Designing to Delight and Deliver

Investing time in a real consumer 'deep dive'

By Jennifer McGrath

A "design toolkit" helps to uncover the visual and verbal elements that create instinctive appeal.

Does this project scenario sound familiar? A design brief arrives in your e-mail in-box with a two-week deadline for first-round design submissions. The brief outlines a winning product concept, there 's a line that broadly identifies the target consumer, and the rest of the one-page document is dedicated to a lengthy "priority of communication" list along with six or seven design requirements that the brand holds sacred. The timeline is asking for design concepts in one week, and —following multiple rounds of client reviews—there is a tentative date for consumer focus groups.

Welcome to the world of drive-through package design, where getting a project done quickly often takes priority over getting it done right and narrowing the field of design options to the safest bet for consumer review is the key to keeping things moving forward quickly and easily. It 's a standardized, predictable process that results in a "safe design" that generally satisfies the client and design agency. The client "likes" it; consumers "like" it. Everyone is happy. Right?

I say: "No." When we take a strictly brand-centric approach to package design, we all lose. The designers are disappointed that the "best" design never made it to research and the consumer is neither alienated nor delighted. Great package designs that break through the clutter and resonate with their target will never result from this approach.

As strategic designers, we need to challenge ourselves and our clients to set aside the detailed brief, mandatory checklists, and day planners, and take the time to ask: "Are we really willing to do what it takes to get our consumer to buy our brand?" If the answer is yes, then we have all taken the first step toward package design success. A good way to start is by answering these questions: 1) What are we really trying to communicate with this product? 2) Who are we trying to communicate it to?

The answer to the first question should be brief, concise, and direct. One sentence should suffice. The answer to the second should be full of detail, insights and imagery that are rich enough to inspire the designers to create something customized for the end user. How do we get there? At Interbrand, we rely on two techniques to bring the end user to life: Shopper Insights and Design Insights.

Defining shopper insights

After years of shopping with consumers, we have discovered an important truth: Consumers and shoppers are not the same. How a consumer behaves in focus groups, at home, or even in everyday life can be in direct conflict with how they behave in the store. Just because we know our consumers ' attitudes, behaviors, and product preferences, it doesn't mean we have a clue as to how they shop. Research has shown that how a consumer says he or she behaves often has little direct correlation with actual shopping behavior. Unless we first take the time to uncover the hidden truths of this behavior, the initial design concepts might be off the mark. This can result in a huge disconnect by the time the package design is finalized.

The Aussie package redesign used Design Insights research methodology to create a design that resonated with the consumer target and broke through the clutter at shelf.

Shopper insights research doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming; options are available to fit most budgets and timelines. "Shop-alongs" are an excellent way to reveal the shopper side of a consumer's personality. Shop-alongs show how a consumer really behaves in the store environment and at a particular shelf. Are they a price shopper? A brand loyalist? Are they easily attracted to new things and swayed to switch? Do they touch the product? Smell it? What do they look for first at shelf? Is it brand name or is it product benefit? Shop-alongs will help us understand the key motivators and priority of communication we need to use when implementing package design.

Defining design insights

Design insights research is the partner to shopper insights. Whereas shopper insights tell us how the consumer shops and behaves today, design insights tell us how they could behave tomorrow.

Design insights research takes a deep dive with consumers to truly understand how to delight them visually and verbally. It uses a variety of research techniques to understand how to appeal to the rational, emotional, and instinctive parts of their brains. So much of what happens at shelf occurs in the blink of an eye. In less than a second, a consumer will either focus on or discount a product. If we don 't delight their senses in less than two seconds, we've lost them.

Design insights research helps designers and marketers uncover the multi-sensorial elements that will draw the consumer in at first glance and those elements that will ultimately close the deal.

These "first-glance" elements are often overlooked in the traditional design brief. We get so caught up in how our designs communicate brand positioning and key benefits that we completely overlook the important question: "Why did you even consider us in the first place?" The truth is, consumers stop to look at a product for no other reason than: "I like that. I don't know why, but I just like that."

Design insights research helps uncover what visual and verbal elements cause this instinctive appeal and delight. According to industry experts, if we can get them to stop and pick up our product, we have an 80% chance of the product being purchased. Instinct is a much stronger component of successful package design than most people think.

So how do we uncover these instinctive elements to win at shelf? Start with parts and pieces versus concepts. Dig deeper to find the meaning behind choices rather than focusing on the choices alone. Give consumers the tools to express their preferences and desires.

At Interbrand we create what we call a "toolkit." The research and design teams assemble various visual and verbal elements that might inspire a package design and use them to probe consumers ' likes and dislikes. These elements are typically a mix of the current designs on shelf and potential literal and metaphorical pictures, patterns, shapes and colors. We arm consumers with these toolkits and let them bring their ideal package design to life. The moderator then uses storytelling and probing techniques to uncover the meaning behind consumers' choices, ultimately creating a snapshot of what instinctively delights them and prompts them to purchase. With this data in hand, the design team has a real understanding of what will delight the target consumer and motivate them to buy. Team members are armed with design inspiration that is grounded in the consumer world before they even put pencil to paper.

Kicking off design

So what's our next step? We've done our consumer due diligence. We know our shopper and our consumer inside and out. We have a concise, crisp statement that captures what we want our product to communicate. Now it 's time to create that design brief.

Wait! Don't open that document template just yet. This brief is going to be visual, verbal, and truly inspiring to the design team that has to execute against it. At Interbrand, we pull our learnings together into a few simple, multi-sensorial, dimensional tools that immerse the designer in the world of the consumer and the ideal product experience. These tools include visual consumer archetyping as well as design inspiration boards that translate the shopper insights and design insights research into a tactile and dimensional experience. Armed with these tools, we have what we need for the design team to put pencil to paper and make magic happen.

If we're going to start the design process with consumers, we can't leave them in the dust. Once our team has developed multiple preliminary designs, we shouldn 't immediately assess them internally. This is another opportune time to involve consumers in the design process. Recruit some creative, articulate individuals and ask them to review the sketches, share their thoughts with the designers, and help to evolve the ideas. This dynamic, interactive session allows designers to obtain real-world feedback on early design concepts. It 's quick, easy, and incredibly eye-opening.

Using the voice of the consumer as our guide, we can now move forward with narrowing, refining, and evolving concepts until we arrive at a select few. We should also continue to channel the consumer in internal critique sessions, either literally or figuratively. After all, our goal is to develop a design that spurs him or her to buy.

Testing in the shopper world

With a number of designs in hand, it's time for a consumer reality check—testing in the shopper world. This is not a world in which a proposed design sits like a work of art on a blackboard, framed perfectly and lit from above. In the shopper world, sample designs sit on a shelf with hundreds of others (including competitors ') beneath fluorescent lighting that reflects linoleum and the row of products across the aisle. In the shopper world, our product may hold only one or two spaces on the shelf. It may sit on the bottom or be buried somewhere in the middle. In the shopper world, we have a split second to make an impact —not 30 minutes. The real test happens in a blink of an eye.

A "design inspiration" collage translates the consumer's ideal experience into a platform for package design concepts.

When testing designs in the shopper world, be sure to include a variety of scenarios with a number of SKUs and shelf locations to see how the designs will perform in any situation. Place them in a shelf environment whenever possible. If it 's not possible to get the designs on a shelf, show them for a split second on screen, an arm 's length away, to simulate an actual sales environment. Ask research participants what catches their eye and what they want to learn more about. Keep the questions broad at first, and then narrow to specific design elements. And remember: To maximize consumers ' input, don't lead them. The right way to phrase a question is: "What, if anything, about this design appeals to you?" The wrong way to phrase it is: "Tell me what you like about the colors in this design."

If we want a package design that delivers stopping, closing, and holding power, then we have to take a step back from the typical design development routine. Designing to both delight the consumer and deliver sales means we have to: 1) Engage the consumer early on and often; 2) Get to know the consumer 's alter ego, the shopper; and 3) Design and test for the split-second real world. "

Jennifer McGrath is director of brand strategy at Interbrand. She can be reached at jennifer.mcgrath@interbrand.com.