designing for sales success means understanding what motivates people, what appeals to them, and what catches their eye, and delivering that through standout packaging.by ronald de vlam, contributing editorgood package design can drive sales it&rsquos a fact. good design provides a standout experience on a crowded and noisy retail shelf, and getting the details right demands a fine balance of pragmatism and flair. successful design encompasses everything and ensures that everyone&mdashthe brand owner, the designer, and the consumer&mdashbenefits.designing for sales success means understanding what motivates people, what appeals to them, and what catches their eye. ultimately you need to disarm them, deactivate their autopilot, and convince them that they should select your brand from the rest of the products on an evergrowing, evolving shelf&hellipand accomplish all of this in a nanoseconddriving sales success through design is a matter of making the brand toolbox work hard. this boils down to applying a creative narrative to all consumer touch points that link to the wider, outofstore communication strategy if there is one.evaluate your brand assetsoften the solution to a designsales problem is staring you right in the face. that&rsquos why you need to make the store shelf your first port of call when starting a project. during this process, evaluate brands in their sales context, be it in store, online, or simply in an ad. what stands out when you walk down the aisles is the pack saying, &ldquobuy me&rdquo if not, why not p&g&rsquos fairy liquid dish detergent brand, sold in europe, is a great example of how this process works to ensure a brand shouts louder than its competitors.during the design process for fairy&rsquos shelfready packaging srp, p&g and its package designer discovered that there are some critical ideas to take into account to ensure srps work hard and increase differentiation at the point of purchase. namely&bull use all pack surfaces&mdashprimary and secondary&mdashto ensure a canvas for communication at every angle.&bull prioritize your key message and be big and bold with it.&bull tell consumers only what they need to know at that key decisionmaking point, and do so in an impactful way to make the brand choice easy.by effectively dialing up fairy&rsquos key brand assets, p&g was able to activate those assets to drive sales. the results speak for themselves after just nine months, fairy dish detergent sales increased by 4 across europe, its production costs decreased 50 versus its previous srp, and its customized display material costs decreased by 50. bearing in mind that fairy is a billiondollar brand, these are great results.yes, retailready packaging needs to be functional&mdashit needs to transport and display the primary pack. however, don&rsquot make the mistake of treating it just as a box. think of it as a stage and add some theatre to the primary pack. this is a view shared by value retailers and discounters, where goodquality srps are essential if you want to compete with privatelabel brands, which often have more space and the best onshelf position. a change in approach for fairy&rsquos srp from technical transportation to instore theatre has resulted in a commercially viable pack that has markedly increased sales and saved costs.drive sales and brand recognitionthe messages we convey through design need to be compelling and relevant in their sales environment, and the work bombay sapphire and its designer have done in the last few years is a good example of this.secondary packaging, in the form of gift packs, is less about function and brand claims. like the srp project for fairy, the design has to stop people in their tracks and make them curious. the ability to delight is also essential, especially in a travel retail context, when consumers have the luxury of time to browse.the bombay sapphire packs designed for global travel retail outlets tapped into consumers&rsquo curiosity, and strengthened their connection with bombay sapphire and the brand philosophy of &ldquoinfused with imagination.&rdquothe original project was inspired by an existing print campaign that used crystal sculptures created by eva zeisel to depict the distillation process. bombay sapphire harnessed this visual and extended it across several retail touch points, including a &ldquoreign&rdquo limitededition gift box using fresnel lens print technology to create an engaging 3d effect to illustrate the crystal droplet effect. the pack in turn provided inspiration for the pos displays. this package design drove sales and brand recognition instore with a yearonyear sales increase of 78 and a staggering 220 sales increase in the first month after launch.the ability to change the gift pack allows bombay sapphire to deliver their annual campaigns into the hands of people by triggering the &ldquoi&rsquove just got to have it&rdquo emotion on shelf, without altering their iconic, hero primary pack. the most recent iteration of the bombay sapphire gift box was the electroluminescent pack design see pwgo.to1385, which further strengthened people&rsquos connection with the brand and its philosophy.simplify your message to stand outa constant beacon for the brand is the primary pack, what consumers view as &ldquothe product,&rdquo and the one guaranteed touch point they interact with. therefore, it should be the embodiment of your core brand attributes, your unique point of difference that you&rsquove carefully crafted to blow the competition away. it is key that the primary pack delivers your brand message as simply and delightfully as possible. creating simplicity isn&rsquot easy, but it has proved worth the effort, since it has created some of the most iconic brand equities.the structural pack design for u.k. company westland&rsquos evenflo lawn care brand was a project that required the technology to be the star. in fact, the mantra of the structural designer became &ldquoto design the dyson of lawn care.&rdquo the design exposed consumers to the mechanics of the pack, on shelf, and reassured them that this was the cuttingedge piece that would transform their garden in the most convenient way. the primary pack does all the talking instore and is championed in the tv campaign see pwgo.to1386.in fastermoving categories, where the key to success is delivering uptodate messages that target everchanging consumer needs, it is all too easy to bombard your iconic primary pack with extra labels that destroy the simplicity of the brand message&mdashfor example, &ldquonew,&rdquo &ldquo30 extra free,&rdquo or &ldquomore power.&rdquo since its launch in 2012, evenflo has driven the lawn fertilizer category forward by offering unique innovation to the marketplace. in addition, yearonyear sales increased by 20, and significant production and inventory efficiencies delivered a more competitive cost of goods sold cogs.if you don&rsquot have the luxury of a large canvas, like the evenflo pack, the problem is intensified and requires the wider packaging toolbox to do some of the heavy lifting. if the secondary packaging is doing more of the work, it means that there&rsquos an opportunity to enhance the primary pack, focusing on brand equities and making it a more desirable object to have on display.uncover consumer purchase barriersoften the problem can be more complicated than a mere lack of standout on shelf sometimes the problem can exist in the consumer&rsquos head. uncovering these purchase barriers is important in discovering the merchandising and packaging solution that will hopefully drive sales.for paint brand valspar, the company and its package designer evaluated the painttinting experience instore, and by working with real people, they gained a greater understanding of valspar&rsquos needs. through this process, they learned that consumers were searching for color&mdashnot paint. valspar helped reinvent the category experience with a new focus on shopping for color and mixing tints, which delivered sales growth in tinted paint sales of 112 and achieved a 16 conversion from pretinted paint.make your brand shout louderdon&rsquot underestimate the power of visual communication to help your brand shout louder than its share of shelf to compel people to stop, look, and buy. it sounds obvious, but so many brands get it wrong. the design has to be aligned with overarching advertising campaigns and the core brand attributes of the product in order to present a cohesive instore experience and create awareness of the brand outside of the retail space. it&rsquos true that brands exist in people&rsquos minds, so make sure that the tangible leaves a lasting impression.creating shelf impact is also about showing restraint with brand communication onpack and prioritizing the hierarchy of communication. simplifying the messaging eliminates the heavy lifting for you and the consumer.ronald de vlam is global managing partner of strategic brand design firm webb de vlam www.webbdevlam.com. he can be reached at 3125750700. 
