If you’ve seen our latest post then you’ll know how to get your products into supermarkets, but what happens next? It’s important to know how to get your products noticed by customers and start driving sales.
We spoke with our design expert James to get an insight into how to stand out on the shelves, here’s what he had to say:
So what is branding? And why is it so important for your business and product? The common misconception is that branding is simply a logo or slogan. And although these are key parts to branding, it does, however, go far beyond this. Branding includes every aspect of a consumers experience, from your logo, product, social media posts, in store advertising, marketing efforts, customer service, internal staff brand culture and beyond.
In short, branding is the way in which your customer perceives you when they hear or think of your company name, service or product. This includes everything they think they know about your brand, including factual information, such as your bright yellow packaging, but also emotive elements, like for example that it’s luxurious.
When considering your brand, understanding why branding is such a key factor to your business is vital:
“Branding is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
In the competitive world of retail and branding, your product needs to be able to stand out from the vast amount of products and brands displayed on the shelf and draw customers in.
Your brand and product needs to have something that makes it truly special and worthy of receiving the attention of shoppers.
When considering how your product stands out on shelf its important you choose packaging design that comes across professional and ensure it gives the right impression of the product. Always consider a packaging design that informs the consumer whatever is inside, providing the right balance of quality and value will allow you to achieve the maximum potential of consumer conversion.
Think about how you make purchase decisions, we all live busy lives and a purchase decision can be made in an instant. The last thing we expect consumers to do is spend too much time reading the fine print, over analysing the products, now whilst some may do this, the vast majority of consumers will make an instant decision which means you (the brand) need to help them make that quick decision.
Therefore, you need to ensure you use the right packaging design on the right product. For example, using a design that looks appealing on a soft drink can would look completely out of place on a beauty product and give the wrong message. And whilst ‘standing out’ is important, it is not a guarantee for purchase conversion, standing out the right way by truly understanding your consumer is what lies at the heart of good packaging design and great packaging design.
Ultimately, a packaging design that is relevant to both the product and the demographic will save your customer time and speed up their decision.
Brands today are compelled to try and tell their story in a different and engaging way, in a way that resonates with consumers and ultimately connects with them in a way that perhaps another brand may not. Now whilst story activation can done in many ways through social media, video content on youtube, linkedin, your website, through animation, interviews and so on it is vital that before you think about activation you have considered the below factors that anchor your brand story:
1. Know your audience
To tell your your brand story, first and foremost, you must know who your audience really is. The more detail you can get, the better.
Pretend you are having a conversation with your potential customer. What do you know about their daily lives? What are their hobbies? How do they consume media? What situations will they relate to?
2. Positioning is everything
Now you have your ideal customer in mind, learn how to position your brand.
3. Find your brand hero
Every brand story needs a brand hero. People will take action when they feel a unique connection with a person. Your brand hero should prove that your product works. Turn to your current customer base and see if they can tell your story alongside you.
4. Be authentic
If you’re not authentic, people won’t buy what you’re selling them.
5. Design it to be shared
For any brand story to be loveable it also has to be shared. Everything you put out is an opportunity for commonality among people.
To make people think, feel or smile: Does it provide a fuzzy or warm thought that make people rethink what they know about your brand or enhance their love for you?
To define ourselves to others – what we put out on social represents our own personal brand and we share what will make others view us the way we want?
Positive validation: Does your brand to empower your customers to tell a story they already want to tell?