If you have been reading my posts you know exactly what Packaging Positioning® is, but if you haven’t, we define it the tool of marketing developed on the packaging and finalized to the sales of the single brand.
Obviously, this is a synthetic and simplified definition, but if we explored this definition in detail we would find out several points to know how to arrive at the final result.
One of these aspects is absolutely the voice and the sound than that voice has to have to transmit the verbal and non-verbal message on the packaging.
From these elements will depend the success of the product. For short, each product has to distinguish itself on the market and this accurate work of differentiation is entrusted to the positioning of the packaging.
Only the packaging can create a unique voice to communicate the product
This problem wasn’t so important until a few decades ago. Only 20 years ago the situation was completely different, both for the organization of the channels of distribution (radically changed in the internal management and in the relationship with the suppliers) and for the presence of many less competitors.
If you analyze the market, nowadays you can hardly find a commodity sector which is not crowded, this leads to a very high competition and makes anonymous all those products which have nothing different to say to other ones on the shelf.
“ Becoming anonymous on retail store brings to a natural consequence that finishes to destroy any effort done for the product, because when a product doesn’t have a “voice” to speak and to be heard by the customer, it entrusts all its expectations on the price lever.
In these situations the voice that makes the product talks is that of the sign “offer” or the sign “3X2” and this is not what we want to obtain, but then how can we do to get out of this vice?
Today I reveal two rules that could really make the difference on the revenues and on the volume of the products. They are two magic elements that can give personality to the product creating a communication able to distinguish also in front of a fierce and ruthless competition.
Both of them act on the communication of the packaging and they determine the success of the sales.
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Headline & Pictograms: they let the packaging speaks
The strength of the headline and pictograms is that to reinforce the positioning.
Let’s start from the assumption that the elements are not the one which make the Packaging Positioning®, but they support it anyway.
Now pay attention, do you know the first choice in NLF (National Football League). Each team at the beginning of the season has got the right of the first choice on the best player to win the championship. Here, the headline and the pictograms are not certainly “the first player”, but they are absolutely indispensable to win the championship, to give personality at the packaging working on two fronts: the one of the verbal message and the one of the non-verbal message.
Here in the details why they are so important and what they can do for a package.
Headline: the words on your package
It is that sentence that takes advantage of a clear verbal message to communicate with the customer.
We are in line, in the rush of the purchase and distracted by many inputs, for this we can’t entrust the headline too much and too long information, but we have to play the winning card with a few of words to make the consumer immediately understand why that product can make something that other ones are not able to do photographing the final benefit for the customer.
It is not easy, but to logical level a verbal message of this kind is very important.
If you observe the communication of many products, however, you will note how this possibility of communication is often wasted. In many cases a headline is not present, in other cases the few words used contain a message that certainly doesn’t help the product to distinguish itself from the others, but it makes it look like the competitors.
Taking advantage of the headline on the packaging to make the product speak.
5 rules for your headline
1-Short: the space is limited not just on the package, but also in the mind of the customer who can’t save too much information in that contest. Therefore, you have to reason on a synthetic communication simplifying the concept.
2-Direct: go to the point because each word should be used to communicate something important and relevant for the customer. This is not the moment for pleasantries, so write the things as they are.
3-Distinguish yourself: in those few words you have to position your product far away from the others. For this repeating the same concepts which are already used is not the solution.
4-Coherent: keep the coherence with the message of your brand because every single word out of its place can create some problems in the mind of the customer.
5-Benefit: go straight to the benefit because it is what each of us looks for during the purchase.
Pictograms: this is not creativity
Every time that an illustration, a stamp, a symbol is inserted on the packaging you think of a creative approach. In reality this is a scientific approach and in the development of a Packaging Positioning® we give an extreme importance to the visual component which is represented by pictograms.
Our mind hates the complexity and how we have already told previously, we work fast with the customer, therefore a visual and clear message can be more effective than 50 words written.
A simple pictogram has got the power to:
- Communicate a message or a concept without requesting an effort of comprehension to the customer
- Evoking or referring to concepts without nominating them
- Using the universal language of images
Practically, the pictogram could be a precious communicator which sustains and amplifies some concepts that you have already verbally communicated, but that can be reinforced in your advantage.
In both cases for the headline and for the pictograms – an approach of a very careful analysis is indispensable.
It is not a matter of original and nice choices, but to identify that message communicated in a verbal and non-verbal level can help the customers to identify our product as the best answer to their needs.
This is the purpose of every Packaging Positioning® and it is the only way to stay competitive on the market.
Exercise of the end of the article:
- Does the packaging of your product use a headline?
- Did you use pictograms which reinforce the main message?
- If yes in both of previous answers, how? Do they clearly communicate and in a distinctive way what the product could make for the customers?
If you haven’t worked even in one of these two channels, you have missed the possibility to give more voice to your product. And nowadays a product without a strong tone of voice is in big troubles.
Leave your comment and if you have any doubt ask your question on the development of headline and pictograms.
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In 1996 enters in the world of marketing, in 1999 founded Ardigia Marketing Funzionale (Ardigia Functional Marketing), in 2013 founded Packaging in Italy, Design Agency for Packaging Positioning™
