by Miriam Hara | Sep 14, 2015 | Branding, Design, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
What does your product’s package design say about your brand’s personality? It should say (almost) everything.
If people haven’t seen any advertising for your product, then the first time they’re going to see it is in the store. Think of packaging as Social Media on a shelf – its role is the same: good package design is inherently social, it’s original in that it stands out from its neighbours, it starts a conversation and gets people to connect with it. Creating an engaging brand/product personality is the key to establishing these vital connections. The ultimate retail challenge is getting consumers attention.
… if your product’s package design doesn’t immediately establish a connection with consumers, it’s lost
Unlike the Social Media space, ‘real estate’ is physically limited on a store shelf, so if your product’s package design doesn’t immediately catch the consumer’s eye, it’s lost. This is particularly true if you’re launching a new product and you can’t rely on established brand equity or the halo effect.
The perfect analogy is a book cover
The cover is a book’s packaging. (Typically, authors don’t have much say about the covers of their books, it’s left to those marketing the book.) You’re at the library or in a book store. If you already enjoy the author, you’ll reach for their latest book — that’s brand equity in play. If you don’t know the author, it’s often the cover that attracts you. If it resonates with you, you reach for it. If it doesn’t, you pass over it. It’s the same with product packaging. And the process happens in seconds.
The look and feel of a product’s package design plays a definitive role in consumers’ purchasing choices
Never underestimate the power of package design and the influence it has on purchasing behaviour. Research shows that the look and feel of a product’s package design plays a definitive role in consumers’ purchasing choices.
An excerpt from The Consumer Factor’s website on consumer insights, market research, consumer behavior and neuromarketing …
“According to a recent study published by researchers from the University of Miami and California Institute of Technology in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the packaging of a food product would have a proven and important influence on the consumer purchase decision in-store. Researchers showed that the aesthetic aspects of products’ packaging (color, brightness, typography, etc.) will influence where the shopper’s eyes will land on the shelf – and thus the products he will look at and the time spent for each product.
The study showed that packaging influences consumers in a ratio of 1:3 or 2:3 compared to their personal preferences. Thus, even if consumer’s tastes have a bigger influence, a product’s visual attractiveness plays a significant part into the decision to buy.”
We make decisions based solely on a product’s package design
Before we even know if we enjoy the experience of the product, we make decisions based solely on its package design. It should go without saying that the inside has to deliver on what the outside promises. If the actual experience of the product is a letdown, the consumer won’t reach for that product again, no matter how smart and sexy the packaging. Packaging, particularly that for a new and as yet unknown product, gets only one chance with consumers, so it’s important to get it right.
Packaging is psychology in action
Packaging is psychology in action, particularly the psychology of design. It requires expertise and creativity to get right. Most important, it demands an understanding of the people who are going to buy your product and that’s where research comes in … who will buy your product? You can’t create personality for your packaging design without knowing your target market intimately.
Good package design tells a story
Good package design is good storytelling. You don’t skimp on the cost of packaging. As I’ve said before, packaging design shouldn’t even be viewed as a cost, good package design is an investment. My next blog will offer 7 quick tips to help you create better product package design.
Additional reading:
by Miriam Hara | Aug 18, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Communications, Latest, Social Media
Great Content is King!
Social Media is our current best friend. It allows us to talk regularly about our businesses (and ourselves) to anyone who’s interested. And there’s the rub: “anyone who’s interested.” The aim of great content creation is to get people interested! Content’s job is to engage. Content creation isn’t rocket science, but creating great content — content that gets people talking, responding and remembering — isn’t easy. It takes work, time and understanding. And yes, it requires you to set aside a budget for it. I’ve already written quite a few blogs on Content Creation including: Content Creation: Get found in 2014, Content Marketing for Businesses: 3 reasons to do it, “Compose Tweet Here” – 5 easy steps for great Twitter content. The bottom line in of all of them is …
Make Great Content a Priority
Creating rich, engaging content is the key to everything your business wants to accomplish. Commonly heard: “I don’t know where to start” or “I don’t have time to create good content.” The solution is clear: hire someone! In today’s business world, it’s not an option, it’s a priority – in every industry.
Here’s an interesting article, which aims to prove that creating great content is the key to achieving great SEO rankings:
5 Stats That Prove Great Content is the Key to Great SEO by Amanda Walgrove
Think YouTube, the place where 80% of online video is consumed. More and more, how-to and DIY videos are populating the YouTube channel. Businesses and brands alike need to be active in this channel if they are to create great content and keep their target audience engaged!
Content Creation is a trending topic, but it’s also evergreen. Contrary to what many say, content is nothing new. In marketing, content was always important! Now, there are just more ways to deliver it and measure its success!
Being in marketing and practicing what we preach (yes we do walk the talk), we’re launching the latest title in our eBook series, Content Creation Understood: 21 biz-isms you need for success. It’s composed of short, snappy insights that will help you wrap your head around creating great content, in less than five minutes!
Coming Up!
Over the next few months, we’re going to follow up the eBook with blogs that expand on some of our biz-isms, so look out for those! Here’s a taste from the 21 ‘biz-isms’ in our eBook: #8 Content is only the first step, #16 Optimize your content.
Content Creation: Are We There Yet?, is a blog we published in May this year. If you think you’re not there yet, it’s the perfect time to download Content Creation Understood. If you think you are there, check it out anyway, there maybe something else you can do to drive your content farther!
Hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think.
Twitter & Facebook: #ContentCreation #SocialMedia #SharedWisdom
by Miriam Hara | Jul 15, 2015 | Advertising, Latest, Social Media
I hate to break the news to you, but the social media channel is media; as such, it is a channel that is increasingly necessitating the use of advertising. Advertising is alive and well … and the social media channel can be thanked for that!
Advertising, or successfully advertising, is about reach and frequency. Of course, it’s about creative and messaging too. But if you don’t have reach or frequency, well, it’s like winking in the dark. Your message won’t be heard, let alone seen. Reaching your target audience, casting a wider net, etc., is what advertising “promises” and how and what it delivers. Ultimately, the very definition of advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, or need; using paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, and yes, digital properties.
Those saying that advertising is going the way of the Dodo bird, well, they might be in for a surprise – they may just look outside and see a Dodo walking around in their backyard!
It’s not hard to make the leap to understanding why the social media channel is, or should be, considered as advertising. Understood, the aspect of “paid” is inherent in advertising. However, I would challenge this type of thinking. Paid for distributing a message, or paid in terms of creating the message, still makes it advertising. Content marketing has developed as a core tactic because of the social media channel, and content, no matter how “grassroots” or professional it is developed, is still advertising. You only have to look at Facebook. The different formats of social media advertising available to brands is quite varied. You can build your brand page — that in itself is a form of advertising — where your target audience can choose to follow you, come and see what your brand is up to on a daily basis, if you desire. You can “boost” your brand post, for a nominal fee of course. You can create display advertising, targeted to your niche, which I feel is pretty “conventional” thinking. Suffice to say, all this what I term as social media advertising.
The social media channel with all its diverse properties was made for advertising.
Or did the reverse occur? Advertising has evolved the social media channel into an advertising channel, simply because of its potential and ability to reach niches and masses alike. The creative aspects of creating the messaging based on the media channel will vary, of course. But then again, they always have! You wouldn’t create a magazine ad and place it on an out-of-home billboard? (Although, I have seen that, unfortunately). Advertising, done well, delivers the appropriate type of creative for the channel. Advertising on the social media channel is no different. Posting on your business blog is advertising, isn’t it? It establishes your business as a leader, as an expert. It garners relationships and spreads the word about your business. Advertising has never been about one-way relationships. The essence of advertising is about awareness and provoking an action: “Hey look at me! I’m here. Come see me. Get to know me”. It has transcended the relationship between product and customer, brand and consumers, business and client from pure physicality to one of connectivity and viewership.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#SharedWisdom #ExceedBeyond”]What are your thoughts on the role social media plays in advertising?[/inlinetweet]
by Miriam Hara | Mar 17, 2014 | Branding, Latest
The year is 2014 and the way brand character is now defined is quite different from 5 years ago. Brand value on an emotive and creative level has always been about brand character, or as some often call it, brand persona.
In days gone by, the shaping of brand character was hugely dependent on many one way conversations. The visibility of a brand’s logo, its design, its choice of colour and the font usage was as visual as the “brand” got. Needless to say, today it’s just not the case. That’s right, gone are the good old days of building brand character. Some may look at these good old days as simple, even juvenile. With YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram, the number of visual channels has exploded.
[dt_sc_pullquote type=”pullquote3″ icon=”yes” align=”center”]The building blocks of creating a solid brand character today have significantly changed over the last few years.[/dt_sc_pullquote]
Increasingly the tone and voice are as important if not more important than the one way conversations that we often found brands in. We can all say goodbye to believing that single or traditional channels can be responsible in building a brand character.
Be careful, I am not saying that building brand awareness and launching a brand persona with the use of TV, radio or print is bad, but to only do this, would be a waste of effort and lack of efficiency. Social Media integration provides a 3D approach to brand character. This multi-channel approach is necessary to create awareness, buzz, style and therefore, brand character. But Social media isn’t the only integration that is required for a brand to reach its full potential of its persona. The development of a brand character involves a holistic approach, where external branding and internal branding meet and co-existent happily. That’s from customer service answering the phone to the handling of complaints.
The various social media channels(mentioned previously) and internal branding initiatives provide the forums for brands to articulate their true voice and tone. If a brand is portrayed as approachable and fun-loving in the a “one way” conversation, say on TV campaign or radio, then that brand needs to demonstrate it in terms of its overall strategy – in the brand tone, brand creative and brand voice.
by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 19, 2014 | Advertising, Latest
So we put all this effort into creating the most informative and watchable online ads in the market, but is anyone paying attention? According to the Goo Online Advertising Survey conducted in January 2014 the answer is… not really. Unless they are especially entertaining.
The survey focused on 2000 U.S. households of users over 18 years of age. While there was a certain amount of inattention to ads across the board, with an average of 36 percent uninterested in either TV, radio or newspaper commercials, online advertising fared the worst by far, with 82 percent of users ignoring them.
One of the biggest problems with online ads is the sheer volume.
Viewers are so inundated that they feel compelled to just scan quickly past. Gone are the days of novelty and glitzy flash animations, intrusive sounds and pop up online ads that garnered healthy click-through results. Online ads came on the advertising scene as an accountable and measurable media. Now, it has gone the way of selling its channel like all traditional media, speaking to impressions and not real traffic building results.
So what can we do to attract more attention to online ads that would ensure to some degree, the same results as seen in the past? Be more entertaining? Works for all other medias, so why not this digital media that has grown exponentially? Using more interesting graphics to draw viewers in is also a must. Telling a story in short succinct visuals that are quick to load isn’t easy, but it is definitely doable. The research cited showed that 42 percent of respondents suggested that interactive online ads were the most engaging. The reasons provided for this preference was that these online ads didn’t really look like ads, were more interesting, and more high-tech looking.
With all the excitement over the Olympics on now, I couldn’t resist clicking on a few online ads that featured our amazing Canadian athletes. Here are a couple of my favourites:
