Lovely feature from Linda Casey at Package Design Magazine on some of our recent work developing a new brand for Perdue Farms.
Five Ways to Improve Your Creative Agency Relationship →
Do you know what it takes to get excellent work from your creative partners? Great design begins with strong client & agency relationships. It’s remarkable how easy it can be to build strong partnerships and new ideas with these five easy steps…
1. No Problem? No Solution.
All designers love clients who can provide insights into their business so we can use design and creativity to solve problems. Personally, I love to begin any project by asking “Why?” three times in order to get to the heart of the problem. By the time you’ve gotten to the third answer, you’ve generally discovered something new.
If you still can’t tell what the problem is, maybe it’s time to get outside the “brandbubble” and engage with consumers for some honest feedback. No designer wants to treat the symptoms, we want to treat the problem. Only when we diagnose the real issue, can we develop meaningful creative solutions.
2. Show Me The Money
No one likes to talk about the money, but you’ve got to do it anyway. Begin any relationship with an agency or designer by disclosing your real issues AND your budget. A great agency can provide creative solutions that are scalable to any reasonable budget.
Not every brand has millions to spend on design, but great creative ideas can often come when dealing with limitations. And if an agency can’t work within your means, they are the best reference for finding another design partner who can.
3. Ask Questions!
We know the creative process can be a bit mystifying to clients. We live and breathe ideation everyday, so it isn’t always easy to explain how we generate new ideas. The best way to clarify the process?
You need to ask questions! Your design partners need to ask questions!
While your creative team may not have an instant answer, they shouldn’t hesitate to explain their creative process and show you examples of how they’ve solved similar challenges for other clients. Clear communication is the key to any great working relationship, so no question is a dumb one.
4. Teamwork. No, for real.
A good client/agency relationship is a partnership with a strong team dynamic. Every member of a team is chosen for their unique skillsets and expertise, and that includes you. Having a brand partner who collaborates with their agency can make all the difference when solving a marketing challenge. After all, you understand your brand better than any hired gun. If you can work collectively with your agency partners, it ups the odds of success to deliver a solution that can be a real game changer.
5. To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
Designers use our talents to bring life and new ideas to your brand. We celebrate “the idea” and often that involves an unexpected solution to your problem. It’s important that the whole team (remember, that’s you too!) celebrate and encourage ideas in order to evolve and find new ground.
Do you know what it takes to get excellent work from your creative partners? Great design begins with strong client & agency relationships. It’s remarkable how easy it can be to build strong partnerships and new ideas with these five easy steps…
If a creative agency only provided the solutions you could think of, why hire them in them first place? Be open to new solutions and your designers will strive to bring you the new and unexpected every time.
Originally published at The PKG Blog
http://pkgbranding.com/five-ways-to-improve-your-creative-agency-relationship/
Top 5 Problems with Your Packaging
Your sub-optimized packaging may be hurting your brand. No other element in your marketing toolbox is as important of packaging. As the “face of your brand,” packaging is featured in advertising, consumer promotion, web, and of course, at the point of purchase. You can’t afford packaging that doesn’t work its hardest all the time.
So what’s the problem?
#5 – Designing based on internal opinion.
Problem: A lack of consumer perspective.
Do you really know what impression your brand is making? Packaging decisions are often made based on internal stakeholders’ opinions—without regard for what the target audience truly believes.
Solution: Ground your brand in reality.
Listen to what current and potential users have to say so you know where to optimize. You’ll capture their attention…and dollars.
#4 – Getting “old.”
Problem: Packaging no longer reflects shifted consumer expectations.
Convenience, sustainability and health all have different accents then they did five years ago—heck, even a year ago. Failure to optimize gives upstarts the entry point they need to steal share. From you. Not the brands that keep up.
Solution: Constantly audit your category and competitive set.
Gauge how packaging stacks up against emerging and relevant trends. Are the assumptions you were working from yesterday still relevant? If not, evolve.
#3 – Developing packaging design in a vacuum.
Problem: Shoppers are bombarded with packaging options at shelf.
But this dynamic is strikingly absent throughout the brand packaging development process. Too many bad designs are approved in conference rooms where not one competitive item is present.
Solution: Develop packaging in context with the competition.
Analyze your packaging and the brand story it’s telling in the way a consumer would experience it. Does it differentiate the way you intended when placed next to your #1 competitor? How about that up and comer? Partner with those who embrace environmental development. Technology has made gaining an “in-store perspective” more possible than you probably imagine.
#2 – Confusing the brand story.
Problem: Many brands suffer with packaging that doesn’t reflect intended differentiation, or worse, tells a completely different story—and even worse, wastes A LOT of money.
As a marketer who’s poured blood, sweat and tears into developing a unique positioning for your brand, how do you make sure your packaging is doing what it should?
Solution: Embrace first impressions.
Consumers read into every color, font and icon choice, each conveying a different impression about your brand. Validate your packaging with them so you know that it’s communicating what you want it to.
# 1 – Packaging that doesn’t close the sale.
Problem: You’ve redesigned your package...but nothing happens.
Solution: Understand—and admit!—your packaging has a problem.
When “nothing” happens, it may be the result of solving for a problem that didn’t exist. Uncovering packaging’s strengths and weaknesses is the first step toward design greatness. From there, you have the opportunity to offer a truly compelling reason to purchase—to “stick the landing”—and deliver on the brand promise you worked so hard to create.
Originally published at http://pkgbranding.com/top-5-problems-with-your-packaging/
PKG
I have been singularly focused on building a new company for about a year so unfortunately, I haven't been very good about posting in this forum. Our official launch date was October 6, 2011 yet in less than 11 months it's amazing to me how far we've come. I have a solid, fearless team who takes on every new challenge with a great sense of energy and unabashed creativity. We have created some amazing work that I can't wait to debut to the world when it becomes commercially available. It's never easy to develop a new company, but I am so proud of all we have already accomplished that it makes all the long hours and hard work worth it. And this is only the beginning...
