Packaging Design and Brand Positioning

Product packaging protects product performance, conveys brand connotation, and identifies brands. Product packaging not only plays a role in protecting the use value of products, but also plays a very important role in establishing a strong brand positioning, that is, establishing a unique product differentiation point that is different from competitors in your customers' minds. In this sense, packaging is the externalization of a brand positioning. It uses its own external factors to explain and support the existence of positioning. Brand positioning cannot be done on its own. It must rely on all aspects of product and service marketing mix: quality, advertising, public relations, sponsorship activities, packaging, and pricing strategies. Among them, brand positioning depends on what you do and do not, what to say and do not say, how to say and how not to say, packaging is precisely the intimate partner used to express what to do and what to say.

How to effectively transfer brand positioning to the target market? Adopting simple communication or a single approach does not completely solve the problem. If brand positioning is to be recognized at the customer terminal, it must rely on advertising strategies, sponsorship activities, brand implementation, including the information delivered by the package. Because scientifically and efficiently use the visible elements of product names, colors, patterns, symbols, characters, materials, shapes, and other visual elements in packaging design, through the organic combination of these elements to form a product appearance packaging, you can promote and strengthen a brand positioning in the eyes of customers. In the shaping.

1 Packaging color is the chromatography of brand positioning

How to maintain the competitiveness of products in the competition, in addition to the product quality and price than the competitors, more excellent brands in the packaging design process, attaches great importance to the role of packaging color brand positioning, and strengthen the brand through packaging Recognition has promoted the dissemination of brand connotation and its appeal to target audiences and recognition memory. Because the color of the package is the most powerful message sender, it can stimulate the mood of the buyer; it can both bring joy to the customer and it can make them feel depressed and sad. Like taste and smell, packaging colors carry a variety of emotional appeals, with different colors and different meanings. For example, Coca-Cola's red packaging and Pepsi's blue packaging, while both are coke, give people different feelings. Because the color conveys a large amount of information about the product, the color information undergoes evolutionary deduction over time and finally settles into a culture, as if the dark red and gold packaging people associate it with the quality image; the green and white color is Green peppermint food selection color; white color choice for low-fat and fat-free diet foods; cinnamon flavor candy is red; antibacterial soap is often presented in gold. The use of color to express product characteristics is the fastest and most effective way to communicate with consumers. It can immediately reflect the benefits of the product, tell people where your product is located, and where to actually meet the target market. All this Everything does not need language to express what.

By packaging you can quickly and concisely tell your target audience who your product is sold to, and it conveys the personality characteristics of the brand. For example, the packaging of Tiffany, the world’s number one jeweler brand, has always been packaged in blue. The information it conveys is as penetrating as the intrinsic charm of the product. The packaging frees Tiffany from most jewelry brands. Words that only the concept of selling jewelry. This packaging creates and reinforces the Tiffany brand's high-quality image positioning for unusual jewellery, luxurious packaging, and high-quality prices. That blue package conveys far more than what is actually in it. Tiffany's customers become loyal fans of the brand, and they can see their waving blue shopping bags and blue boxes everywhere they go.

2 package modeling can shape brand positioning

What kind of packaging style is used also determines your brand image. Fashion and classical, romance and tradition, personality and style, product packaging often distinguishes its product positioning from its competitors in its unique shape, and uses packaging-specific styling for many products from the outset to build their own brand image. Effective means. For example, Absolut vodka [2] has for a few decades been a day and has never given up on the fundamental practice of using its bottle as a brand identity. Despite the 1978 survey, the shape of the bottle was too mediocre and the place of production was not recognized as an acclaimed wine. The Russian vodka, but in Sweden; the bottle looks like a bottle, but also does not have any labels and decorations, nothing attractive. However, Absolut Vodka is using its own so-called “packaging defects”, and constantly exploring ideas around the unique packaging of products, mainly for print advertising, since the launch of the first advertisement began in the 1980s, in 20 years. Absolute vodka advertising has been on the road of non-functional appeals. Each advertisement can bring surprise and visual beauty to the audience. Absolute vodka did not tell the general public about the difference between their vodka and others. Instead, it focused on the entire bottle of packaging. By showing this unique bottle shape in every conceivable place, Absolute Vodka is doing everything possible to convey a ubiquitous and popular brand message. Absolute vodka brand's past and present strategies are absolutely astute.

Absolute Vodka brand phenomenon has fundamentally changed the way of advertising in the entire winemaking industry, that is, changing the content of the appealed product to focus on appealing packaging. Therefore, every new brand that has entered the wine industry must use different bottles to show its “excellent quality”. This kind of product packaging modeling for the competition characteristics of the situation in the domestic liquor industry, such as national wine Maotai, Wuliangye, Gujing Distillery and other brands in the development of competition has gradually emerged.

3 Packaging material is the material for brand positioning

Generally speaking, through the appropriate packaging materials and printing processes, the different grades and special orientations of the product brands are reflected, and the performance of cosmetics, food, handicrafts, and clothing is particularly prominent. What kind of packaging materials should a product use, in addition to considering the protection of the product's use value, product attributes, safety performance, transport convenience and environmental protection requirements, how to combine the application of packaging materials and customer psychological needs, but also related to The success of a brand positioning.

The American Aloids Mint [3] was produced at the Smith & Company candy factory in London, England in the 19th century. After a century of promotion, the brand was hailed as "a stomach comforter." From the United States market in 1918. The legend of this brand is its packaging. From the beginning of the carton to the iron box in 1920, the shape and size of the rectangular package have almost no major changes, but its sealing performance is good, and the package has not only remained peculiarly strong. The pure mint flavor also brings convenience to users.

In order to distinguish itself from its competitors, the brand's approach is to emphasize its product's positioning of pine scent to determine the definition of mint. The brand differentiates products for mints' product selling points. The idea is that strong mints are not made for everyone. Only those who pursue excellence can enjoy them. In order to change the target customer's understanding of this brand, they changed the packaging strategy of the initial product packaged with foil, using a creative beyond the product itself: aluminum box packaging. This type of packaging, which was originally thought to be expensive by many people, should be used as a packaging material for customers who are completely convinced of a better product. Later, this practice was imitated by many peers. This example strongly demonstrates the success of Aloids mints in repositioning brands with changing packaging.

4 Written text information is a language description of brand positioning

Another important means to establish and reinforce brand positioning with packaging is to maintain consistency with packaging information and fully study the role of packaging name elements in brand positioning [4]. Clever use of different text design elements to express the same brand concept , Make the brand personality, diversity and product appeal more vivid, clear and prominent. In addition, in the packaging text information, such as the general manufacturer, brand name, origin, instructions, product ingredients and promotional text, the most important is the brand name, which is a packaging of the soul, whether it is loud, easy to remember and identify , with personality and creativity, determines whether a brand can enter the market as soon as possible, achieved the success of marketing communications, and was recognized by customers.

The world famous brand Unilever's Lipton, has a product brand called "Cup - a - Soup" which defines a very successful package from its name. The name of the brand is straightforward and the packaging conveys the selling point and positioning of the product. This explains the nature of the product and is consistent with the positioning of the product. The package conveys information quickly and quickly. It is easy for customers to find the brand's products in the mall at a glance. The concept of a cup of soup packaging is so wonderful that all companies in Japan that produce instant noodles and companies that produce almost the same kind of products compete to imitate each other. Later, the brand concept of a cup of soup became synonymous with the expression of "special service." Therefore, various types of manufacturers are now taking this concept car. Various products are similarly packaged.

The brand name of the package can visually evoke different brand associations [5]. The quality of a package name directly affects the customer's likes and dislikes for the brand. The design, color, style, and packaging style of the name font must also be consistent. We often see cosmetic femininity and romance; drinks and food packaging use different names depending on age characteristics, uses, and objects. The design is to express the positioning of the product and the spread of the brand image.

In addition, the text description on the package also plays an important role in marketing. Whether or not the packaging description can be effectively used and designed is significant for the promotion and rapid promotion of the product brand image. Such as "new listing", or "30% more free of charge", "new easy to open packaging", "new materials and new formulas" are very effective, they explain the brand and tell consumers why he should buy this instead of choosing other of. Keeping the text on the package simple and concise is equal to adding market forces to the product.

As brand positioning needs to be continuously adjusted to the needs of the market and customers, product packaging is no exception. With product marketing communications, it is particularly important that we regularly track and reflect on the market information of the promoted brand packaging:

1) Is the packaging design consistent with the product brand positioning? 2) Is the packaging color and dissemination information still related to the original target market? 3) Is the existing packaging model suitable for future customer needs? 4) Full packaging Has the most effective elements of styling, color, and symbols been used? 5) Can packaging materials be used to adapt to material technology revolutions and environmental protection requirements? 6) Packaging design of products complies with relevant regulations of laws and regulations, and international practices must be followed Such as trademark law, advertising law? If all the answers to the above questions are negative, it is time to adjust your product packaging, but how to change the packaging design, the answer should be obtained directly from the customer, not "closed doors "Because the customer decides whether a brand positioning is successful or not, and packaging is only the carrier of this positioning. It does not understand customers and does not start from the market, but merely "creates" their favorite packaging in a wishful manner. The packaging thus designed is only a The drive of the product is not a brand positioning partner.