Blogs
Monday
December 5, 2011
12:17 PM
Gary Richards,
Director
Director
SmartSpace Branding and Packaging
Round the world solo yachtsman Graham Dalton has had plenty of time to come up with good ideas. Sitting in the cabin of his yacht he got to thinking about how pots and pans could be rectangular rather than round. This way they would take up a lot less space in cramped areas such as a galley, a camper-van or todays more common small city apartments.
Brother of Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, Graham saw an opportunity in the market for space-saving rectangular cookware that would let sailors, campervan owners and apartments dwellers take advantage of the limited space available in these environments.
After more than two years of planning, Graham has designed the pots to maximise the available space on a small stove as well as stack inside each other for easy efficient storage. He has registered global patents for the new sets of pots and pans to be sold under the SmartSpace brand.
GardyneHOLT worked with Graham to develop the SmartSpace brand and design the packaging and marketing collateral for the launch. Within a week of the pots hitting retail shelves, stores around the country had already run out of stock and they were calling Graham to order more. The big plan is to go global within the next 5 years.
Thursday
October 20, 2011
10:41 AM
Gary Richards,
Director
Director
You've got a great product, but no one is buying it?
There are many businesses, large and small who have some amazing products. Often it may either be difficult to get them onto retail shelves, or if they have, they may not be selling very well because the branding needs a refresh. On the other hand, you may be trying to sell them online, but not achieving the sales you had hoped for.
There can be many reasons for this and most often, it is the presentation of your product and how it looks, what type of audience it is appealing to, and whether the contents and the branding are appealing to the same audience it was intended.
Whether you like it or not, people will always judge a book by the cover, and therefore, your presentation on your packaging needs to look professional and credible. It needs to stand out from all the others, be visually attractive and convey the visual message that the customer is looking for.
By making a relatively small investment into having your packaging professionally designed can be the ultimate difference between selling all your products - or not. Or having them in retail stores - or not.
The process of engaging a professional designer is ensuring they have experience in both designing packaging and in brand development at a professional level. Your packaging IS your brand and therefore the consistency of your brand, the way it is applied and the quality of your products are all a reflection of your brand.
So, do you have a good brand - or not so good? If it is the latter, you need to get in touch with a professional brand and packaging designer so that you can start the journey of getting your products off the shelves and into shopping trolleys.
Tuesday
June 7, 2011
5:23 PM
Gary Richards,
Director
Director
Packaging Design - Make Sure Your Business Image is Consistent
In business, your brand is not only the logo you use to represent your business; it is what customers think of when they think of your business. The right logo can generate excitement and interest from potential customers, while the wrong one is easily forgotten and so is your business. But a company’s image is more than just a logo. All of your communications need to be thought of as the vehicle that carries your company’s image to the public. The wrong marketing means your company is invisible, the right one and your business is booming! One such vehicle is the packaging you use to contain and wrap your products, and to effectively market those products in today’s marketplace you need effective packaging design.
Whether you are looking to create a brand, update an existing brand or just ensure all your marketing is consistent across all marketing platforms, finding the right packaging design company is important. They should be versed in what current market trends are in terms of logo placement and recognition. They should also have qualified designers who know what works when it comes to different forms of packaging - this evaluation can make all the difference between a well packaged product and one that doesn’t measure up to consumer requirements. Remember that a skilled designer will create packaging and labels that will encourage potential buyers to purchase your product. So it really does pay to do your homework and check that your existing or new brand can be effectively transferred to a packaging design that is going to ‘be seen’ by consumers. The all important marketing communications need to be effectively addressed on labels and point of sale displays.
Keeping consistent with your branding across all forms of your marketing collateral is also very important. This sends a dependable message to your customers, makes connections between various forms of advertising and builds brand recognition. With this in mind it pays to think about whether you should consider using a design house that only does part of the job. If one company does your packaging design work, but someone else handles the printing of your brochures, you may end up with some inconsistencies in the final product. While some print shops may provide cheaper services for printing brochures, and others offer discounts on catalogues, working with more than one vendor is only going to disjoint your marketing collateral and destroy that ever important consistency. A one-stop shop is really the best way to go.
