The only test of whether your packaging design works in store is sales. It's not what the design agency tells you. It's not what you think as the founder; you're probably too close to your product to judge how it comes across to outsiders to your brand.
Stage One: Does it catch the consumer's eye?
Look at the amount of choice she has here.
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I've enjoyed my Graze boxes so I thought I'd ask Graze for their insights into starting out. Here Ben Jones, Co-Founder of Graze, gives you his freshly prepared wisdom. Thank you very much, Ben.
5 Bits of Wisdom – Ben Jones, Co-Founder of Graze
1. "Spiritual – good things happen to good people, in any start-up you always need a little bit of luck so be nice to everyone and boost your karma.
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Claire of Breckland Orchard, maker of posh pop, has all the freshness and zing of one of her drinks, and here she is to share her Four Things with you, in her words:
1. SHARE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
"Sam Walton, the founder of Wal*Mart, had a great saying: ‘Share everything you can with your suppliers. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them’.
I was the Mars Account Director for Asda for several years, and although Sam’s words kind of made sense then, it’s only when I started my own business that they really hit home.
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I repeatedly research pack design and pack communications for Firefly Tonics, innocent drinks, and Rude Health.
For Rude Health, we needed to compel attention for their - newly listed in 350 Tesco stores - granola. And explain what granola is - it's a new category - and unfamiliar. And compete with all those habitual brightly coloured cereal purchases in the cereal aisle. Off the back of the consumer research we did, Rude Health employed a bright colour, made the word Granola very big, made the product shot appealing (it couldn't be a window for technical reasons but it looks like one), listed out the ingredients clearly.
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Jamie Mitchell, formerly Innocent's UK Managing Director, and now CEO of Daylesford Organic, shares with us his thoughts on why small brands can always win against big ones. Many thanks to you, Jamie.
In his words:
"Having worked with, met with and generally hung out with lots of small, independent brands, one thing comes through over and over again when I think about which ones are most likely to succeed in their chosen (viciously competitive) market: “I think, therefore I am”. OK, so maybe linking Descartes' existential theories to strategies for small brands may be a bit of a stretch, but let me try and convince you.
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