CHAT BACK: The design double whammy

Everybody loves a big idea. Brands like Nudie, Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain and Pure Blonde immediately spring to mind with their simple yet engaging big brand 'ideas'.

Brands that successfully harness the power of a cleverly differentiated and relevant 'idea', make it easy for consumers to choose them. Big ideas create desire.

Consistently spreading this big idea across numerous brand touch points all comes down to marketing budgets, but how can we ensure that the big idea is successfully translated into effective packaging design – and therefore actually chosen by the consumer at the point of purchase?

And by effective design, we mean design that works within the context of the ‘one second world’ of the supermarket – the harsh, ultra-competitive environment where brands often have less than a second to shout out and get noticed on shelf.

It’s critical to understand the reality of the supermarket; this can help turn a good design into a truly 'effective' design.

So how should we go about it? How can we take a big brand idea (which more often than not would have originated from advertising planning sessions) and make it work on FMCG packaging?

One way of simplifying big brand ideas to work in the supermarket context is by understanding semiotics – and more specifically, how brands can capitalise on the way culture has programmed us to think and act when we see certain shapes, images and colours.

The colour red on a road sign, for example, immediately tells us to be cautious and alert. An animal such as a stallion is symbolic of masculinity and power (think Ferrari). Sunflowers often represent fertility through their round shape and vibrant colour, while bees carry black and yellow stripes to signify danger.

Semiotic cues are all around us but more often or not we don’t actually realise we’re responding to them as they are so deeply embedded in our subconscious.

That’s their power, a power that brand designers can harness to spark the interest of barely conscious shoppers making their way through that 'one-second world'.

When executed well, the semiotic power of a pack design can act as a prompt or cue to help shoppers make their purchase decision quicker and easier.

The designer’s role is to understand those colours, shapes, symbols, images and even words that will work on a semiotic level for a brand’s target audience, while also staying true to the brand’s big idea. If all this is achieved, your brand will reap the rewards.

Coca-Cola’s Mother energy drink is an excellent example of a brand knowing the semiotic power it holds with its target consumers.

The use of jet black as the brand colour, the very size of the can in relation to its competition and the gothic 'tattoo' style typography all combine to give the sense of a brand not to be messed with – the Mother of all energy kicks.

Consumers don’t have to think that hard to understand exactly what the brand is about and whether or not they want a piece of the action. This is the power of semiotics at work – tapping into the triggers and cues of the shopper’s sub-conscious, enabling them to quickly process information and make decisions on which brand to purchase.

More often than not, packaging that utilises semiotics well will appear simple and uncluttered, relying on elements such as label substrate, typography and other design subtleties to communicate a certain sentiment or feel to its audience. This is especially useful for products that have a lot to communicate but very little space in which to do so.

The recent re-design of the Heinz baby food range is a strong example here. The tiny label, the introduction of the hessian-effect background, the muted colour schemes, the natural looking product cameos and the use of the butterfly character all instantly combine to give a sense of naturalness and high food quality without cluttering other critical information, such as variant and age suitability.

The result is a simple yet powerful piece of design that instantly provides mums with key functional information, while also using semiotics to tapping into more emotive purchase drivers.

Both Mother and Heinz are perfect examples of brands that use semiotics exceptionally well. Their strength lies in the way they cut through the clutter by working on both a conscious and semi-conscious level.

Whether they realise it or not, consumers are being hit by a design double whammy, instantly communicating what the brand is all about and enabling them to make quicker and easier purchase decisions.

In the 'one second world' of the supermarket, brands don’t often get a second chance to make a first impression so utilising semiotics can be a powerful weapon indeed.