Product Packaging: An Overlooked Strategy

An article on AdWeek.com announced recent findings by Nielsen Co. that private label brands are considered equivalent to name brands.  According to the article, Nielsen findings include:

• Private label accounted for $81 billion in U.S. sales this year, up 10.2 percent from the previous year.
• Sixty-three percent of consumers believe private labels' brand quality is just as good as name brand quality, while 33 percent of respondents said they consider store brands to be of higher quality than name brands.
• Sixteen percent, however, said store brands aren't comparable in quality to name brands, and the packaging is "cheap-looking"
• Price and value are the primary drivers for growth, with 74 percent of consumers expressing price as the key purchase factor. Two-thirds (67 percent) of those surveyed said store brands provide "extremely good value" for their prices, while 35 percent are willing to pay the same or more for a store brand if they like it. Twenty-four percent of Americans, on the other hand, said they'd pay more for name brands if worth the extra price. 

Private label brands will need to step up their packaging efforts to win over the remaining brand-name consumers. 

  

These packages are similar, however the private brand appears very outdated.  In all honestly, it looks like a bag of cheese curls that has been sitting on the shelf since the early 90s.  Private labels will not necessarily have to spend big money changing its packaging, but rather update it to match the current  styles.  A new, more simple, color-scheme and less cheesy (no pun intended) alligator pose along with smooth lines rather than jagged edges would do wonders for this package.

It is easy to overlook the importance of packaging.  However, packaging contributes to the overall brand image and is reflective of the brand's quality.  What are some characteristics of strong packaging?

1. Packaging should stand out from the competition in an effort to motivate the consumer to purchase.

2. Packaging should remain simple in order to clearly communicate the product to the consumer: avoid cluttering of text and images.

3. Packaging should reflect the brand message.

Consider the recent changes in chewing gum packaging.  Wrigley's Orbit gum moved away from the stick-gum-wrapped-in-thicker-paper and introduced its product in a more unique package. Orbit gum is smaller and thicker than a traditional stick of gum and is packaged in two rows inside a brightly colored thin-cardboard box. Wrigley took this one step further with its 5 Gum by making it's package taller and leaner than Orbit and increasing the number of rows of gum inside the package by using traditional flat-long gum.  Both of these packages stand out from the traditional gum packaging increasing the consumer's interest in trying the brand.

   

What products, based on packaging, do you find most appealing?