Packaging --The Presentation of your Brand to the Consumer

Ideas can come at the strangest times. I often joke that most of my ideas come when I am on the tread mill or the exercise bike. What can you really do mentally when you are involved in these types of exercises? I find, however, the "out of the blue" ideas to be more interesting and usually more rewarding.

For instance, one of these out of the blues ideas hit last week when my wife and I were taking a guest to dinner (Fr. John McGuire, our pastor). I had been spending the day preparing a presentation to be given at the "Brand Packaging Symposium" in Chicago on September 9. I had been asked to talk on a topic "Packaging -- the most neglected feature of a Brand." A Views published over three years ago (June 23, 1994).

As the dinner was served, a comment was made that it looked almost too good to eat. It was not necessarily the food but the overall presentation. I never thought much about it at the time, but after we left the restaurant, we walked past a jewelry store. Now there is where they play the presentation game to the hilt. The gold and diamonds displayed on black velvet with the bright lights grab your eyes and scream "You want me".

The next day I talked with John Hoober, one of the chefs, about the presentation of a meal. His enlightening comment was "All good chefs know, the customer eats with his eyes first".

If presentation works so well in their businesses why not in ours? I had my hook. That is, your packaging is the "Presentation of our Brand to the Consumer". It should be appealing, communicative and intrusive.

Bill Froeze, USA Chicago, the sponsor of the symposium, gave me another point. That is, your package appearance in the store aisle is your "Last available opportunity to sell the consumer".

My presentation will focus on the concept of developing your package with the idea that it is "The Presentation of Your Brand to the Consumer" much like the chef, jeweler, florist, and green grocer (My wife tells me this is the proper term for a produce sales person). I plan to cover the five basic elements of a package and ten packaging personalities along with case studies relating to packaging research.

The symposium will involve about 150 companies. There will be a total of 12 speakers including Jay Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing, Herb Sorensen and Bill Hruby presenting Supermarketology, Jim Peters, Brandpackaging Magazine and others.