Motorola approached Kaleidoscope to design a brand packaging solution for their new mobile device targeting the core of their edgy, very tech-savvy younger consumer base – tech-centrics, millenials and screen-agers. The design focused on the individual that is always on the move whose life seems to run 24/7 and they depend on mobile connectivity to stay in touch with their world at all times. The product boasts a dual core processor and 4G connectivity, which is unbelievably fast, enabling the consumer to work from anywhere, access social media, communities, watch movies, shoot high-def video and even Skype across the world with the swipe of a finger.
The packaging concept Go doubles as an amplifier for your phone which transcends beyond typically user experience after purchase by offering an asset not just a packaging container that is discarded after purchase.
Go 2D packaging design & structural ideation concepts:
Packaging Prototypes: Go, A Connected Life & A Life 360:
A Life 360 concept:
View the Life 360 brand video on our Youtube page here.
Delivering consistent quality that consumers can trust.
The mission of private brands is no longer centered on finding ways to make a few extra cents by giving consumers less expensive, look-alike alternatives to national brands. Private brands have stepped up, and a projected market share of 35% by 20151 is proof that retailers’ confidence and momentum is growing. They are aiming to deliver consistent quality that consumers trust. In March of this year, Texas retailer H-E-B pitted trial of its private brand products against national brands as part of the “Texas Showdown Challenge,” giving away private brand products for free to customers purchasing the national brand.2
And consumer confidence is growing, too, as more and more are turning towards private brands. Could it be that the recession has given them reason to pay closer attention to their wallets? Possibly. Consumer Reports noted in a September 2010 study that a family spending $100 a week on groceries could save up to $1,500 a year. And they like what they are buying. In the same study, taste test results versus 21 big-name brands, showed store brands beating the national brand three times and tying 11.
Retailers are in a prime position to set goals for growth and increased market share – consumer needs, consumer confidence, and the retailer’s ability to deliver are converging.
Aligning product development with consumer need states
During the recent Store Brands Decisions Innovation & Marketing Summit, John Seal from Burke, Inc stated that, “[American] private label brands that are not doing research now will be doing it in five years.” Many US retailers are getting pointers from the successful private brands in Europe, which invest heavily in consumer research. Carrefour, for example, is seeking to grow from 25% to 40% share via new products and consumer marketing programs — two approaches that stem directly form an intimate knowledge of its shoppers1. And consumers appreciate that retailers are listening — Asda’s “Chosen By You” is the fastest growing private label in the UK.2
An intimate knowledge of the consumer can steer an organization’s product development and marketing efforts towards offerings that get results. The better retailers know consumers, the more opportunities they have to uncover an unmet need. Why do they shop? Do they keep grocery lists? At what point in their shopping experience are they most likely to make an impulse purchase? What anxieties do they face when prepping for a shopping experience? Some retailers may use monthly satisfaction studies that compile quantitative data, while others work with marketing companies like Catalina to analyze shopper data and habits.
1 “Carrefour seeks dramatic PL expansion,” Store Brands Decisions, July 7, 2011
2 “Asda’s PL is the fastest growing in the UK.” Store Brands Decisions, July 7, 2011
Improving the shopping experience
Successful private brands are positioning against strategic portfolios to drive product, brand, and packaging choices with an end goal of simplifying purchase decisions for consumers. In simple terms, they are getting rid of the brands and products that are redundant or do not deliver consistent quality, so that consumers can focus on clear-cut, relevant options. And in some cases, they are identifying opportunities for new brands and product offerings.
A recent trip to Kroger-owned banner, Food 4 Less, shows that Kroger has done its portfolio homework. The retailer strategically uses three brands to fulfill most of its center of store offerings: Value (endorsed by Kroger), for entry price point products; Kroger, a national brand equivalent; and Private Selection, a premium alternative to national brands. However, not every brand lives within every food offering. Staple items like flour or canned goods are only offered in the Value and the Kroger line, while Private Selection is used to market items where consumers may be more likely to indulge like tea and baked goods.
Kroger seems to have landed on a strategically sound portfolio of private brands. The portfolio reflects a true understanding of consumers’ needs and uses as few brands as possible to market products and services that meet those needs. And because they’ve dissected the target deep enough, they’ve been able to extract additional revenues through the use of a premium brand where consumers see value – its premium ice cream, for example, retails for $4.98 at Food 4 Less, $.80 more than the same size Breyers shelved next to it.
Developing reliant brands
Higher marks on quality, stronger consumer intimacy, and clear-cut portfolios almost make the need for “me too” products irrelevant. Don’t worry, I said, “almost.” I’m sure some look-alikes will stick around for the consumers that need reassurance that they are truly buying an equivalent to the national brand, but for those that don’t, retailers have the tools and the path to innovate and create brands that can stand on their own. Target’s Up and Up, Market Pantry, and Archer Farms brands are just three of the brands that round out Target’s portfolio – each with a clear promise that differentiates them from each other and goes beyond being just an alternative to a national brand.
In the over five years that O Organics has been on the market, it has reached over 300 SKU’s and exceeds $400 million in annual sales — the Safeway-owned brand capitalized on a need for accessible organic products, not an opportunity to copy a national brand. But it doesn’t stop there. The private brand continues to innovate to drive growth, expanding into foodservice outlets; developing a presence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; and even partnering with CBS to launch EcoAd – the CBS Corporation’s new form of advertising that directly funds green projects in local communities.1
1 Sustainable Food News, “Safeway’s O Organics help launch CBS network’s new ‘sustainable media.’” January 10, 2011.
Be face to face with consumers
If you’ve got it, flaunt it. For years, consumer-packaged goods brands have worked to identify the attributes they own (equities) in the minds of consumers, so that they can leverage them to reinforce an emotional connection. Within this equation, there is one thing private brand owners have that national CPG brands would just die for – day-to-day, in-person contact with consumers. The retail store is just as much a part of the brand experience as the actual products that consumers take home with them. Unlike CPG companies that are forced to heavily rely on expensive advertising and displays or a few square inches of a package to reinforce an emotional connection with consumers, retailers like Trader Joes’ are training associates to live the brand, reinforcing the connection through human contact. Plus they have thousands of square feet (not inches) in which to engage with consumers.
Retailers are also coming to the realization that relationships with manufacturing partners can be an asset. Kroger believes that strong vendor alliances are key to the ability to grow categories.1 They are also investing in technology to speed innovation and streamline the product development process across all functions.2 And they are recognizing the suppliers that help Kroger further its goal of continually improving the customer experience.
1 Store Brands Decisions, “CPG Practices Driver Kroger’s Approach to Store Brands.” March 15, 2011.
2 Store Brands Decisions, “Kroger Selects Oracle’s PLM to Speed Store Brands Innovation.” August 2, 2011.
Article Published in Packaging Digest MagazineSeptember 2011 Issue
Designing with the end-in-mind reduces production bottlenecks, speeds time-to-shelf and disrupts the market in the process.
In today’s crowded markets, differentiation is increasingly important to stand out and get noticed. When a retail product has a proprietary formulation (i.e. Coke) or patented design feature like Swifter, it’s much easier to capture market share, and in some cases, create a whole new category. This form of intellectual property not only gives brands an edge in the market, it creates a barrier for me too products and in some cases with a design or utility patent or trademark.
But there are plenty of everyday retail products on the market without patents, ubiquitous products that have become commodities like toilet paper, dish soap, or even snack foods. However, manufacturers have been reluctant to invest marketing dollars in everyday items that are considered value driven commodity products (unless of course the products are well-known brands).
For smaller manufacturers margins are thin and volume drives their market. There are ways to differentiate here and raise the reservation price point (what consumers are willing to pay) and increase margins. But to accomplish this goal, brand marketers and designers need to learn to partner with engineering and manufacturing at earlier stages of conceptual development.
There needs to be more action and less talk about working together. If you want to make big things happen, there needs to be big change. The change may have to begin with a paradigm shift in thinking, by designers, about the value of capturing creative thinking from the production and manufacturing teams.
Recently, I participated in a large creative ideation session that included engineers and production staff. Some of the most interesting idea builds came from the “non-creative” participants. Not because their ideas were better or they had better insights. Their ideas were valued before the session even started (by just inviting them) and their ideas brought new perspective that didn’t exist in prior developments. When a new product development process moves beyond aimless design and leverages cross functional collaboration, its magic and everyone wins.
Collaboration and Co-creation from Ideation to Manufacturing Marketing, design and manufacturing working in parallel not only promotes a healthy discovery process, but the partnership can lead to disruptive design insights that create a unique point of difference. Working together eliminates the typical stage gate process (and the project “hand-off”) and lets ideas evolve quickly, with buy-in from all stakeholders. That evolution allows the most effective ideas to emerge giving the entire team confidence and enthusiasm to push their limitations with new achievable results.
One obvious benefit of downstream collaboration is reducing costly bottlenecks in production; a critical time that is most likely already compressed and strained. Losing a week or two in timing a product launch could cost a company millions in lost sales opportunities not to mention costs associated with advertising and promoting the launch. Getting a product to market quicker also makes it more difficult for the fast followers to steal market share or big brands enough time to react. The extra time on shelf will help establish product leadership, capture a bigger market share, and increase overall sales.
Most packaging design projects face similar difficulties in regards to timing and budgets. So how can these collaborative teams create better design solutions that are more cost effective and do it in less time? By allowing teams to work in an environment that embraces iterative ideation, iterative design and iterative prototyping. Changes in technology, material specifications, manufacturing and printing have created complex challenges and diverse opportunities. You need everyone on board to bring these industry specific ideas and their experience to the table and begin a process for co-creation and the ideation sessions are perfect for that kind of thought leadership to help ideas take shape.
After artists capture initial ideas on paper, iterative design and rapid prototyping takes the subjectivity out of each concept and creates a concrete framework for feedback. The feedback should include the original ideation teams, brand and executive teams and consumers. This can be done concurrently with structural packaging design, brand packaging graphics and visual identity. Like the changing images in a Kaleidoscope, brand, color, form and function must align synergistically to be effective functionally and elicit an emotion. Sometimes, the packaging innovation itself is the catalyst for new revenue streams and differentiation.
Market Makers and Trail Blazers Oscar Mayer is a great example of a food company that is considered a “market maker”. One of the most powerful ways to bring products to market faster is to create your own sector through product innovation or shelf disruption. Oscar Mayer’s introduction of Lunchables™ was the first food product of the time that incorporated moist and dry food packaged together and was considered revolutionary at the time. The overall concept combined with new packaging technology created an immediate barrier to entry for the competition.
Oscar Mayer was also one of the first to introduce lunchmeats and cheeses that were vacuum formed and could be merchandised in the refrigerated section of grocery stores. This innovation took consumers out of the deli counter and enabled quicker and easier access to deli products without waiting in line. Although there have been many iterations of the same concept from many other brand manufacturers Oscar Mayer is still the recognized leader.
Other brands rely on effective design communication and unique structural packaging to capture the attention of the consumer. For example, Method was the first to create a structurally revolutionary bottle as a primary container for its hand soap line. This innovation has given birth to many fast followers and copycats, but Method will always own the equity as the first brand to leap from the ledge of standard hand soap packaging.
Whether a brand is launching a new packaging structure or a bold new design for their products, it is critical that ideation, design, pre-press production and manufacturing be a voice in the process from start to finish. Without this 360 degree development of the new product, the window for launch and inevitably a products competitive advantage get lost in a process of working in silos, stage gate processes and downstream hand-offs.
Moving Beyond Design Intent In many cases packaging designers are creating design solutions that align with a creative strategy while maintaining brand standards and packaging architecture. A designer is tasked with solving one problem while inherently and unknowingly creating another for production. Designers cannot be expected to be IT experts just because they work on a computer, as much as they cannot be expected to be production experts just because they are designers. Working with downstream production specialists and printers can help designers work with the end in mind.
Another constraint for designers is digital output as proof of concept. Although there are many various forms of output (inkjet, thermal, laser Jet, etc), none of these technologies offers the ability to print specialty inks or specialty stocks. And as much as these print tools are great for rapid prototyping of color, their output is only an interpolation of a print environment.
How can designers envision a design alternative on foil stock using transparent inks and custom color matching? How would they even know to ask unless they are trying to mimic a look or effect that has already been produced? Iterative color imaging will help solve potential downstream problems early on in the design process and the process allows “happy accidents” to occur that can alter the design thinking. In addition, consulting with separators early on can be a great help in understanding how print order, SWAP color, and custom colors need to be addressed to meet printer specifications.
Like brand packaging designers, structural design teams also face similar and at times, more complex challenges. At the same time, structural ID teams are expected to be experienced in manufacturing and deliver beyond design intent. This is why engineering and prototyping is a structural designer’s best friend (or should at least be embraced).
Today’s rapid prototyping tools can help designers and manufacturers quickly visualize 2D concepts in a 3D form. This is an important step not only for design development, but also for manufacturers to begin to assess downstream challenges. It’s a great time to collaborate and meet the challenges of the market, the goals of the brand team, and to take market share from competitors through innovation. Prototyping should not be looked at as an end-game process for visualizing a final design, but used as an iterative tool to fail fast forward. And do it early in the process.
When designers, marketers and their manufacturing partners work together, potential problems become team challenges that are turned into market changing opportunities.
The makers of the bag-less vacuum cleaner are at it again with their blade-less fan. Not only is the new Dyson Hot unique in its form and function, but the innovative design resembles that of a portal in which could be used for transport to another world. The design is unconventional, unpretentious and very Dyson.
Dyson Hot Air Multiplier
The Hot boasts an industry marveling Air Multiplier technology, which accelerates surrounding air through the narrow aperture, disrupting a spaces climate range from 32 – 99 degrees. Like most Dyson products, the Hot comes with an array of features including touch tilt directional movement, a remote for oscillation and temperature control and whole room heat distribution.
However, the product benefits are not what is turning consumer heads, nor emptying wallets at $399.99 a pop. Look at that design! Not only is the Hot sleek and elegant in its form, but it becomes an masterfully crafted accent or piece of artwork to adorn empty space in need of a cool breeze or a warm current of air.
Hot, much like Dyson’s bag-less vacuum cleaner and hand drier, own their respective categories with regard to innovation and style, but can the technology justify the expense? Luxury product have their price, but will consumers buy into the ambiance and prestige that comes with this new product design or is the economy still squeezing disposable spending?
If you are a fan of the Back to the Future series, you will recall the space age and futuristic kicks adorned by Marty McFly in part II of the trilogy. Sometimes fiction doesn’t always stay fiction. Nike has just stepped back in time, or is it forward in time? The Nike MAG will launch this year and has been designed to be a “precise replica”, according to Nike, as the shoe worn in the movie with perhaps a few upgrades.
The shoe comes equipped with glowing LED panels and an electroluminescent Nike logo on the strap and is sure to be on many Christmas wish lists this season. I am sure the DeLorean DMC-12 and hoverboard will be sold separately.
Guy Gangi, Director Brand Strategy, Planning and Design
Thoughts by Guy Gangi, Director of Brand Strategy, Planning and Design
Budweiser this week unveiled a new can design, which has only been modified 12 times since it first hit the market in 1936. The new face of the brand is causing shockwaves through the design community. An iconic brand like Budweiser usually does not make such a radical packaging design.
Designers determine brand equity using the tools of design: color, form, typography, imagery and function of the design as well as consumer perceptions. A more subtle redesign similar to that of Coca-Cola circa 2008 by the firm Turner Duckworth, would be a safer move. The Budweiser new design pushes the limits further. The Coca-Cola redesign focused on a deep dive into the rich history of Coca-Cola to uncover the original brand equities that had had been tinkered with over the decades. By reincorporating those equities back into the design, consumers were able to align with the playfulness and authenticity they associated with the brand from the past.
Budweiser design history
Has Bud lost equity? Have they gone too far? Will the emotional connections with the Budweiser brand be sustained or will consumers wonder, “What happened to my Budweiser?” I imagine that Budweiser would not risk their flagship brand’s market share or reputation without excessive and thorough consumer research, market testing and consumer validation.
So why did Bud make such a radical change? Are traditional design conventions the most effective determination of brand equity? Or are consumers more discerning and perceptive than they are given credit for? Only time will tell for the Clydesdales.
