Packaging must sell from the shelf

From your own experience, you know that packages in any retail setting have only a few seconds to capture your attention, communicate a mood or benefit or brand, stimulate you to pick one up--and ultimately encourage you to buy.

Yes, packaging must protect the product, allow for safe transport, enable convenient storage in stores and in households and help in using or measuring the product. Sometimes packaging prevents theft. And of course products must carry labels that inform, warn, explain and comply with rules and regulations.

But the best packaging does a brilliant job of selling from the shelf, coordinates with other marketing elements and contributes to customer satisfaction. Ideally, it's also earth-friendly and adaptable to other uses.

Buzzfeed collected images of clever packaging last year--see them here. Packaging of the World features good packaging examples from everywhere.

Above, an example of a Coca-Cola bottle customized with given names for the Australian market. This 'Share a Coke' campaign resulted in sales of 250 million Coke bottles and cans just in Australia.

The campaign was expanded globally and was repeated in the UK this year, with more names plus 'Mum' and 'Dad' and 'Bestie' to attract consumers who wanted to share a Coke with family members and friends. The success of the campaign illustrates the power of good packaging with marketing as a priority.

Launching Coca-Cola Life and Pepsi True

In the latest cola wars between the world's largest soft-drink marketers, Coca-Cola Life and Pepsi True are launching into the 'battle of the stevias'.

These are neither zero-calorie colas with artificial sweeteners nor full-calorie colas with sugar or fructose syrup. They're 'mid-cal colas' featuring stevia, a plant-derived sweetener, typically targeting millennials who want to avoid a lot of chemical ingredients.


At left, Coca-Cola Life in bottles.

At right, a can of Pepsi True.


Note the use of green labels, which consumers usually associate with natural foods. What does this mean for dueling colas? A UK creative exec comments: 'The problem of sending confusing messages to consumers is they tend to avoid brands rather than try to decode them'. 

Coca-Cola Life is launching in the UK with sampling, outdoor and transit ads and of course digital marketing. When The Grocer tasted Coca-Cola Life and compared its flavour with other Coke products, the editors preferred Life. A key question is whether this new product will attract new customers or take them from existing Coke products.

Pepsi True is currently available through Amazon in the US, but will soon be on store shelves there. Pepsi marketers view this product as a niche item because it appeals to a relatively small subsegment of soft-drink buyers.