Foodservice Packaging:
The Forgotten Frontier
Discover the untapped potential of foodservice packaging in revolutionizing brand presence and consumer engagement. From cultivating chef buy-in to leveraging innovative packaging designs, we explore trends in reshaping the future of food marketing and sustainability.
OUR THINKING
The World Through Our Lens
It’s all about perspective. Our team has thoughts on CPG branding, strategy, design, packaging, prototyping, sustainability, design trends, and just about everything else impacting our industry. Want a fresh POV in your inbox? Subscribe for updates (and follow us on social!).
From The Cave To The Cloud
Design is an ever-evolving discipline with many facets. They are informed and feed off the technology, trends and culture of their times but are all united by the need to tell a story about an object, whether physical or metaphorical. In terms of graphic design, this discipline is rooted in visual storytelling and communication with a history stretching back to hieroglyphics and the first cave paintings like those in Lascaux, France. Primitive, yes, but through and through the start of iconography.
Quiet! Leading For Introverts
Staying inside and working remotely has pushed all of us introverts further into our introversion, and those who were extroverted or straddling the line between the two have waded deeper into their own internal thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, professional communication and conversations have become constant albeit distant as we incorporate technology such as Slack or Teams into our day-to-day. So, how do we as introverts live in a world of endless communication but still have the energy to devote to those we are leading?
How Long Can You Scream?
Once upon a time all a brand needed to do was attract attention to itself by pointing out the frailties of any given category, scream it from the rooftops and, hey-presto, you were a provocative upstart brand.
Foundation of Success
Most categories, at some point in time, have been impacted and influenced by consumers’ changing interests or needs.
Bootstrap Your Sneakers
With the growing breadth of variety, is there room for all these products to compete at shelf and in consumers’ minds? Can they all be successful? While consumers will never abandon their beloved brands, there is always room for small batch, “hand-crafted” niche products that consumers love to discover and share.
Where is Your Consumer?
Too often companies look at customer acquisition too narrowly and place them into two categories: retail-only or direct-to-consumer.
Eating Your Own Dog Food
While this may sound gross, dogfooding-or eating your own dog food-is a way for brands to use their own products and services in real-world situations and test for quality control or other issues. This mindset is vital to the success of challenger style startups.
Why Your Story Isn’t Enough
The theory of disruptive innovation posits that incumbent brands cannot (or choose not to) serve their entire market and instead focus on their most profitable consumers at the high-end, resulting in niche markets of underserved consumers.
Turning Negatives into Positives
When it comes to brands, I believe the successful ones will add benefits to their consumers’ lives rather than overly focusing on the setbacks.
Keep it Fresh: CPG Innovation for Our Next Normal
As consumers become more accustomed to a predominantly quarantined lifestyle, companies must solve new challenges to maintain their growth while attracting new consumers. Whether it’s embracing meals at home or reaching out to local grocers, CPG brands have a huge opportunity to continually shape and redefine their relevance for the future.
Disinfecting Brand Behavior
We are experiencing real changes in consumer behavior and online shopping, so we must support consumers with true brand solutions.
Going Digital
Embracing empathetic communication is what allowed us to adapt so successfully. We felt secure in ourselves and our capabilities.