution to work across the broad range of member stores. A natural-toned backdrop became the canvas upon which to create an urban, yet holistic, package design for the cooperatives.

Is there an element here that we as designers and branding specialists can isolate as a key factor in this wave of consumer awareness? Is there some "tipping point" when design helps a consumer embrace a product and what it stands for? Working with start-up products as well as brands that have lost their edge, we deal with this issue on a daily basis. We're asked to breathe life back into the brand, and give it a fresh relevancy that the consumer will respond to. Is there a way to systematically do this without stifling creative innovation, to the standard of such a dynamic brand as Apple's iPod?

When consumers decide to buy

At DBD International, we realize the job of every package, and every element of a brand, is to carve out a niche and strengthen its differentiation. Insight enhances it. Strategy drives it. And design materializes it. While this is an often-heard point in magazines, conferences, books, and journals, WHY do we do this and why is it relevant?

To answer this, answer the following questions:

• When does a consumer decide to BUY?
• When does a customer decide: "This is the product for me!"
• And what roles do design, branding savvy, and innovation play in this equation?

We have all witnessed that customers buy when the brand offers them something distinctive that resonates in their world. Not similar to other product offerings, but actually different: distinctive. At the other extreme of the spectrum is the widely practiced price-slashing, which is the lowest form of branding if it can be called that. When we were asked to re-brand Legacy Chocolates, we noticed what many packages of artisan truffles seemed to miss: Foodies LOVE tidbits, little-known facts and inside information. Just look at the popularity of food networks, celebrity chefs and food magazines. So we merged this love of "foodie information" with an upscale package design that harkened back to an era when things were hand-crafted and authentic. And we made sure all the design and language points supported this brand voice. Tripling the sales in the first month after the package was unveiled confirmed our theory.

DBD found that the previous packaging for The Coffee Grounds was very broad and overwhelmed the shopper. The entire brand and packaging was revamped based on four strategic "coffee intensity" groupings, and this led to a double-digit sales increase in one month.

What the consumer is seeking

Let's look at a demonstration of this in action: If a consumer has two nearly identical products with little or no apparent differentiation, the customer tends to do one thing. He or she asks which is cheaper. WHY? Because they are seeking a point of difference. And if the manufacturer fails to differentiate their brand, the customer will look for some way to do it for them. Sad but true.

So the power of design and branding actually takes a product and raises it up above the noise to a new playing field. How else do you explain why a kid spends more money on a Nike sneaker than the nearest competitor? Or why someone spends three to four dollars on a cappuccino at Starbucks? That kid is buying not the material and the rubber but the dream of being the next Michael Jordan, something Nike's branding has made possible. Any difference in the product or the packaging is to strengthen that dream. Meanwhile, Starbucks offers someone that little slice of an urban oasis—that cool breeze of another world for the overworked masses of the city—where cool tunes and hot drinks calm one down in the otherwise overloaded workaday world.

The role of design is to help the consumer isolate a point of difference that resonates with them. FACT: A consumer only "buys by price" when that differentiation has not been successfully achieved. This is why design is such a powerful tool in the hands of knowledgeable marketers and the most prominent brands.

It's been said in business that "insanity could be described as continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." That's where branding budgets go through the roof to hammer home a message amongst the 4,000 messages received each day. In the face of such economics,

we propose better homework, smarter conclusions, and gravity-defying branding.

And in the fierce battle of the retail environment, the battle is unforgiving. Some years ago, we revamped for Quarterdeck their software packaging, which within 60 days, reverted their sales to the previous year's high (while they terminated any product-specific marketing dollars so ALL the weight rode on the shoulders of this package design).

When simply-stuff.com came to us to rebrand their event-specific company (think baby showers and the like), we needed to look at their customers (women) and develop a new name (Big Dot of Happiness) and a new identity that would resonate. Not only that, the goal became capturing the funky, fun culture that was the foundation of the company's culture. The answer? Create shipping boxes that were themselves an event and different and memorable. Given the number of hands this package would go through before arriving at the destination, this took full advantage of the dynamics of how the product is delivered.

The Odd Pair Café packaging uses the ingredients in the bottle to provide the necessary authenticity and appeal, distinguishes each variety with broad patches of color on the label, and grabs the eye even more with the bold "neck wrap."

The package that helps the consumer see the difference

Every package can and should be meaningful and exciting, avoiding clichés, being bold, and not "doing the same thing and expecting a different result." Using design wisely is often the secret ingredient that allows this to occur. Looking at how great a package can be becomes the new standard to reflect the "inner qualities" of the product. This is what we've found works to create packaging that inspires consumers, captures their imagination and provokes interest and sales.

David Brier is the creative director of DBD International, a brand development firm located near Minneapolis. Over the last 25 years, David has created brands for Revlon, Estee Lauder, El Paso Chile Company, Legacy Chocolates, Henson Associates, Quarterdeck Software, Sunbelt Software, and Rolling Stone. David has won numerous design awards, and can be reached at dbrier@dbdintl.com.