Andrew Doyle believes precious few brands are actually precious
Walk around Tesco and it can be hard to find packs that are pretty. Do the same in Space NK and it’s impossible to find anything ugly. You work in a sector that produces utterly gorgeous packaging. But something is niggling me about your industry. Too often your focus seems to be on the superficial rather than the profound. So I’d like to make a plea not only for making the surface of your brands beautiful but also giving the meaning of those brands more attention.
Let me explain. There are lots of natural, simple, organic brands out there and an equal number of scientifically orientated products. I find their packs all beautiful and appealing. And therein lies the problem – they all sort of blend into each other. But there are some exceptions. Some stand out and are different, and that’s actually the start of my story.
What makes some of the brands in the fragrance sector adored? Why is Crabtree & Evelyn still around after all these years? What makes people smile when they think of Burt’s Bees? What makes them precious? It goes beyond the product. It goes way beyond the packaging. It certainly goes beyond the rational.
Now you all know a lot about the irrational. Your brands depend upon getting emotional responses to your stories. And a precious brand needs to start with a story. So big tick to your industry, because the vast majority of your brands do have stories.
But many of these stories are the same story. I went into one store and found five ranges of doctor endorsed skin care story brands. They all seemed really credible but I got lost because their stories were all alike. Their looks were similar and the language they used was the same. And that makes it so much more difficult to get loyalty.
Precious brands are ones whose consumers are incredibly loyal. And to become precious, the brand story must tap into the very primitive core drivers that motivate us. And there are just four: belonging, independence, stability and risk. A precious brand is one whose story fits snugly with one of these needs. And within each of these motivational areas there are different roles your brand can adopt to support it. Academics actually identify 12 such roles, from jester to magician, hero to sage and from lover to the innocent. A precious brand invests time working out, in the film of their consumers lives, what actor’s part it needs to play. And that part needs to be unique, not just a body double for another actor.
So maybe you have got a strong and unique story that hits a human motivation, but it still won’t make your brand precious unless you find a way of symbolising it. The brand story must be brought alive on your pack so that shoppers get it. It means finding an ownable style that brings alive your story and the role you want to play. Like Benefit’s retro cool or Gaultier’s irreverence.
An ownable style needs to start with the brand story and build from it. Original Source is based on simplicity, so its use of basic looking and feeling pouch packs is entirely appropriate, as is its bold but basic lettering.
Style can be really helped by shape and feel, yet your industry underutilises structural design. There are too many brands using stock containers, yet shape is one of the very best ways to tell the brand story. Head and Shoulders, for example, does a great job signalling the duality of its shampoo and conditioner using the bottle shapes. Or the Lux container, which signified the flamboyance of the catwalk.
And while I’m on a roll here, structural design is not just about shape. It’s about appealing to all the senses. If your product story promises softness then it should be soft. If it promises natural then it should smell natural. India Hicks’ lovely products talk about island living, so it’s not surprising her scented candle comes in a rattan basket - it is relevant, reinforces the story and stands out.
Taking this point one step further, it seems that precious brands are also ones that not only have their own unique style, but also create rituals with their usage. The opening of an expensive pot of moisturiser, the unwrapping of a sensuous bottle of body lotion – some brands create a process ritual while others build ritual into opening and closing the container. Some go for more emotional rituals, such as the special weekends.
We all want our brands to be precious. It seems the cosmetics industry does a great job of finding the story, the first step to becoming precious. But it must be a unique story, not a copycat. And it must be one that touches a basic human motivation. That story must then be symbolised on the packaging and should be based on a style that is more than skin deep; precious brands make the pack fit the story, not the other way round. It should appeal to the senses and build in rituality.
What happens if you get it all right? I was in Boots’ fragrance section the other day. It was heaving with brands. But the one that stood out was Chanel No 5. Wikipedia tells me it was launched in 1921. Wouldn’t we all like to have our brand making money after 87 years? That’s what being precious can do.