Unique packaging is the best expression of a product's personality. In a society where appearance matters, even classic products need innovative packaging upgrades. In 2017, many brands changed their looks, whether through design upgrades or color innovations, and re-launched with fresh images to capture attention.
Design Section
Yili Shuhua Milk Smiley Pack As China's first lactose-free milk, Shuhua solved the drinking pain point for the 660 million lactose-intolerant people in China. In November 2017, it launched a new package, developed in cooperation with Germany's SIG Combibloc, creating the world's first stylish, elegant, and ergonomically designed "Smiley Pack."
The unique smiley curve and round cheeks make the packaging more aesthetically pleasing; the back sides of the package feature ergonomic chamfers; and the top is designed as a slanted surface for easy pouring, with both straw and screw cap opening options, making the new Shuhua drinking experience more convenient and flexible. It not only caters to young people's aesthetic trends and drinking habits, offering a more fashionable and energetic drinking experience, but also conveys an optimistic and positive attitude towards life.
Xiaoming Classmate "Shameless" In November, the off-season for beverages, Xiaoming Classmate, known for "seriously funny, low-key cold brew," decided to stop being low-key, believing "no effort means off-season, effort means peak season." It launched a limited edition of 2,000 boxes of Xiaoming Classmate "Shameless" blank bottles, and also released 1,000 lime bottles online, calling on consumers to "be shameless" together. On the bottle, Xiaoming's facial features disappeared, leaving only a blank face outline.
Some might think it's a printing error, but actually, this time Xiaoming Classmate is playing with interaction! It encourages consumers to use their imagination and complete the face through doodling.
Wahaha AD Calcium Milk 30th Anniversary Edition This year marks the 30th anniversary of Wahaha. AD Calcium Milk, one of its flagship products, also got a new look with a 30th anniversary edition packaging, released in limited quantities. The new packaging is more childlike and fun, with the prominent "1987" on the bottle, depicting childhood scenes full of innocence, evoking nostalgia. The slogan "Wahaha AD Calcium Milk, accompanying youth" triggers memories for a generation.
Glico Pocky upgraded its "Fruit Granules" series, which emphasizes real ingredients, renaming it "Fruit Granules Heart Stick." Considering its main female and children consumer groups, the packaging changed from classic to a girly style, with oil-painting style fruits on the package, giving a pastoral and fresh, sweet feel. Additionally, the originally round biscuit sticks transformed into heart shapes, appearing smaller and cuter than before.
Color Section
Yili Guilduo Red-Black Hunger-Busting Set Since its launch in 2008, Yili Guilduo has been committed to creating grain milk loved by Chinese consumers, becoming an important product under Yili. This year, Yili Guilduo launched a "Red-Black Hunger-Busting Set" with two products: "Looks Like It Will Be Red" and "Darkness Before Eyes," corresponding to red and black packaging, with distinct personalities. It not only adds vivid emoji expressions but also prints various "gloomy" and popular "heart-piercing" phrases on the packaging.
It's clear this is a product targeting young people's social needs. From packaging to positioning, it fits today's young people's workplace status and life attitudes. It achieved impressive sales on Tmall Supermarket.
Wanglaoji Black Herbal Tea Wanglaoji decided to open up the young market, breaking away from its traditional red packaging. The main color is black, and the packaging features 88 kinds of vibrant illustrations like hearts, crowns, planes, and arrows, representing 88 young attitudes. The video game style showcases a two-dimensional vibe, catering to young people's curiosity and love for fun, giving a cool feeling.
Because Black Herbal Tea targets young people, its slogan is "Play to the End," fitting the playful psychology of contemporary youth. Not only did they innovate the slogan, but to better cater to young consumers, they redefined the scenario for drinking herbal tea, bringing Wanglaoji into scenes where young people often appear, telling them they can "have Wanglaoji anytime, anywhere"!
Want Want Milk "If you look again, I'll drink you." Since Want Want aired its first TV commercial in mainland China in 1992, the big red packaging of Want Want Milk has been deeply ingrained. This is the first time in 25 years that Want Want has broken away from its original packaging, making its most unique attempt—a hand-drawn version. When the new packaging was launched, it "shocked" many consumers, with many saying "I feel like I bought fake Want Want." This is Want Want Milk's breakthrough innovation after 25 years. What do you think?
Snow Beer Snow Beer also put a lot of effort into "transforming," completely overhauling the packaging style, redesigning the logo to make the overall image cleaner and simpler, and making the concept packaging significantly different.
During Double 11, it launched the theme activity "Future Defined by You," with three series of beer simultaneously launching concept packaging, hoping to redefine the colors of beer packaging.
The new products closely revolve around the theme "Future Defined by You," comprehensively improving product packaging, brewing technology, taste quality, and overall style. In design, the concept new products use a more futuristic design combined with traditional elements like Huadan (female role) and Hualian (painted face), making beer an artistic work with a sense of technology and fantasy, attracting even the most picky appearance enthusiasts.
Snow Beer also launched the high-end brand "Snow Face"
Face - Hualian Face - Huadan Snow attempts to give the brand new connotations through new packaging: color, intelligence, craftsmanship, and gathering.
Snow Pure Snow Brave the World
Tsingtao Beer Midnight Diner Tsingtao Beer joined hands with the year's super IP, the movie "Midnight Diner," to launch a limited edition "Midnight Can" co-branded with "Classic 1903." Tsingtao invited stars from various industries to jointly launch special story packaging for "Midnight Diner," telling everyone's late-night stories about "good things come to those who wait," with each star telling their own story and doodling all over the can.
Qinqin Shrimp Chips "Qinqin Shrimp Chips" influenced a generation's childhood memories. The classic red and green packaging not only sold well for nearly 20 years but also maintained strong consumer vitality. However, starting December 1, 2017, Qinqin Shrimp Chips also changed its "clothes," appearing on the market with a new image.
The upgraded "Qinqin Shrimp Chips" packaging is high-end and elegant, using dark tones as the base color, better matching young consumers' pursuit of individuality and premium experience. The packaging also prominently highlights the slogan "real fried, real shrimp" and a shrimp pattern to showcase the product's genuine ingredients.
In addition to the classic original flavor, this time it also launched multiple flavors like spicy rattan pepper, seaweed, barbecue, spicy, wasabi shrimp, and cumin, with seven different flavors to meet different taste needs, and different colors to distinguish flavors.
From these latest product changes, it's clear that future products will not only innovate in technology and category but, more importantly, upgrade packaging, mainly reflected in design innovation and visual color stimulation. When selling products, the most important thing is to resonate with consumers, and packaging is the fastest and most direct way to attract them.
In this "appearance matters" social environment, novel and fun packaging designs and colorful changes can directly stimulate consumers' purchase desire. This tells distributor friends that when choosing products, besides the actual product quality and content, whether the packaging can attract consumers is also an important consideration.
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