Lovely feature from Linda Casey at Package Design Magazine on some of our recent work developing a new brand for Perdue Farms.
The view from a sunny Friday
Recognizing Consumer Food Guilt
Over the past few years and months we’ve talked to a lot of consumers in focus groups, online studies, and one-on-one interviews. Regardless of whether studying a habit or particular food, I keep hearing a universal undercurrent among modern grocery shoppers: FOOD GUILT.
“Mom”, still considered the primary grocery shopper, is stressing herself out over what she’s feeding her family. She compares herself to what the reads/hears/sees-on-tv and comes out feeling badly about her grocery shopping and food preparation. We’ve repeatedly heard from these guilty moms, “I should do better.” Whether they are constrained by budgets, availability of better quality food, picky eaters, or on-the-go behavior; they feel guilty about what they eat versus what they think they should be eating.
“My child doesn’t like to eat vegetables? I should to find a good way to hide them in their food so they eat them anyway.”
Mom is putting such high health expectations on herself as she feeds her family, that she feels guilty every time she makes a trade off for something fast or cheaper.
What’s made the modern consumer feel guilty about their behavior? As I investigated the trend of Food Guilt, I discovered I’m not alone in noticing this quiet preoccupation. Trendwatching.com took this out of the food realm and recognizes this as a larger macrotrend called “Guilt-Free Consumption.”
“Fueled by a pervasive awareness of the conflicts between their consumerist impulses and their aspirations to be ‘good’, experienced consumers are increasingly wracked with guilt. The result? A growing hunger for a new kind of consumption: one free from worry (or at least with less worry) about its negative impact, yet that allows continued indulgence.”
Trendwatching has put together a rather fascinating brief about where the guilt is building from. They outline that there could be a great future for consumer brands that respond to the guilt trend with guardrails for future innovation.
Brands should take a step back and examine what kind of impact their consumer messaging strategies and products are having on nerve-wracked and “guilty” consumers. Can you absolve consumers of the food guilt by creating better/healthier products at a price point they can afford? Can you make “all family” foods that satisfy their nutritional desires while still providing great taste? Is there a sweet spot for brands to create products that are “Good for Me”, “Good for Others” and “Good for the Planet”?
Originally published at The PKG Blog - http://pkgbranding.com/recognizing-consumer-food-guilt/
Links For A Monday
What are we reading, what are we sharing? Another entry in our series Links For A Monday brings you some of our most-shared or most-talked about links of the week. Often it’s brand news, retailer studies, trends or even design inspiration.
New Book, I Wonder What It Feels Like To Be Dsylexic, from Sam Barclay does an amazing job of using design to visually show the challenge of dyslexic readers, allowing designers to take a struggling reader’s challenges into account. | Kickstarter
Coke introduces a “cold-activated” can ala Coors | BevNET
Kraft answers a consumer petition and cuts the dyes from it’s Mac N Cheese | BrandChannel
Brian Sozzi/Belus Capital Advisors
Is presentation a big reason dollar stores are taking over from discount chains? The photos in this article seem to present a pretty good argument. | Business Insider
Should women be the real target of mobile marketing? Not only are women more active and engaged with brands, but “moms” are the top users of social media and mobile devices. | Social Media Today
We are such suckers for a good process story. Do you know it can take up to 66 steps to make a good ipad case? | Vital Design Group
Can we stop worrying about Millennials yet? Great cartoon story by Matt Bors | Medium
We love to spin a good yard and bring brand stories to life through design. Some of the tricks of the trade showed up on the TED blog last week when writer Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Toy Story) shared his experience of telling engaging stories. | TED Blog
Originally published at The PKG Blog - http://pkgbranding.com/links-for-a-monday-4/
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/
Consumers Say...Make It Easy!
We've been hearing quite a bit lately about the need to create easier-to-open consumer packaging. We've expressed our thoughts about the clamshell before but across the board, the consumer product manufacturers are making things harder on consumers than they need to be.
Wrap Rage
A recent article in England's Telegraph showed how 4 out of every 10 consumers have experienced injuries while trying to open a product they've purchased. 4 out of 10! This takes "wrap rage" to a whole new level. As Which researcher Joanna Pearl says, "If you bought a car you'd be furious if it proved difficult to open the door, but the struggle to get into everyday packaged goods is seen as something we must tolerate."
If you want your brand to speak to your consumer and create a positive experience, that experience should continue after they've taken your brand off the shelf. You owe it to your consumers to create a positive product and packaging experience if you expect them to consider purchasing your products again. Making your packaging easy to open, and easy to re-seal (if applicable) should be one of your top packaging considerations.
"If you bought a car you'd be furious if it proved difficult to open the door, but the struggle to get into everyday packaged goods is seen as something we must tolerate."
Make it easier to use
We've seen several companies lately improving on their openablility and increasing the function for today's modern consumer, our favorite being the new dip cups from Wholly Guacamole. They started with a good product (and package)... the 100 calories packs keep your guacamole fresher for longer as you are only opening one single serving at a time. If you were to ask their consumers they probably would have said that the packaging was great... but that didn't mean there wasn't further opportunity. With the newly designed packs, they've utilized a slightly more rigid plastic to create a dippable cup, increasing the usage of their product and making it easier for mom to hand off to her kids for a quick snack. Easy to open, easy to use.
Theft protection doesn’t have to be frustrating
We understand that you don't want the package to come apart in-store, especially when dealing with electronics or other high end goods. When we developed new packaging for Chargz, we developed a structure that was the best of both worlds. With an opening in the back to allow the consumers to test the chargers with various electronics, we provided convenience in a package that prevented in-store theft.
As an industry we should be doing everything we can to make everything we package easy to open and a pleasant experience from retail to home. Isn't that really the key to brand loyalty?
Originally Published at: http://pkgbranding.com/consumers-say-make-it-easy/
Why Your Brand Must Be Transparent To Survive
Consumers no longer believe marketing messages on face value
If you want to build a future-thinking brand, it must be honest and transparent. Honest corporate policies are not always black and white, so brands that tell the whole truth win. The zeitgeist is changing faster than most brands can evolve. There's a movement among consumers to domore research into the brands and products they use everyday. If your brand isn't providing consumers with an honest story, they will "out" you. Earlier this week a new app launched called Buycott that helps consumers spend money on products that reflect their values. Simply scan a barcode and a products' brand, brand ownership, and corporate principles are on display within seconds (both good AND bad). With writeups in Forbes, CNET, Jezebel, Fast Company, The Independent, NY Daily News, International Business Times, and more the Buycott servers were overloaded within 24 hours with consumers looking for the truth behind the brands they buy.
Through social media proliferation and increasing media scrutiny, weary consumers no longer feel that they can trust marketing messages, and therefore can't create real brand trust. How can you create consumer loyalty without brand trust?
The Steps to Brand Transparency
- Define a clear mission. A company with a clear, believable mission resonates with consumers. One of reasons we are so proud of our long partnership with Perdue Farms is their clear mission to raise better chicken and put better quality food on your dinner table. Their USDA Process Verified takes steps above and beyond USDA regulations to communicate how their chickens were raised, fed and processed.
- Accountability. Fess up when something goes wrong, connect with consumers and apologize. If you've ever faced a product recall or marketing blunder, you know how important honesty is in a time of crisis. Immediate disclosure of the facts, and honest speak about how you intend to deal with it can make all the difference from turning off your consumers to retaining them. And when the crisis is over? Set up a clear chain of accountability to guarantee the mistake won't happen again.
- Cut the crap. Eliminate the marketingspeak and jargon. Talk to your consumers on their terms. For example, grocery shoppers are tired of misleading claims on packaging and often struggle to keep up with the language nuances. All Natural? Made with Whole Grains? Only if you read the fine print you'll find that neither the FDA or USDA has set guidelines for what "whole grains" means. Often you'll find less than 50% of "whole" grains in packaging containing the messaging "Made with Whole Grain". Does 30% sound whole to you? How about 50%?
The key to trust is honesty
If you are going to highlight your products nutritional value, be prepared that not everyone will take that information at face value. Consumer calls to label Genetically Modified foods hasn't slowed down in recent years, even if they haven't yet become law. As awareness of the issue continues, numerous polls over the past 10 years show that somewhere between 82% and 95% of the American public would like companies to be transparent about using GMOs in their products (ABC News, NPR, Huffington Post, Consumer Reports). Consumers aren't even asking that products be completely free of GMOs, they just want to understand when they are so they can make informed decisions.
Information is king.
- Start the conversation. A dialogue with consumers is not a one way street. You must be prepared to speak through your social media outlets. Kashi has done an excellent job of initiating conversations with their consumers around their use of GMOs in foods and a desire to create change through US cropland. They have been honest that currently most of their products contain GMOs and have showcased their progress to take their top 11 cereals GMO free through a rigorous verification process. It's no accident that you see consumer comments like this, "Thank you Kashi! I left you as a customer, and now I am back due to your efforts to provide non-GMO foods. Let’s hope others who truly care about their customers do the same!"
- Provide real data and information for your consumers that want it. Clorox has done an excellent job over the years or providing real data and facts to their consumes who may not have understood the Facts About Bleach and how it affects public health and the environment. They've made ingredient information more readily available, and provide up-to-date reports from the EPA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and more about how mis-used bleach can provide a public safety hazard.
As large economic forces crumble around the world and scandals within corporate boardrooms and brands continue, consumers are searching for the information to make informed decisions. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this past January transparency was on the lips of many top speakers including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who stated "We need more transparency on how governments and, yes, companies operate. Let me tell you why. It’s the oldest observation of the modern age that we are all interconnected. Communication is faster than ever, finance is more mobile than ever and yet the paradox of this open world is that in many ways it’s still so closed and so secretive."
At the end of the day brand transparency is about trust. If you want consumers to trust your brand, put your faith in them by providing them with real data, honest conversation and a clear understanding of your brand's accountability.
Dig deeper into brand transparency
Forbes - Let's Get Naked: A Guide to Brand Transparency
Originally published at http://pkgbranding.com/why-your-brand-must-be-transparent-to-survive/