What trends are you seeing in the packaging choices in the functional food and drink industry at the moment? Do you see a common theme, and how do you think this will change looking to the future?
Dan Einzig: I haven’t noticed a trend for the design of functional drinks packaging becoming louder and louder. So many designs are now screaming to get attention that the overall effect on-shelf can sometimes be a cacophony! However, there’s no easy answer to this problem, as the risk facing brand managers and marketers if they buck the trend is that their brand will not get noticed.
Ironically, Red Bull packaging is one of the least ‘shouty’ designs, but its iconic packs have such huge market recognition, it doesn’t need to. Designers and marketers for newer brands will need to find a way of attracting attention on-shelf without being lost in a sea of noise.
Why do you think branding is so important for the functional foods and drink market? Is it because of the competitiveness and range of products available?
Einzig: As the functional drinks market becomes more saturated, successful branding becomes evermore essential to help distinguish your products from competitors. Emotive branding is a key driver for purchase decision making, as customers are choosing which beverage to buy based on how it makes them feel about themselves rather than the rational product benefit, which is often the same across several brands.
What do you think makes a drink or food product successful in terms of branding and design?
Einzig: Successful drink or food brands have distinctive character that people connect with emotively. They use design as a marketing tool to express that character and its purpose, values and benefits.
What food or drink product has stood out the most for you over the last 12 months in terms of design and/or packaging?
Einzig: We’re really excited about ‘Bubbleology’ and the growing global trend of Bubble Tea, because it personifies how emotive brand design connects customers with a completely new innovation in this country.
The design and brand character is vibrant and kooky, which encourages people to try something new and subsequently invent new mixes of flavours for themselves.
We’re also very excited about G’nosh, a delicious new range of gourmet dips that launched on 10 Feb in London’s Selfridges. The packaging and brand design balances its premium positioning with a playful character that reflects the core benefit of ‘gourmet food without the fuss’.
What would be your top 10 tips for ensuring successful branding?
Einzig: Start by defining your brand; review the product or service your business offers, pinpoint the space in the market it occupies and research the emotive and rational needs and concerns of your customers. Your brand character should promote your business, connect with your customer base and differentiate you in the market.
When building your brand, think of it like a person. Every one of us is an individual whose character is made up of stories, beliefs, values and purposes that define who we are and who we connect with. Our personality determines how we behave in different situations, how we dress and what we say. Of course, for people it’s intuitive and it’s rare that you even consider what your own character is, but when you’re building a brand, it’s vital to have that understanding.
Consider what is driving your business. What does it believe in, what is its purpose and who are its brand heroes. These things can help establish your emotive brand positioning and inform the identity and character for brand communications.
One of your branding goals should be to build long-term relationships with your customers. Don’t dress up your offering and raise expectations that result in broken promises. Create trust with honest branding; be clear who your company is and be true to the values that drive it every day.
Your brand should always speak to your customers with a consistent tone of voice. It will help reinforce the business’ character and clarify its offering so customers are aware exactly what to expect from the product or service.
However, don’t be obsessed with consistency, repeating the same message in the same way over and over again. Alternatively, aim to make your key messages work together to build a coherent identity.
If you’re a small business, don’t try to mimic the look of chains or big brands. Try to carve your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic that aligns with how they feel about themselves.
Be innovative, bold and daring, and stand for something you believe in. Big brands are encumbered by large layers of bureaucracy, preventing them from being flexible and reacting to the ever-changing needs of their customers. Those layers of decision makers can make it hard for them to be daring with their branding.
Always consider your branding when communicating to your customer base, especially when doing offers. Don’t lose your pride or dilute your brand positioning with indiscriminate discounting. Try offering more rather than slashing prices. Promotions are an opportunity to reinforce your brand mission.
The old way of doing things was to simply stamp your logo on everything that sits still long enough. The future of branding is fluid and engaging; respecting your customers’ intelligence by not giving everything away up front. Use Mystery to generate some intrigue and allow them to unearth more about your brand for themselves. This is the way to foster ambassadors who revel in telling other people what they’ve discovered.
Dan Einzig founded Mystery in 1998 as a ‘creative collective’, but soon turned the business into an award-winning brand design agency with particular expertise in the food, beverage and hospitality/restaurant sector, working strategically and creatively to create brands with compelling character.
Rebecca is editorial assistant of FoodBev.com. You can contact her here, or read her blog here.
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