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 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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Last week I was invited to Net-A-Porter's offices for a fashion show. (Thank you very much, Alix Partners.) How does Net-A-Porter offer incredible value to its customers? With most items costing three figures, it's not exactly Primark.
I couldn't fathom it out, until a young professional woman from Alix Partners told me how:
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All my clients are feeling squeezed at the moment. Sales are harder to make. Costs are rising and margins declining. Marketing spend is under pressure. Staff are the biggest cost of all, so clients are making staff redundant.
How can you market without increasing marketing spend?
How do you use fewer staff to deliver an even better service?
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I work with founder-led companies. Innocent, Rude Health, Graham & Green, and Jamsmith, wonderful artisan jam made in the Yorkshire Dales.
The values and beliefs of the founders influence the way these companies think about and do business. They are communicated through branding and packaging.
I've also just worked with an individual client looking at his personal 'brand' and how he comes across to clients.
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