What’s your beverage package design strategy?

Photo Credit: unsplash.com/@sigmund

With competition heating up in all categories, take your product to the next level.

We’ve all experienced “The Wall” in the wine, beer and spirits aisles that span many feet wide and stack 6 shelves high, and at some bottle shops, 8 high. You need a ladder for those! So many brands competing for your attention. 

In the beer and wine sections of the grocery store or bottle shop I often find I go to my personal matrix – triangulating varietal, reputation and price. Then I add design and storytelling on top of that. How can I tell I’m going to love the taste…and what is the bottle or can telling me? Can I trust what it’s saying? Would I love seeing the packaging on my dinner table or be proud to share it with others? Is it witty, thoughtful or intelligent? Do I love the brewery or vineyard without having ever been there? 

This a fairly universal experience for us all as we roll down the aisles of the grocery store. Imagine your packaging is sitting there alone in a sea of similar products waiting for your customers on the shelf. Often it is your only spokesperson to new consumers. What is your packaging saying visually from 5 feet away? Then, as that consumer holds it in their hand, what is your brand communicating beyond benefits?

It’s important to develop your strategy at the outset of every new project. As you delve into the package design, be careful to translate that strategy into storytelling to bring a smile or ask a question…something delightful, interesting, or perhaps challenging. For example, our work on this New Hokkaido Daruma IPA packaging, its esoteric statement fit perfectly with the Zen Buddhist origins of the Daruma Doll, a popular talisman of good luck in Japan.

The copy reads: “He has no arms, he has no legs, he has no body. And just look at those eyes! Why did Daruma sit facing a wall for nine long years? Exactly.” As you drink this lucky cold IPA made with rice from the island of Hokkaido, contemplate that (or google it please) and you’re just a little bit closer to the heart of this brand. (And if you like the beer, don’t you want to see what other products the company has to offer?)

I’ve seen a lot of packaging that is based on design style and benefits without going to the next level of communicating IDEAS that surprise and delight your audience. The key is: What story can your brand tell that is authentic to only you?

If you can develop packaging that is designed with meaning based on your brand strategy, you’ll develop a relationship with your customers, be able to ‘go deep’ – and engender love and loyalty as time goes on.