Packaging Is Where Brands Keep Their Promises

More than anything, packaging is now the key proving point for brands. Ahead of London Packaging Week, experts from Bulletproof, Distinctive BAT, Free The Birds, Here, PA Consulting, Stranger & Stranger and Villeger explain what that means for the brands designing for lasting loyalty.

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We often talk about packaging as though its primary job is to win attention.

Can it stop shoppers in their tracks? Can it stand out in an increasingly crowded category? Those questions still matter, but increasingly they are not the ones that matter most.

Today’s consumers rarely meet a product for the first time on the shelf. They’ve already encountered it through advertising, social media, reviews or recommendations.

Instead of introducing a brand, packaging increasingly is being asked to prove it.

That subtle shift changes packaging’s role. It is judged not simply by whether it captures attention, but by whether it confirms everything the brand has already promised.

Beth Drummond, Creative Director at Bulletproof, believes this is one of the defining challenges facing today’s packaging designers.

“The second look isn’t won on the shelf; it’s earned long before the consumer gets there. Great packaging acts as the final confirmation in that journey, not the opening introduction.”

If packaging has become the place where brands prove their promises, it also changes the role of design itself. Design is no longer simply responsible for attracting attention. Increasingly, it shapes how consumers perceive value before they’ve even experienced the product.

Andrea Battello Hung, Design Director at Stranger & Stranger, believes that is where genuine innovation begins.

“Innovation is about shifting perspective. The most powerful innovations are the ones that make us think, ‘Of course. Why hasn’t it always been done this way?’ Design is not decoration. It’s a way of changing the perception of value.”