Speaking of packaging, driven by consumption upgrades, it has really elevated the aesthetics of Chinese FMCG products. Think about it—if we let Coconut Palm's Word-style packaging design dominate consumers' eyes, wouldn't other companies lose face?
Take a walk in the supermarket and you'll see that most product packaging from the 80s is gradually being phased out, while current packaging is more likely to trigger purchase desire. This shows me that companies' understanding of packaging is entering a stage of exponential growth.
This is an inevitable trend. Nowadays, if you don't put effort into packaging, you can't attract consumers' attention in the channel, and companies will face high channel costs. Traditional channels are increasingly ruthless, caring only about profits, and in the end, companies must face a single high-cost channel situation.
It's like a farewell ceremony: past packaging fulfilled basic functions like storage, protection, and transportation. Now packaging must solve product sales, support corporate strategy, and engage in closer, more direct contact and communication with consumers.
This ceremony may take a long time, and during this period, there are still many opportunities for companies in packaging.
In the past, Pepsi-Cola used a large-packaging strategy to seize market share from Coca-Cola.
Pepsi-Cola launched a packaging strategy against Coca-Cola, using a "more for the same price" large package to pull many consumers back from Coca-Cola. But do you know why Pepsi dared to do this?
Couldn't Coca-Cola have made large packages too? Or couldn't Coca-Cola have discounted to counter Pepsi's disguised price cut?
Pepsi dared to do this because Coca-Cola had already customized hundreds of millions of bottles, and selling through those packages would take time. Even if Coca-Cola immediately followed with large packages, the time lag would be enough for Pepsi to grab key market share.
Additionally, Pepsi wasn't afraid of Coca-Cola's discounts. Discounts give consumers a cheap feel, which in the long run harms Coca-Cola's brand. Pepsi's "more for the same price" gives a value-added feel. If Coca-Cola discounted, it would fall into Pepsi's trap.
In the traditional era, Pepsi's victory in this packaging strategy allowed it to thrive.
But now, the variety of FMCG packaging is enough to piece together a "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" painting. Not everyone can easily create differentiated packaging, and most companies have never realized that packaging should be the foremost element in product innovation.
In our consulting work, we see many resource-constrained companies focusing on product processes, formulas, and even product form innovation... So most of the time, we're persuading companies to understand that they must do what's appropriate for their stage. With limited resources, they must invest overwhelmingly in key areas.
Moreover, FMCG brands capture consumer mindshare quickly, but they can also lose it quickly to other brands.
So, in FMCG categories, attention is the main battlefield. Don't you get it? Attention relies entirely on packaging; the battlefield of attention is the battlefield of packaging.
Outsider media always ask why you don't increase R&D investment, because they don't understand what companies should do at which stage and trend. Listening to them will only lead companies astray.
Learn to Choose Your Side
Even NetEase has chosen a side, so how can packaging not?
What does choosing a side mean? It means what packaging material does your product use? Tetra Pak, PET (plastic bottles), glass bottles, or aluminum cans? Which team does your product stand with?
In your perception, if you see Tetra Pak packaging, what product do you associate it with? Most people think of milk. Why milk? Because milk was the first category to scale with Tetra Pak, and Tetra Pak is also the most suitable packaging for storing milk.
So in the Tetra Pak team, milk has taken the lead, becoming the first symbol and the first consumer perception.
Packaging materials not only trigger associations and perceptions of categories but also price perceptions. Ignoring design and specific material quality, when people see a Tetra Pak beverage, the expected price range doesn't exceed 4 yuan.
Actually, the logic is the same: Tetra Pak's perception is dominated by milk, so consumers naturally match milk's value with the packaging. How much is a carton of milk worth? Around 3 yuan. So packaging materials also determine consumers' price expectations for the product.
For glass-bottled drinks, you think of sodas in restaurants, priced under 2 yuan; for canned drinks, you think of ready-to-drink carbonated beverages, priced 3-6 yuan... These are all results of a category's first-mover advantage influencing long-term consumer perception of the packaging material.
So, which team does your product stand with?
Which Team Does Xiangpiaopiao Choose?
Xiangpiaopiao's meco milk tea and fruit tea's short-term explosion is no accident. Xiangpiaopiao had long been planning a packaging strategy. For this packaging, they planned for at least three years, obtained the usage rights to Sweden's latest material, and secured a two-year protection period from the manufacturer, meaning no competitor would be supplied with the packaging material within two years.
Previously, Xiangpiaopiao's cup-based instant products dimmed due to the impact of street-side milk tea shops, turning 15 billion into history. Media are always fence-sitters: when you're successful, you're great; when you're not, you're garbage. They only look at stock prices and market share growth, not the organizational capabilities behind a company.
But Xiangpiaopiao "let bygones be bygones" and still had the vision to stand with the street-side milk tea team.
meco's packaging, from bottle size, specifications, to design style, directly benchmarks street-side milk tea shops. In fact, Xiangpiaopiao's packaging, in terms of material feel, is even better than street-side milk tea. Moreover, Heytea's per capita consumption is 30 yuan, and even the most cost-effective 1 Dian Dian costs 10 yuan per person. My milk tea, similar to theirs, sells for 8 yuan, and my similar fruit tea sells for 6 yuan—that doesn't seem excessive.
Thus, when consumers see Xiangpiaopiao's packaging, their benchmark is also street-side milk tea.
Xiangpiaopiao's packaging strategy has always been precise and decisive, which many companies haven't noticed. When they sold cup-based instant milk tea, they provided paper cups to meet the need for convenient brewing, easily reaching the 3 billion mark.
Actually, there's no complex business model or profound marketing strategy theory. Xiangpiaopiao simply saw the demand behind packaging and seized the opportunity for packaging innovation. Xiangpiaopiao knows better than anyone that packaging is the key to beverage innovation.
Every industry is shaped by its era, so packaging must follow the trend. Choosing the right side doesn't guarantee success, but it does create opportunities.
Strategy in Packaging
What should a perfect slogan or copy look like?
I think it should be like this—
Externally, convey the value proposition
Internally, guide core work
In our consulting case for Hujihua Peanut Oil, we finally settled on "Ancient Method, Truly Fragrant," which is what copy should be.
For consumers, the biggest perception of peanut oil is its fragrance. The difference between oil types is essentially the difference in fragrance, nothing else. So our approach was to constantly remind consumers to pursue the taste of traditional methods, helping them recall and remember the flavor of old oil mills. That's our value proposition.
Internally, all actions revolve around the concepts of tradition and fragrance, whether it's the aerial promotion team or the ground terminal sales team, uniformly emphasizing in consumers' minds. For example, at terminal retail stores, Hujihua is researching a slow-release technology so that when consumers pass by the grain and oil section, they can smell the rich aroma of peanut oil.
Copy is definitely not ornate literary work; it's strategically conveying effective information.
Packaging is the same.
To this day, many advertising agencies like to make packaging into art—beautiful but empty. Consumers look at it confused: What is this product? They have to guess.
Products are ultimately placed in channels. You only have 0.2 seconds to appear in consumers' sight. Do they have any recognition of you? Can they see at a glance the value you want to convey? Are you sure they can feel the product's value? Are you sure your product has the greatest advantage in this channel?
You need to research the channel, research consumers, research the market environment. Many people haven't thought that the purpose of these research efforts is to help you choose an appropriate packaging. The process of solving these problems is the process of landing your packaging.
Idiot, It's Still Packaging
Companies will still worry and ask: Isn't the content important? Of course it is. Nothing can kill a product faster than a bad advertisement. No matter how good the packaging, if the product doesn't taste good, it's over immediately. There's no second chance with consumers.
But we must remember: while content is important, our resources are always limited. We need to let some people see, touch, and taste our product, right? And taste and flavor can be continuously iterated, right?
If you invest resources in taste and flavor from the start, building a car behind closed doors, no one knows who you are, where you are, or what you're doing. If they can't even taste you, how can they say you're good?
Packaging is the most worthwhile point to focus on from the start, because it makes your product presentable.
Source: Marketing Old Cannon (ID: wangchaolaopao) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan upon adoption.