Marketing eYe

a biztactics.com blog | by Ankesh Kothari

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Three Rules of Product Packaging

Which Deep Clean product would you buy - when they all look the same?

Branding Alchemist Steven Diebold recently made a post on his blog about his experience at the supermarket. He was looking to buy a skin care product. Came to the Neutrogena aisle and spent the next 10 minutes getting totally confused.

He ound five different Neutrogena products - but they all looked the same! He checked the ingredients on the package. But the only difference between the more expensive $6.39 product and the $4.79 less expensive one was something called - Beta Hydroxy. Like me and you, Steven had no clue what that ingredient did either!

So what did he do? He ended up buying the lower priced $4.79 product!

Who can guess how much money Neutrogena's lost because of bad packaging?! The rules for good packaging are simple, yet most companies screw it up. They spend all their time in making the product better. And lose all the clients because of poor product packaging,

Three Rules of Product Packaging

1. Make Your Product "Look" Different & Attractive.

The key idea: make good use of colours. Colours can visually diferentiate your product from others. If you have 5 different products, give them 5 different colours.

Companies like Herbal Essences have got this part right.

Another thing you could do is try some whacky visual ideas.

A sunglasses manufacturer went after the sports market by packaging his sunglasses in tennis ball cans! Seth Godin packaged his book in milk cartons!

Such outrageously different packaging can not only set your product apart from others but also help you create a buzz.

2. Use the Right Words

You'll be surprised to know how many people pick up the product and read the packaging before they decide whether they should buy it or not. And two things inluence their buying decisions:

a. What's in it for them?

Why should they buy your product? How is your product better than other products? What is your unique selling feature?

An easy way to answer this question:

i. Mention your offer / benefits
ii. Mention how you take care of the downside (if you offer any sort of guarantee)
iii. Don't mention anything else

For eg: Rejuvinate your dry hair with just 2 drops of sunflower oil

b. Ingredients / How to Use Information

Ingredients read like a whole other language. If you make it easy for people to understand why the ingredients you use are good for them, they'll buy.

Vitamin Water is a good example of explaining the ingredients to make the sale.

Click on the picture to enlarge

3. Build a Database

This is an advanced step. Use your packaging to make future sales. Note down how people can contact you and give you feedback.

Or even better, give them a website address where they can get a free report of tips and tricks. Or a coupon for future discount.

Enroll your users into a mailing list so that you can follow up with them in the future and make more sales.

Labels: Database marketing, Herbal Essences, Neutrogena, Packaging, Steven Diebold, Vitamin Water