The
package is the product.
This basic conceptthat a product's package has an impact on the consumer's
perceptions of the product's performanceis as true today as it was 50 years
ago when it was first identified.
How can a marketer apply this principle in evaluating package design? By considering
modern consumer trends and integrating them into packaging.
A package communicates the product's personality through weight, feel in hand,
color, graphics and overall structure. These characteristics are transmitted
to the consumer during seven stages:
Point of purchase
Transporting the product home
Home storage/storage on the person
When opening
When dispensing or consuming
During reclosing/restoring
At disposal
At each of these stages the product has the ability to satisfy
or disappoint, the ability to empathize or discourage. In essence, each stage
represents an opportunity to communicate the product's personality.
Communicating that personality is an evolving process. It begins with knowing
or anticipating the needs of the customer. It requires an empathy for the
person's lifestyle and experience.
Picture the Soccer Mom who needs to make time for multiple demands but still
aspires to being a Martha Stewart protg. Pillsbury Royal Cinnamon Rolls
may be an example where the combined ability to provide "home made"
baked goods with speed and convenience speaks to that consumer at an emotional
level.
The product's location in the refrigerated section communicates "fresh,"
and the spiral packaging communicates fast.
To design empathic packaging you must interpret data in unique ways. It requires
insight, insight beyond a consumer's age, income, geographic region, family
size and so forth.
Ultimately, it means observing the ways people think and
behave and make preferences. This allows you to infer trends. It is by observation
and immersion into the lifestyle of the customer that the early warning signs
of trends may be identified.
From ethnographic lifestyle studies we have identified numerous trends for
marketers who want to understand the consumer on a personal trends. Three
of these trendssimplicity, mobility, and the cyber lifehave the most relevance
to packaging.
Simplicity
We are in the age of the information revolution. Consumers are struggling
to cope with the speed and the volume of messages being communicated. Their
reaction towards this is a trend toward simplicity.
Simplicity means less waste and less over-spending. It means
an increased interest in pure flavors and ingredients, easy assembly and designs,
and an increased demand for convenience.
Simplicity is expressed emotionally and physically. From a packaging perspective,
the most important of these is the physical expression.
Physical simplicity means simple foods, simple products and simple use. Words
that are cues for simplicity are convenience, less hassle, fewer steps, intuitive
products.
Products that are already tapping into the simplicity trend include Uncle
Ben's Rice Bowls, Oscar Mayer Lunchables, and juice and snacks that are offered
in individual packages. These types of products are easy to prepare (or already
prepared), easy to open, easy to consume, and easy to clean up.
From an emotional standpoint, simplicity is a return to basics: products that
are low hype, such as vegetables; and low in salt, MSG and additives; and
products that are natural, organic or communicate high integrity, such as
whole grain cereals.
Nostalgic packaging, such as Breyer's ice cream cartons, plays to the emotions
of simplicity.
How can you use this trend in your own package design? Consider the number
of features on your package, or how complicated it is. Try to bring today's
technology to an older package to simplify it.
Mobility
The world is operating at a faster pace than ever. People have more to do,
more places to go and more people to be with. We are living our lives on the
move, and this is having an impact on packaging at several levels.
Mobility
is affecting how people shop. Shopping is more of a chore now; it entails
running into a store on the way to and from other events.
Mobility means people are eating on the run. They're choosing to patronize
an in-store salad bar or choosing yogurt with a spoon built into the lid,
rather than stopping for a traditional meal.
Mobility has changed our concept of storage. Food is no longer stored simply
in the refrigerator or the pantry. It has extended to the backpack, the bicycle
and the car.
Mobility means today's family eats in shifts, between sports practice and
study groups, fitting meals around committee meetings and working late.
Some examples of packaging trends that take advantage of this trend toward
mobility include:
Products that can be consumed without preparation.
Minimizing of packaging, such as cereal moving from
boxes to bags.
Single-serving packages.
Packaging designed to assist rapid consumption, such
as the Dean's Chug milk containers.
Packages that are portable.
Products that can be consumed without the need to store.
How can you capitalize on the mobility trend in
your own packages? Try to eliminate the need for tools and the need for
a stable surface. Concentrate on the ergonomics of the package and how it
fitsboth in the hand and in the lifestyle.
The Cyber Life
Everyone knows the personal computer has changed the world, but the cyber
life is more extensive than the revolution on the desktop.
The cyber life implies that technological and sociological changes are intertwined,
that the way we think and behave is being impacted by the technology surrounding
us.
For example, our sense of community is changing via the Internet. Our neighbors,
our reference groups, may be further afield, but we may feel closer akin.
Imagine the impact of word-of-mouth recommendations that come from friends
in different locales.
Another major change due to the Internet is in how we shop. Nearly anything,
from groceries to clothes to automobiles, can be purchased on-line these
days. Instead of static displays, consumers are getting used to interactive,
conversational, customized presentations.
The bottom line for packaging designers is that the on-line life will require
fundamental changes.
Not only will the role of packaging changehow much less important is the
package when the consumer doesn't see it until it is delivered?but how
people communicate preferences and recommendations is changing.
How can package designers take into account the cyber life? They must consider
that consumers are seeking product information at warp speed, from a 2D-computer
screen rather than from a static
display in a store.
And they must consider that the cyber life means virtually nothing is local
any moreany one in the world can have access to any product.
Conclusion
The package is the product. Today's packaging designers must understand
and take advantage of consumer trendsmost importantly simplicity, mobility
and the cyber lifeto keep their packages in tune with their customers.