2014-06-24 22:25:28

Looking for the Beauty Within

2014-06-24 22:25:28

 Niche beauty brands, are having resurgence, with few options for launching, since brick and mortar indies like Fred Segal Santa Monica have shuttered, and Bendel’s has changed their business model. 

Packaging is more significant than ever as camera-ready brands expand their visual playing fields to Twitter, Instagram, You Tube and Facebook. With a host of media opportunities, the most photogenic product frequently seems to win the beauty race. 

HSN, QVC and e-commerce figure prominently into strategies for emerging brands, and it is interesting to see how the perceived value of packaging changes with it.

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Historically, secondary packaging has been a major selling tool for beauty brands. Luxurious boxes, custom papers, hot stamping and foil embossing provided branding and shelf presence.

The new question is: Are you operating on outmoded parameters? Are your packaging dollars being spent wisely? Is your primary packaging ready for its close-up? Will your secondary packaging be shown on air or online? Customers appreciate beautiful packaging, but do they vote with their wallet for value? 

Consumer blogs garner a cross section of opinion: First “Presentation is very important. On the products I use, I appreciate the attractive cosmetic packaging.” And conversely, “I don't care whether it looks attractive or not. I only care about the ingredients.”

Different gradations of these sentiments come into play. “I like attractive packaging
as it is part of the experience of using the product. But, if a plainer and less expensive packaging could be used and not compromise the integrity of the product and bring the price down, my wallet is all for it!”

“First of all, it has to catch your eye for some reason. And it's great if it looks nice, but I can't buy something solely for that reason.” From a consumer standpoint, attractive packaging is definitely an initial draw, but there is a conscious hesitation about overpaying for over-packaging that has no intrinsic value after purchase. 

It is a double-edged sword we face as packaging designers, because customers admit to being simultaneously drawn to and sensitive to the disposable nature of outer packaging and costs 
attributed to it. 

As designers we can help consumers seeking to retain value by making less disparity between the primary package design and the secondary. Paperboard packaging, keepsake boxes, minimalist packaging, and tin packaging are just a few solutions that more closely unite the inside and outside packaging concepts.

Industry wide, a new paradigm has been created wherein primary packaging has assumed a more important role therefore it is essential to step up our design game so products make a better showing alone-online, on television, on blog postings, etc. These products, not their packages are the stars.