July'08 Feature - A brand new world

A brand new world

It's a war zone out there. Watch your step. There are thousands and thousands of brands all crying out for attention. Attention, it seems, is more than just a nine letter word -- it's something which is increasingly becoming harder for marketers to attract but you can't blame the consumers. Everyday, people are being bombarded with masses of information, all thanks to improvements in a wonderful thing called technology. This same rise in technology, which has allowed us to consume phenomenal amounts of information at any given time, has also made us fussy and given us the power to tune in and out whenever we want.

Can you say power to the people? But with this rise of the machines, marketers have also been given the tools or at least are being forced to look for the right tools necessary to flex the right brand muscles and engage with consumers on a meaningful level. Branding, product design and packaging give brands the chance to speak directly to consumers in a multitude of ways. It's no longer about how your product or packaging looks. There's more soul to this than you might think. The consumer actually wants to be connected to the product on an emotional level, as cliché as it sounds, which means moving beyond just the look and feel of a product.

Smell me don't just touch me
Branding has come a long way since the days when "brand owners" felt the need to burn logos onto a cow's backside. Mark Guerrier, who is MD for Sentient Partners, thinks its time to move away from just sight and sound being the key communicators driving a brand's marketing experiences.

"With product parity everywhere, what we're trying to do is change this and engage with consumers on an emotive level with something else," Guerrier says.

Of the five senses the human being has, which are sight, sound, taste, touch and smell, he believes appealing to a consumer's nose rather than just his eyes to be a more powerful method. "Aroma is very closely connected to the centre of the brain for memory. As a result aroma is a far more powerful way to engage a consumer than some of the other senses. Taste is approximately 70% of aroma anyway," Guerrier says.

Consider Singapore Airlines branding. In the 1990s SIA introduced the decadent-sounding Stefan Floridian Waters to its set of brand tools. Stefan Floridian Waters is an aroma, which was specifically designed for SIA, and it forms the scent for the flight attendant's perfume. It has also been blended into the hot towels handed out before take off and the scent tends to spread throughout the cabin as well.

Obviously it's not the sole reason for SIA's successful brand positioning but its contribution to the whole in-flight experience shouldn't be underestimated. Cowan's business director for Asia, Blair Triplett, also cites Singapore's national carrier as an example of better sensory branding in the region. He says, "Too often we forget our consumers are made up of five senses and if you can appeal to those senses on as many levels as possible, then you're going a long way to developing and building a strong brand."

Build it and they will come
The old adage of "you can't judge a book by its cover" rings true for industrial design as well. In this instance it's more like "you can't judge the marketer's tool by its boring name". Industrial designers, as simply defined by Wikipedia, are a cross between a mechanical engineer and an artist. But more than this, they provide the art and science behind aesthetics and usability of mass-produced products in a bid to improve it for better marketability and production.

According to industrial design specialist and MD for Brand Image, Jim Warner, marketers are increasingly realising the power and importance of getting the product in sync with marketing strategy. He believes design can be directly linked to sales, and if products are working and working well, then consumers will be at a whole new level of brand experience. "There has always been a divorce between packaging, design and advertising, but in the past few years packaging has started to mandate the marketing strategy," Warner says.

He adds, "Industrial design is now becoming a marketing tool. It's not something that can be brought in at the last minute, it should be sitting at the same table as the marketing strategy, insight, brand communications and promotions."

Warner has a compelling argument for product design. It's a simple and pragmatic one as well, and is built around functionality in design. Design and build a great looking product, which works and the business will start coming in. Yet Warner says, marketers are still "fearful" of the word "design". Why? Because it involves money. "But when you realise it's an intellectual process of solving a problem, making the decision to invest in this space is a lot easier," he says.

Research goes out of focus
Marketers initially might be hesitant to invest in design but this is hardly a litmus test for levels of interest in the areas of product and packaging design. If there was no interest, then a lot of branding agencies would be out of a job.

The key is to be strategic with your money spent, and marketers are pumping money into research to help show them exactly what their consumer's want in product designs and packaging. Is research a fair indicator of the importance marketers place on the areas of product design and packaging? Maybe, but according to Interbrand Singapore's Creative Director, Spencer Ball, the manifestation of brands has made packaging more important and sophisticated than ever before.

"It's absolutely vital for any player in the FMCG space. They are now taking this stuff incredibly seriously and spending a lot of money on researching it because a wrong move can cost them millions of dollars," he says. But Ball warns, "Traditional market research can only tell you so much and nowadays, it tells you less and less."

"I think there are far more interesting ways to get into consumers' heads. Consumers don't naturally decode design, they make an emotional judgment on whether to pick something off the shelf or not," Ball says. He adds, "Quite often clients use research just as a decision tool but if you're a successful brand you should know your consumers and would understand what they want -- research is a way to help make a decision."

Sentient Partner's Guerrier agrees research should be indicative and not an absolute. "Research is useful, from the point of view of observation. It should be there purely as a way of checking, a safety net if you like. As a brand owner, you really should know your consumers, and if you need someone to tell you what your brand represents then you're obviously not close to your brand," Guerrier says.

Product design and packaging can't be explained in black and white terms, and neither can the research going into it. Dominic Mason, partner for Code, says you only need to look at the success of Australian fruit drink brand Nudie, which has only been around for a handful of years, to see how a different approach to marketing, positioning, and designing has worked. "They really did pursue a process of what we call co-authorship, which doesn't mean you get a bunch of consumers into a focus group but it's about starting off with their needs. It's almost involving them in the process of a dialogue. Consumers do know what they want but they can't express it," he says.

"I think if you ask companies who are researching brands, they will tell you that focus groups are not that enlightening. And that's why we are seeing a different kind of research into consumer needs. And that kind of research is a lot more probing and a lot more interpretative," Mason says. How does this relate to product and packaging design? Understanding and looking at how your products are being used by consumers in their environments could provide more tangible data for marketers to capitalise better on design decisions than say, asking a consumer if they prefer the product in black or white.

"Use research from the social sciences and humanities rather than from the marketing sciences. People like anthropologists have gone into communities where language barriers are significantly high but they are adept at decoding, if you will, what are those shared meanings in society," Mason says. Simply put, if anthropologists, psychologists, and social scientists are able to successfully interpret the shared meanings of an Amazonian hill tribe, then they should be able to apply the same skill sets to decode what a bunch of Japanese school girls' wants and needs are.

So you're an FMCG marketer?
Product and packaging design in the FMCG sector is vital to effective branding. It can be the crucial turning point in a consumer's decision-making process and will make them pick up one shampoo brand rather than another.

Marketing director for PepsiCo China, Chris Tung says product innovation and package innovation is the "single most important growth driver for FMCG brands". He believes with consumers now facing a product proliferation at retail level, and with only a few minutes to make a decision, a product with a compelling consumer benefit and visually cut-through packaging will win at the "moment of truth". Interbrand's Ball adds, "People are very influenced by the power of the brand and the way it's manifested on the packs." This, he says, is a reason why consumers are very loyal to packs and is also why old brands are "very reluctant" to change or are only ever making minor changes to packaging. "If they change the packaging too much they might lose the loyalty because it might be perceived that they are changing the product and so the consumer thinks the quality might have changed as well," he says.

According to Tung, PepsiCo is one of the "most active beverage brands in terms of packaging innovation". He says the brand "constantly changes its graphic concept on the pack based on the theme of advertising and activation campaigns". "The thing which stays unchanged is the iconic logo," he says. This makes sense. How else can a global brand like Pepsi keep a consistent brand identity and positioning while staying relevant to the needs of local markets?

"There's a parallel here with the way an advertising agency would approach a campaign. Look for the core truths of the brand, look for what actually represents the brand. Then apply it with as much consistency as possible, but at the same time allow for individual market customisation," Cowan's Triplett says. Tung expands on this point adding, "The challenge is how to keep a good track of what is in the [target audience's] mind and what draws their attention. We can keep our product and pack relevant only when we speak the same language." This just might be the biggest challenge for a global FMCG brand owner but Code's Mason throws up a different solution to this common problem. His point is if the brand has a strong insight or positioning based on meanings and cultural meanings, it's possible for consumers to interpret the meaning in different markets without there having to be a change in packaging or product design.

"When Dove came out it had a very compelling positioning, which was about real beauty. So their proposition is about 'we're real women, we're beautiful, we're comfortable with our own shapes and ourselves'. Now this can take on different interpretations and nuances, depending if you're in Europe, or Southern Europe versus a culture like Asia. So this doesn't have to result in a change in packaging and so you can get economies of scale because your production is consistent but the story which comes through on the packaging design is aligned to the meanings in each of those markets," he says.

But Interbrand Singapore CD, Spencer Ball says, "Brands have to adapt. Striking the right balance between global consistency and local relevance is something "every brand in the world struggles with".

"You can't have a brand in London mean the same things in the Philippines. You've got factors like cultural sensitivities and regulatory issues. Take Wrigley's. It's the same brand in China and the same brand in Australia but we can't show the fruit on the front of the pack the same way in each market because in Australia you're allowed to show real fruit but in China you can't unless there's real fruit in the product. So there's no really right or wrong answer, and what you find now with lots of FMCG packaging is a global template -- and then it's really up to the local market to adapt it," Ball says.

It's not about the size of your packaging
It's about how you use it. Sustainability has been "the buzzword" for the last couple of years now. However, rather than it being a trend, like fighting obesity was a couple of years ago (Super Size Me, etc.), Design Bridge Asia's creative director, Jason Glassick believes sustainability has been in the background for a long time, until now.

"Previously it's always been about the strategic and aesthetic side of things, but now there's a big third area which is this responsibility aspect as well. It's not just limited to the client, its something we encourage all our staff to be as well. Companies want economies of scale, and want to reduce costs, so sustainability can make business sense as well," Glassick says.

His example for the theory is with work the agency did with classic English beer brewer, Adnams. By redesigning the Adnams bottle -- and part of the brief actually was to reduce glass on the bottle -- the company saved 624 tonnes of glass per year which equated to taking 138 cars off the road (in terms of carbon emissions). From a business or financial perspective, by doing this the company lowered material costs, energy costs (in production), and transportation costs (which today is increasingly becoming an issue for many FMCG companies).

It's not just about glass or plastic. Over-packaged goods should be a no-go area for a brand, especially in markets like Europe where consumers are opting for more socially responsible products. For example, if a beer brand can reduce its carbon footprint through smarter and more efficient packaging, such as reducing the number of labels on the bottle, it's conceivable the brand might start to see its effort rewarded with increased consumer favour (although this point is still debatable) as well as reduced costs.

"I think companies are waking up. It's about striking the balance, one of the things a company could do if being sustainable results in an increase in costs; it may be possible to pass the costs on to the consumer if they are educated of the benefits. Consumers are willing to pay a bit more, but not an awful amount more, for an environmentally or socially responsible product," Glassick says.

Glassick admits the West is slightly ahead of Asia in the sustainability game but "it's catching up" and "once Asia gets a hold of something, it runs with it very quickly". Still, even he knows it may be verging on impossible for the local marketing team to convince HQ to break from the global packaging template. "It's difficult. In some companies the local marketing department might have a lot of control over their supply chain while in other markets it might only control the marketing budget. But if the local marketing team can show there is a significant benefit to the company to change, then they can pass this on to the global team for support," he says.

Ultimately you still have to give consumers a choice and sustainability in packaging will still be driven by the consumer's needs.