“Your packaging is critical to your brand. It’s the last three feet and last three seconds (and the ultimate measure of success) of your marketing program. But, these days, packaging has to do more than just “pop” at the shelf; it must communicate the story of your brand and become an essential part of consumers’ daily lives. Is your packaging powered to do all that?”

This is so very true and good packaging design can help you make your product, your brand, and your packaging an “essential part of consumers’ daily lives.”

Examples of custom, limited edition, water bottles by Evain designed for different audiences.

So you may ask, what’s the recipe for creating this type of packaging?

1. Meaning: The first step in creating packaging that will communicate the story of your brand is to know what story you want to tell. People don’t want to simply purchase your brand they want to be apart of it and by knowing exactly what you want to communicate you can achieve this. Figure out your story and then try to make this visual through your packaging.
2. Audience: Packaging is an interaction between the product, your brand, and the audience so to better communicate through your packaging you must know your audience. Knowing what they relate to, what issues affect them, and their lifestyle will allow you to create a packaging that centers on these things.
3. Response: Once your brand has meaning, create a list of outcomes that your packaging could achieve. Think about your audience and what types of emotions, feelings, and reactions the product packing can evoke in your customers.
4. Stay Informed: The last ingredient in the packaging recipe is to stay informed about your competition. This is a simple task that is often over looked. Staying on top of what the competitors are doing allows you to be innovative and stay ahead.

Put all these things together and your packaging will have a recipe for success.

So when the above quote asks you, “Is your packaging powered to do all that?” Your reply will be, “Yes it is!”

Jim George from Shelf Impact came up with 5 labeling ideas to solve marketing challenges:

1. Highlighting innovative shape. Kids like products that feature fun colors and design in their packaging. Clear Beverage Corp. did just this with their “Kid Fuel” naturally flavored water. They also designed the shape of the bottle to resemble a sports bottle with curves for a child’s small hands to easily grip. They also made the packaging educational. Each bottle has a quiz question and Professor Smart’s answer is revealed after the beverage is consumed and the bottle is refilled with water.
2. Sizzling as bacon’s main ‘touchpoint’. It is important for the packaging of a premium product to reflect the quality of the product. Tyson changed the packaging of their bacon by adding a label that featured a gold-outlined shield area with red, white, and gold on a blue background, while still leaving room to view the meat. The new design improved how easy it was to find and recognize the brand.
3. Encouraging participation. Campbell’s made 7.5 million special-edition labels to show the quality ingredients that they use. Along with the new label, they started a program where you enter a code online from your can to receive a free pack of tomato seeds for yourself, as well as 100 seeds for urban communities and schools.
4. Pulling double duty. Sometimes marketers have to create a package that both attracts attention, as well as protects against theft and counterfeits. Nutrex Research did this by creating a shrink-sleeve label that is both eye-appealing and protects the product from tampering.
5. Signaling cause marketing. People like companies that help people and allow the customer to help by purchasing the product. Tide showed this with their packaging for the Loads of Hope campaign. They have special yellow caps that read, “You can help”, and it features pictures of Hurricane Katrina victims on the front.

According to Food Production Daily, Nestle will be making all of its Christmas selection custom boxes fully recyclable. One change they made was removing the plastic inserts that held the chocolate bars in place and replacing them with a card presentation tray. This way, the chocolate can still be nicely displayed in the custom box and be easily recycled when you are finished with it. This is one step for Nestle to be more environmentally-friendly in their packaging to reduce waste and address the concerns of their environmentally-conscious customers.