The Front Panel

Lessons From the Web: Giving Package Design Its Proper Space

By Marianne Klimchuk

Recently I was asked to review a number of consumer product websites and evaluate their effectiveness. Graphics, information, and interest were among the factors of this assessment. Each site had an effective color scheme, was fairly easy to navigate, and demonstrated moderately enhanced special effects. The text of each was easily read against the respective backgrounds and the marketing copy was generally informative. The auto-play music and mood-setting stock photography served to position the brands in their appropriate lifestyle situations.

In general, these sites were well organized and professional, but they were all missing something. Although each site was created to represent consumer beverages, often the product and its package design did not appear on the front page or was curiously a small element in the overall strategy. As I explored other consumer product sites, I was astonished at how the content for so many of them failed to connect the consumer to the product through the package designs that represented these brands. As a package designer, I am shocked by this marketing oversight.

Consumer product companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on brand building activities all to shape and direct consumer experience. When it comes to brand credibility in an advertisement or on a website, content is king. The content in this case is the product and its package design. Yet the web sites for many brands depict stagnant beauty product shots that have little, if any, marketing power.

Although there are many tools that serve the development and enhancement of a website, many web marketers position their brands in an archaic format that is best left to newspaper circulars. In fact, the images used on some of the sites for major brands can lose their power and fail to connect to their target audience, and the packages can appear lackluster.

Maximizing the medium

If we believe that the interactive environment of the web is an excellent retail opportunity, then why don't package designs play a vital role in making the sale and building brand equity in these retail environments? The value that is placed on the package design for shelf strategy should reflect the same value in the website strategy.

Propel water's website respects the importance of the package design in brand association, as the bottles are on just about every page.

Marketers and designers must come to recognize that the inadequate staging of the package design can result in loss of business, brand equity, and value. The consumer may remember the website, but when they head to the physical retail marketplace the disparate visuals might not connect. Marketers and designers should take advantage of this by directing their clients' focus on marketing the package design creatively and effectively.

It might be worth reviewing how successful retailers such as Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware sell their products online. They do not simply depict straight-on shots of the products page by page. Instead, they position the products in a suitable environment, thereby enhancing their e-tail image and further clicks take the consumer closer and then to more detailed product information.

When designing complete strategies for clients, consider this design philosophy and think about how product families can be positioned together in a typical environment. Clicking on a product or package image can bring the consumer to specific product information such as nutrition facts, ingredients, and recipes.

The package is the product

Everyone knows that the package design is often the same as the product in the minds of consumers, so carefully consider the core purpose of the website and its target audience. Avoid graphic styles that look just like an advertisement or a newspaper circular. Try positioning the product in an environment that showcases it. Do not just create lifestyle around the product, but create it with the product; and show the package design as much as possible. Maybe even invest in real photography of actual consumers using the product, because authenticity is an ever-important consumer value.

One website that does a good job of using the package design as an integral part of the brand's message is the interactive site for Pepsi's Propel Fitness Water. This inventive website tells a story that begins with the liquid contents inside the bottle and reinforces the brands package design right until the end. The message is clear, straightforward, and memorable, and it effectively motivates consumer response.

The Coca-Cola Company's website for Fresca is another good example that strikes a chord with its target market. This site establishes the package design as the hero and makes its mark by enabling the consumer to interact with the package and even design their own customized packaging. If a consumer goods product site does not establish the same affinity for the package design as it does in the carefully positioned retail environment, it certainly will not enhance the product's perceived value. There are too many brands that have a stunning presence on shelf that is not leveraged well online.

Marianne R. Klimchuk is the Associate Chairperson of the Packaging Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has written curriculum, taught courses, and directed the packaging program for 13 years. Marianne can be reached at marianne_klimchuk@fitnyc.edu.