My last post on package design has prompted some great comments, which is wonderful. I was trying to be provocative after all.
One common thread I noticed when I talk to folks in person about packaging and that I saw reflected in some of the comments on here is the notion that packaging is ultimately just about having your logo on a box. In which case packaging is superfluous at best, and ego-tastic at worst.
In other words, specially designed direct-to-consumer packaging is an exercise in vanity that will end up in the trash ultimately, so why bother?
I think that if you approach package design as simply another way to get your winery logo into some wino’s house, it almost certainly will get thrown away - immediately - just like all the other boring cardboard packers that wineries ship. That’s what invasive, no-value marketing deserves to have happen to it.
However, if you instead approach package design with the consumer as your focus, and think of ways to surprise and delight them, then I think you’re in a whole other universe.
The graph on the upper right is from Fast Company and comes from data generated by the UK based Design Council. It shows that a cohort of businesses that are “design alert” have outperformed the market by 200%. Here are some other tid-bits from their recent report on design:
- Every £100 a design alert business spends on design increases turnover by £225. (turnover is the volume of business over a period of time)
- Businesses that see design as integral don’t need to compete on price as much as others. Where design is integral, less than half of businesses compete mainly on price, compared to two thirds of those who don’t use design.
- On average, design alert businesses increase their market share by 6.3% through using design.
I think it’s pretty clear there is value in design. The key to me though is to design with the consumer in mind, not the winery. Make your logo small, focus on the product and the experience of opening it. At the very least you’ll get more people sending your wine as a gift, and at best you’ll forge a stronger relationship with your customers. And that’s what it’s all about.
