One of the most important laws of artistic creativity is the unity of form and content. The design, the creation of the brand and, in fact, the production of packaging for the product has long been an art. Today we have to find out what a brand is. Can it completely eliminate the quality of the product, forcing us, first of all, to buy packaging, and not what is inside it?
What is a brand?
Before talking about the brand, you need to find out what it is? If the question is put in the search engine, the answer is: “Factory brand, a trademark, having a high reputation among consumers.” The key concept here is “high reputation among consumers”. This is what distinguishes the brand from the brand, or simply the logo of an unknown producer on the package. Brand – the concept of an abstract, combining a set of communicative moves, focused on the consumer – the logo, design and packaging material, promotion in the network, audiovisual advertising. There are exceptions. For example, the famous phrase of the ring-announcer Michael Buffer – Let’s get ready to rumble! It has become a brand in itself and for more than 20 years it has been used almost everywhere – shows, music, inscriptions, cartoons, etc.
In other words, simply the product in the packaging is not yet a brand. Even if he spent a lot of money on his promotion, or if he himself is very expensive. A brand is, above all, recognizability and a specific fixed association. It is interesting that the manufacturer can promote one association, and consumers will have a completely different. Thus there are spontaneous brands – the manufacturer can sometimes not even suspect that his product has become a brand.
For goods that have reached this status, the margin can increase to 80%. At the same time, the brand is not necessarily something of the highest quality, and definitely positive from all sides. Here we come to the fact that whatever (man, thing, trademark, word, phrase, phenomenon, event) can become a brand.
The role of packaging in branding
Branding creates a difference in price. It is also called the “price premium”. If you look wider – what does a person pay for? What does he live for, what does he want for his money? That’s right – emotions! All life is a set of emotional reflections on certain stimuli. The same happens with branding. A person buys emotions. He associates himself with the brand. And the main communicative means of branding, that is, the place where you can write a name, slogan, play with colors – is packaging. Even if we sell organic products with unpretentious packaging – paper, birch bark, twine, we can emphasize the qualities being sold.
A vivid example of successful branding is vodka “Green Mark”. The company, which did not have powerful starting positions, due to skillful branding has become one of the most popular on the market. Unassuming packaging, association with nature, wide expanses of Russia, old-good Soviet films, etc. helped the product quickly gain popularity of consumers in the domestic market. It is important to understand that the quality of the product plays an important role. Quality is implied by default. Whatever the advertisement, bad quality will ruin it on the vine. This applies not only to premium products but also to the cheapest.
Successful packaging should combine two important qualities – an informative and emotional component. When a person in a store chooses products, he spends less than 1 second to examine the product. Accordingly, the goods should be allocated among others. After a person paid attention to him, he should immediately find out what it is and for what. It is very important that the message laid down in the concept of the goods correspond to the product being sold, and at the same time evoke emotions, associations, a certain attitude.
An unknown producer of house slippers “Laika” managed to increase sales by 300 percent due to packaging. Designers have developed a package in the form of a dog that keeps slippers in your teeth. Thus, without promotion, the young company managed to make a significant profit.
The most expensive brand today is Coca-Cola. Its success is due to many factors to list, which does not make sense. In this case, one should pay attention to the fact that one of the genius marketing moves was the very special form of the bottle, which became legendary. The minimalistic, clear and bright design, the original shape of the bottle – became the factors that allow the famous soda to remain in the top of the third century.
Minimalism and a special texture are often used in the design of the premium packaging. The famous clothing manufacturer, and later perfumery Hugo Boss successfully uses this technique. Most of their products are “dressed” in a monotonous package of saturated (often, but not always) dark colors, on which only the name is written. The design is made of cardboard. Outwardly, it can be matte, lacquered, glossy. Even despite the fact that at one time the company was associated with fascist Germany, it remained one of the leaders in the premium goods market. I did not even have to change the name.
American startup Kuvée went even further. He created a reusable packaging for wine. It’s just black without any frills, but! Has a touch screen and built-in wi-fi module. With this package you can order a new batch of wine, find out the date of harvesting, production, and other details about the product
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