Click the image for details Recently, Nongfu Spring partnered with the Forbidden City to launch a zodiac commemorative "Golden Pig Set" premium water, which not only won widespread social acclaim but also tagged the brand with an image of "high-end, grand, and elegant." It can be said to be "stunningly beautiful"! In fact, not only Nongfu Spring, but from Jiang Xiaobai's copywriting bottles to Luckin Coffee's cup sleeve creativity, from Wang Laoji's red can packaging to Xiaoguan Tea's "masterpiece" packaging, all these deeply reflect a problem, that is: Excellent brands often have good-looking packaging. Today, packaging is not just a product manual; it is also a mobile advertising platform that allows consumers to spot a product at a glance among a dazzling array of goods; it is also a brand epitome carrying cultural connotations, a social symbol that can establish connections with consumers. Marketing is a show, and packaging is the most imaginative stage. It is the first step in brand marketing, and also the most basic and critical step. A brand's packaging design concept and level often reflect its brand marketing level. Brand marketing starts with designing good packaging. 01 Packaging is a marketing show Why do some packaging designs make consumers fall in love at first sight? Why can the same product, just by changing the packaging, sell at a different price? Because packaging carries the added value of the product. In the past, packaging was to protect the product and facilitate transportation, plus the function of a product manual. But in the broad definition of packaging, packaging is actually part of creative marketing, which can make the whole society cheer for it. What functional attributes does a simple packaging have?
1. Packaging is a billboard, saving marketing costs for enterprises. In today's advertising-explosive society, ordinary people receive various advertising information every day. But the vast majority of it is quickly forgotten. Only by firmly nailing a nail in the consumer's mind can a product stand out. To achieve this goal, traditional TV advertising and other media are too expensive, so packaging is actually the cheapest mobile advertising display platform. The most representative example is Naobaijin. The success of Naobaijin's packaging lies in its eye-catching nature. Whether consumers just enter the store or go to the shelf, they can see the words "Naobaijin" from a distance. The blue packaging can quickly stand out in the gift area dominated by red and enter the consumer's sight. Usually, Naobaijin places more than three items on a shelf and occupies the best visual position at the entrance. This increases consumer recognition, allowing them to unconsciously see Naobaijin when entering, exiting, or even browsing the store, achieving an advertising effect. 2. Packaging is the brand, becoming the consumer's first choice. What must be mentioned is Xiaoguan Tea, which has risen to fame in recent years. Maybe you haven't drunk it, but you've probably heard of it. In Xiaoguan Tea's labels, the most representative are: expensive, exquisite packaging, and strong gift attributes. It not only invited Apple's exclusive designer to design offline stores but also invited a famous Japanese designer to design aluminum alloy small can packaging, including the ultimate film-tearing experience and nitrogen filling technology. Why does Xiaoguan Tea put so much effort into packaging design? Because tea, like mooncakes, is a market with categories but lacking brands, making it difficult to differentiate from the tangible product itself. Only through unique packaging can Xiaoguan Tea's labels of "expensive" and "strong gift attributes" be truly realized, thereby establishing the brand. 3. Packaging is a social symbol, establishing connections with consumers. When consumers purchase products, besides the value exchange process, there is also an exchange of emotional and symbolic value. For example, Jiang Xiaobai's bottle copywriting, from the name to the packaging image design, and later the overwhelming copywriting output, actually turns the product into a friend of the consumer, with whom they can confide and drink. Packaging is also marked with a symbol that is personified, flesh-and-blood, and warm. Or like Coca-Cola, from nickname bottles, selfie bottles, lyrics bottles to tattoo bottles, emoji bottles... In the creative gameplay of packaging marketing, Coca-Cola achieves the "connection" between brand and users through these youthful fashion symbols. Only when packaging is fun enough will users be willing to upload photos to their Moments, allowing consumers to truly resonate emotionally. Then, under this social attribute, both word-of-mouth and sales can be achieved. 02 Good-looking packaging is only the surface; increasing sales is the purpose What is top-level design? It is to highly condense seemingly independent things into one thing: every product development, every packaging design, every advertising creative, every corporate merger, and even every promotional flyer. That is, each link seems independent, but in fact, they are highly related. The reason products require good-looking packaging is to coordinate with advertising creativity and brand promotion, and ultimately to increase sales and obtain more profits. Before further explaining the concept of "packaging," we must first explain the various "misunderstandings" people have had about packaging. 1. Packaging is not a waste. Taking mooncakes as an example, many people think mooncakes are expensive because the cost of packaging is too high. Actually, this is a wrong view. As mentioned earlier, from the product's own attributes, mooncakes, like tea, are difficult to differentiate. For consumers, it is hard to distinguish between a 300 yuan and a 3000 yuan mooncake by taste. Therefore, as a low-frequency consumer product, the only way to increase the added value of the product is through packaging! In real life, with the improvement of consumption levels, people are increasingly less fond of those "cheap and good" unpackaged products. Why are loose shoes and socks on the street cheap, but few consumers are willing to pay for them? That's the reason. 2. Online and offline have different requirements for packaging. On Taobao, you need to highlight the photos, not the product, to make consumers have the desire to buy at a glance. As for what the product is, there can be more detailed text and video descriptions on the product detail page, and you can also highlight key points for consumers through bold fonts and different colors. But offline is different. Because there is no text description, you need to tell consumers on the packaging what you are selling, what features it has, and why they should buy it. Only through such introduction can you increase consumer certainty. 3. Packaging is the product. Why did JDB and Wang Laoji engage in a ten-year legal battle over the ownership of the red can packaging, with both sides arguing back and forth, even going to the Supreme People's Court without giving up? The red can dispute looks like a packaging dispute, but in essence, it is a product dispute and a brand dispute. Here, packaging is the product; the red can means authentic herbal tea. Imagine if you abandoned the packaging, you couldn't tell whether it was JDB or Wang Laoji, or even distinguish it from ordinary similar drinks. The same goes for Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Just like when we go to the supermarket to buy instant noodles, if the packaging were transparent, consumers would see the "noodles" themselves rather than the delicious "beef," and I believe market sales would drop by at least 50%. The reason packaging is the product is that it can stimulate consumers' appetite and influence their purchasing judgment. Rather than saying consumers pay for the product, it is more accurate to say consumers pay for the product packaging. 4. Packaging is a culture and represents a circle. Generally speaking, tea on the market is divided into three categories. One is mass-market tea, targeting those who buy tea for drinking; one is brand tea, which has high requirements for tea leaves, understood as those who buy tea for gifting; one is cultural tea, where people seek a cultural experience and artistic conception, and the tea must have style and story. Xiaoguan Tea's brand positioning is "top-level brand tea, entry-level cultural tea." From a price perspective, the price of 12 yuan per gram already declares the identity of its consumer group. And this identity is actually a manifestation of the circle. 03 Excellent brands all have good-looking packaging From the enterprise's perspective, the reason for building a brand is to obtain brand premium. As the visual carrier and quality embodiment of the brand, packaging directly relates to the brand's position in consumers' minds. Why does Niulanshan Erguotou want to abandon barrel packaging and traditional beer bottle packaging? Why did Jiang Xiaobai capture the hearts of young people as soon as it appeared? Why does Nongfu Spring, which sells for two yuan a bottle, launch a glass bottle "zodiac" limited edition packaging? Why do some local specialties multiply in value after changing their packaging? In the end, excellent brands often have good-looking packaging. Some might say, look at Moutai at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, which became world-famous with the spirit of "good wine needs no bush." But the fact is that the Moutai brand has only gained widespread consumer recognition in the last 20 years with the concepts of "health" and "national liquor," and packaging's role in this process cannot be ignored. In May 1998, Apple, in a low period, released the first-generation iMac. The reason it was evaluated as an epoch-making product, besides the product itself, was that Apple took two revolutionary measures in the packaging of this computer, which also played a key role. One was the sea-blue shell color, which quickly distinguished the iMac from similar products on the market. Compared to the square, milky-white designs of the same period, the blue shell color not only won the approval of engineers and designers but also won the love of young people. The other was the translucent plastic shell, which allowed consumers to see the internal structure of the computer at a glance, with neatly arranged cables and chips, making consumers ecstatic. As a result, it broke Apple's sales record in just four months. 04 Establishing differentiated value is the soul of packaging The core of marketing is to shape differentiation, and in the current era of product homogenization, the fastest and most direct way to achieve product differentiation is packaging. To create a high-end brand image, Xiaoguan Tea naturally needs a high price. To match this high price, it must find label symbols that can be bundled with it. Therefore, in packaging, whether it is the film-tearing or nitrogen filling technology, or the aluminum alloy small can designed by the Japanese design master, the purpose is to make Xiaoguan Tea look more stylish, and in professional terms, to highlight Xiaoguan Tea's differentiated value. At the same time, combined with marketing and copywriting operations, consumers are made to believe that Xiaoguan Tea represents high-end and taste. Finally, back to Nongfu Spring. Since 2016, Nongfu Spring has launched glass bottle premium water. To date, it has launched zodiac commemorative bottles for four consecutive years. Why is Nongfu Spring willing to spend so much on packaging design? Just for fun or sales? NO! Because of this premium water, Nongfu Spring frequently appears at major international conferences, becoming the designated water for entertaining leaders and guests from various countries. Like the Hangzhou G20 Summit, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, and the BRICS Leaders Meeting... In the end, against the background that drinking water itself is difficult to differentiate, through customized zodiac glass bottles, the high-end becomes perceptible and tangible, and then through high-end conference marketing, Nongfu Spring's high-end and quality labels are further strengthened. It should be noted that the drinking water for international summits is not something ordinary brands can achieve. So, we should not only see the surface of packaging but also understand that establishing differentiated value is the soul of packaging. Only by truly achieving differentiation can we fundamentally create brand value and profits. New Distribution will hold the 2019 (5th) FMCG + Internet Conference during the Chengdu Spring Sugar and Wine Fair from March 16 to March 18. This conference, we will focus on the topic of "Breaking the Game" and conduct in-depth discussions with many brand owners, supply chain service providers, distributors, retailers, and others. Compared to previous conferences, this summit will be fully upgraded. In addition to the original topics such as channel innovation, city distribution logistics, and distributor transformation, it also adds multiple parallel forums such as new marketing cases, IP + FMCG empowerment, community group buying, and innovative retail. Through three days of ten high-density, high-quality expert sharing and exchanges, we believe every brand owner and distributor can learn the latest business models, expert opinions, and practical methods, find new tools and methods for their own breakthrough in 2019, and return to the track of rapid growth. ****Conference Time: March 16-18, 2019 Conference Venue: Chengdu Longemont Hotel, Dragon and Phoenix Hall Conference Topics 2019 5th FMCG + Internet Conference Date | Time | Venue | Topic 3.16 | Morning | Main Venue | B2B Special Session Afternoon | Main Venue | Regional Market Digital Precision Cultivation Main Venue | Brand Channel Digitalization Special Session 3.17 | Morning | Parallel Forum 1 | Social E-commerce Parallel Forum 2 | New Logistics, New City Distribution Afternoon | Parallel Forum 1 | How Does Community Group Buying Reconstruct the Value Chain? Parallel Forum 2 | IP Empowerment, Boosting Brand Growth 3.18 | Morning | Sub-Venue | New Marketing Open Class Parallel Forum 2 | How Can Distributors Achieve Iterative Upgrades? Afternoon | Sub-Venue | New Marketing Open Class Registration Method The registration channel is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read the original text" to register. 66% off early bird special tickets are limited to 200, now on hot sale...! Add the conference team staff to register Click "Read the original text" for more information -END-