4 Exercises to Illuminate Packaging-Concept Blind Spots—and Get to Market Quicker
Conducting myriad rounds of packaging-concept testing before testing an actual product with consumers at shelf might seem like a smart way to proceed. There are a couple reasons we recommend rethinking this, though: One is time. The other is money.
The fact is you don’t need 1,500 people to tell you what you and your team can assess about your packaging on the fly. Consider: Very few products fail because the packaging wasn't perfect, but a lot of great products fail because they missed their window.
So, before you go into multiple levels of quantitative testing, try iterating packaging quickly around these simple exercises.
1. Apply the six-foot rule. You don’t need a prototype to do this. Just print the packaging concept on a sheet of paper and scotch tape it to the appropriate box, bag, or container. Then walk six feet away. Do you know what it is? Can you read all the words you need to understand what the product is?
2. Take the package on a field trip to the store. Put it on the shelf for a minute and repeat the six-foot rule exercise. Can you see what the product is, its main features, when scanning the shelf?
3. Get a fresh eye on mockups. When you've been working on something for a long time, it can be easy to forget what Joe consumer doesn't know. You have so much information in your head, you forget what you didn't know six months ago. Ask yourself if Joe would understand what this product is. Is the product for Joe? Why should Joe buy it? Try to adopt a beginner’s mindset yourself, and ask other people to be your fresh eyes, too.
4. Worry about the basics, not the fine print. Don’t go crazy trying to perfect the package. Focus on the big picture: Do the words speak to the product’s UVP? Do images? For example, are there pictures of the whole fruit that indicate there's real fruit in the product? Does a call-out say “100 calories” if the product is a snack because portion control is important in the category? Just focus on the critical pieces—the rest of it is just window dressing.
Once you’ve gotten a quick handle on the basics, the next best step is to test your MVP (minimum viable product) with consumers in stores. That’s where insights pay off, setting you up for a successful launch.
Want to learn more about our on-shelf tests? Send us a note at hello@mission-field.com.