http://www.ar-carton.com/aboutus/media/packviews/Documents/PackViews%20June%202008.pdf

The silent

Salesman

It is estimated that 73% of all

purchasing decisions made in

supermarkets in Europe are made

at the point of sale. The average

consumer has a choice of about

12,000 packages in each supermarket

and passes 300 items

per minute.

http://annehoweassociates.com/2011/04/packaging-is-the-silent-salesman-whispering-in-the-shoppers-ear

The role of packaging is to be the silent salesman, according to Vickie VanHurley, Ph.D. and Package Design Team Supervisor for Meijer.  Being a regular Meijer shopper, I recently reached out to Vickie to engage her in a packaging methodology dialogue.  Frankly, I wanted to know why they made the private label potato chip bag dark green. What was the insight?

But Vickie works in general merchandise, and while my question on chip insights goes unanswered for now, we had a great discussion on the role of insights in packaging.

Meijer moves fast in private brand product development, and Vickie’s team rarely has the luxury time to complete in-store testing. The company relies on the prowess of the entire team and its ability to write an insightful branding statement as the creative direction for any private brand packaging in the general merchandise area.

Vickie’s job is to interpret an emotional connection to desire for the product and translate it to the shopper via packaging as if she were the sales associate telling you the story at the point of purchase.  She wants you to feel something visceral, but she doesn’t get as much space as the ad and display designers. But working as a team gives her the opportunity to “nail it” on packaging, sometimes using just a wrapper.

So I journeyed to the aisles of Meijer to see what examples I could find of Vickie’s craft in action. And find them I did.  Although the temp outside was only 38 chilly degrees, I felt The Summer of Color connection in an warm and sunny manner. The silent salesman spoke to my desire to update my kitchen and linen closets with fresh, fun items to add pops of excitement to my summer entertaining. The entire concept was visually stimulating, from display to packaging to the products themselves. Even the beach towels were inspiring. Take a look at how integrated all of the elements are!

Vickie’s team is doing a great job with the Katie Brown line of home accessories as well. The display and packaging instantly conveys a sort of stylized, rustic yet approachable vibe. “Simply at Meijer” and what look to be an updated version: “Keeping it simple at Meijer” is a nice packaging tagline that assures the shopper she’s going to get it right without too much fuss and distress. I also loved the cutout towel wrapper, allowing just one more hint of saturated color to peep through the cutout. That silent salesman is telling me that the up-market design cues are an important part of feeling good about buying home furnishings at Meijer.

I can’t wait to see more of what this team is up to. Vickie and her crew obviously get it when it comes to arming the silent salesman with what to say to shoppers without uttering one spoken word. They’ll show us more at the Shopper Insights conference in July. I hope they bring some sample products of the new DRINK line for the cocktail party!

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=23312&Title=Clever_ways_that_brands_are_integrating_augmented_reality_into_their_packaging

How Lego, Heinz and Red Bull are using augmented reality technology

May 29, 2012

Related Links

• ·Point of sale – this time it’s personal
• ·Seven predictions for retail in 2012

By Steve Osborne, Managing Partner, Osborne Pike

Packaging was once famously dubbed the ‘silent salesman’, a reference to its role as a mute object which nevertheless tells a powerful story.

By adding layers of emotional storytelling to an often generic product inside, packaging is responsible for creating what I term user anticipation. This is far more than being reminded of advertising for the brand. By its very proximity to the product, packaging is also able to perform an almost magical trick known as sensation transference, where the perceived attributes of the pack (elegance, clarity, naturalness, slimness etc) become transferred to the perception of the product, and the brand. In other words, how smoothly your scotch pours from the bottle will actively influence how smooth you think it tastes.

But with new digital technologies such as augmented reality now being applied to packaging, it is perhaps time to see it in a more contemporary way: as a user interface and a major part of the user experience.

Lego was one of the first brands to use fledgling augmented reality technology to allow consumers a 360º view of the finished model, simply by scanning the pack with a smartphone.

Digital enhancements permit truly immersive storytelling, such as Ardaich’s use of augmented reality to illustrate its defining theme of ‘the water that whisky drinkers choose’. The bottle (or in this case an image of the bottle) tells the story, and then bottles it back up afterwards, so it truly does augment the impression of what is contained inside.

This successfully extends the concept of sensation transference described earlier and opens the door to a new world of packaging-based user experiences.

The digital touch also gives consumers reasons to keep coming back for more – as with Heinz Tomato Ketchup’s use of blippar technology on-pack, to inspire Ketchup lovers with a virtual recipe book.

As designers and brand owners explore the possibilities that augmented reality technologies can unlock, packaging is gaining the potential to communicate brand values at a new, heightened level.

Suremen have transformed their deodorant cans into game controllers which, when pointed at a webcam, let (freshly deodorised) players face a range of adventurous challenges from mountain biking to water skiing, all in a bid to win cash prizes or sports gear.

Canada’s Lassonde have also done this with their Oasis brand, using augmented reality to turn the Tetrapak juice carton into a virtual goalkeeper in the Oasis All-Stars soccer game.

Meanwhile Red Bull encourage drinkers to collect their cans and line them up to create a virtual racing track. Using an iPhone to photograph the front of the cans for calibration, an app generates a virtual version of the track which can then be raced with a virtual car – probably one of the clearest incentives to consume more product I have yet encountered.

Digitally enhanced packaging is changing the way we experience products and brands. It is adding to the user anticipation and user experience that great packaging already delivers. But it needs to take care that it enhances what the brand already stands for, not replaces it with a short-term technology hit.

In Thomas Hine’s book, The Total Package, Hine reminds us that ‘advertising leads you to temptation, but packaging is the temptation’. With the possibilities afforded by new digital technologies, these two media could effectively become combined in self-promoting packaging. Hardly the silent salesman anymore then, but for those occasions when the design aesthetics are more than enough, I hope they remember to add an ‘off’ button.