Photo Credit: http://www.handshake.com – Nick Flambard
A customer shared a story with me a while back and it has stuck with me ever since. We were looking at some new labels that we had recently produced for them, and I asked why they decided to change their artwork and come out with this new look. I wasn’t expecting it to be because of a specific incident, but surprisingly that ended up being the case.
She proceeded to tell me a story that would result in completely changing the look of their brand. The company had maintained shelf space for several of their products in a healthy food grocery market for quite some time. All things were going well until the grocery store notified this produce company that they were no longer going to be carrying their products. The reason was not because it wasn’t a great product at a great value. The reason revealed that there is something more important than that to be considered.
Product packaging drives a large percentage of consumer purchases in the retail and grocery setting. In this case in particular, the focus was on the labels. As nice as they looked, they didn’t stand out enough from the others that were being displayed in the store. The branding of the item just wasn’t what the grocery store was looking for. Wow.. Just like that, without an opportunity to make changes, the products were replaced by another brand in the store.
Immediately after this took place, we went to work with our customer creating a new brand image. The changes had to happen quickly as no time could be wasted with the product off of the shelves. We were hustling to get mock ups printed for review until they felt it looked just the way they wanted it. A short time went by, and the products were back on the shelves at that market!
We are not always in the position to decide when it is time for our brand to make a change. Sometimes the market will tell us when the time has come. Fortunately, with good partners on our side, we can react quickly to avoid missing out on opportunity. Innovation and creativity are highly sought after in today’s market, so that is something we all must take into consideration. Not only do we have to be pleased with our own image, but we have to consider what consumers want to see as well. Whatever it is that sets you apart just might be the reason you get the opportunity over another brand.