Good design is good business, which is why Burger King recently tapped award-winning visual identity and packaging design agency Turner Duckworth to upgrade its packaging experience in July. As reported in Adweek, the new packaging is a way for the fast-food chain to position itself more uniformly on a global scale. While the burger chain’s logo will remain the same, the revamped design includes retooled cups, wrappers, bags and containers.
Burger King isn’t the first company to give a little TLC to this crucial part of the branding strategy (in fact, KFC and rival McDonald’s just made some tweaks of their own)—and it certainly won’t be the last. From Tiffany & Co. to Coca-Cola, hosts of memorable brands have become synonymous with iconic packaging. They know that a package contains more than a product; it’s the prelude to the product’s story.
It’s also a concept that Fred Collins, president of Groton, Massachusetts-based DFS, understands. “The combination of the right design, pattern, imprint and accessories creates an immediate impression about your business and puts your brand front and center with the customer,” he said. “It is communicating your organization’s image. The package itself has to have the same perceived value as the product you are putting into it as it transports and reinforces that value for the customer.” (Though a Tiffany’s diamond could be given to us in a beat-up piece of cardboard and we wouldn’t care.)
With more and more companies fighting for control of retail shelves, and prime positioning in general, it’s easy to lose sight of what drives purchase intent. And an uninformed vision can lead to multiple variables (e.g., color, shapes, symbols and text) working against each other. Now that distributors double as marketing service providers, it’s their job to get it right. Print+Promo wanted to help, so we asked Collins and Michael Dohm, vice president, sales for Triangle Printing & Packaging Company, York, Pa., for some of their best tips. Read on to see what they had to say.
FIND A NEED AND FULFILL IT
DFS recognized that its resellers needed an engaging product to help their retail clients increase brand visibility and stay top of mind with current customers. So, in February, the company announced the launch of Signature Packaging, a premium, wholesale packaging line offering consumer-oriented supplies, such as paper, plastic and fabric bags, boxes, tissue and ribbon.
“We wanted to provide our resellers with an affordable and stylish new product line that could help create a new source of revenue,” Collins shared. “[Signature Packaging] provides a one-stop source for any packaging need with on-trend designs we refresh twice a year and high-quality products at extremely competitive prices.” Bonus tip: Collins pointed out that distributors can market ribbon or tissue as “simple and affordable add-ons” that will make the customer’s packaging stand out.