Make The Packaging Pop

Attention-grabbing packaging that communicates a store brand's identity is a critical marketing tool.

They marketing long might have relied not budgets, have on a massive but number retailers of methods to call attention to private brand products in-store. They know that sampling and demos draw shoppers' notice, for instance, as do end-cap displays and prominent promotional signage.

If they want their products to "pop" on the shelf every single day, however, retailers would be wise to invest in packaging that really stands out from the crowd. For many retailers, that investment also will require a change in mindset that takes them from imitation to differentiation.

"Too many … store brands suffer from an identity crisis, otherwise known as NBE-itis," contends Steve Martin, chief creative officer and managing director for Beverly, Mass.-based Marketing by Design. "They don't know who they are, just who they want to be like."

Who are you?

The first step retailers must take, therefore, to create attention-grabbing store brand packaging is to determine "who they are" — to really understand what each store brand stands for and what makes it different, says Sarah Deer, group client services director - retail for Elmwood, headquartered in the UK.

"Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead said a very profound thing: 'It's no longer good enough to be the best of the best; you need to be the only people who do what you do,"' she says. "And I think that's really, really important, because standing out is one thing, but standing for something so you can connect with your consumer on a rational and an emotional level is the thing that makes a fundamental difference."

In other words, people do not simply buy what you do — they buy why you do it, explains Greg Taylor, Elmwood's brand provocation director.

"[It's about] understanding what people would miss if you didn't exist on the planet and trying to deliver a distinct point of view," he says. "People may agree with you or disagree with you, but they can't ignore you."

Enhance appeal

Once a retailer has a clear understanding of its brand's identity, it's time to get noticed.

"The most important aspects of packaging are brand personality, clarity/consistency of message and visual impact," Martin says. "Your packaging must communicate exactly what your product offers consumers in a split second."

Here, color and shape should be primary considerations, Deer says, because they are the first attributes the human eye recognizes after movement.

"They really use these as a shortcut to help find packaging on shelf," she explains.

Recognizable national brands often serve as "navigation brands" within a category through color and shape, Deer notes, pointing to Rice-A-Roni and its red banner with bold white lettering as an example. And if a store brand becomes the "navigation brand" for the category, all the better.

Another strategy here is what Deer refers to as "zigging and zagging" — doing the opposite of what every other brand is doing.

"That's what we did for the Great Value relaunch that we did for Walmart," she says. "Everything around it was very brightly colored, so it just merged into the background. So we went white and neutral with that packaging because it stood out just because it was really different."

The packaging also must connect with the brand's intended consumers emotionally, especially as the national brands get more aggressive on price, notes Jim Jackson, managing partner, creative for Minneapolis-based Boom Island.

"The bigger objective is to win them over not just on price, but about something that the store brand delivers on its own," he says.

Great photography is critical, too, particularly on the food side, contends Jeff Schweigert, Boom Island's principal/owner.

"It is often the lead visual or the second item that is visually read on the box or packaging front," he says. "I think this is often where private label fails to stand out and compete against national brands."

But the end result should still look crisp and clean.

"Being too busy can cause confusion to a shopper and perhaps make them look past a great product," says Chris Sommers, director of sales development for Impressions Inc., St. Paul, Minn. "This look includes a clear brand image/logo, clearly stated benefits to the consumer and overall appeal."

Printing quality counts, too, maintains Steve Gosling, president of Plymouth, Mass.-based Cheer Pack. His company's packaging, for example features high-end Rotogravure printing that uses a full range of Panton and CMYK colors, as well as the option of quality photographic printing so the depicted product looks "100 percent correct."

Give tiers their due

Many retailers have a multi-tier store brand program, and that reality also matters when it comes to packaging design. Schweigert notes that the retailer's approach to photography should support the value proposition for each tier.

"Value does not mean cheap; photography should reflect quality, not compromise," he says. "National brand equivalent needs to work hard to appeal to taste and quality ingredients. Premium needs to entice the consumer to try a unique flavor, an indulgence or something for a special occasion."

Retailers should consider the packaging type used for each tier as well, Deer says. If the structural packaging is the same from tier to tier, customers really will not believe the quality change from one tier to another is genuine — even if the color scheme differs.

"The more premium the tier, the more customers expect from the packaging format," she adds. "They'll expect little bits of detail, little bits of craft, and it's those details and touches that can really make the difference between a premium tier being run of the mill and being authentic and believable."

Conversely, the value tier cannot look "cheap." Retailers could use different colors, images and coatings to differentiate among the tiers, Sommers says, pointing to Target Corp.'s Market Pantry and Archer Farms brands as great examples of tier differentiation.

Even if a retailer is able to create a differentiated look and feel for each of its store brand tiers, having too many unique store brands under each tier actually can be a detriment to getting noticed, Jackson maintains.

"Some retailers have 20 to 30 of their own brands, and some of those brands are virtually indistinguishable from each other," he says. "There's a blurring — I don't necessarily know where they came from."

In addition to changing a packaging's structure and design according to tier, retailers also will want to consider differentiating according to category. As Taylor explains, consumers are in "replacement mode" when it comes to store brands in some categories — and in "treat mode" when it comes to others.

"For ketchup, for example, [the packaging] needs to stop people in the aisle; you need to disrupt them — they are just looking to replace, not browse," he says. "In treat mode, they're looking for a product that's more about treating themselves, and you're going to really be looking for something that's going to engage people in browsing mode. You want something very attractive that's really going to draw them in and keep them awhile at a fixture to browse the story of the brand."