Slice Design

Our new packaging design for PZ Cussons Baby captures the deep emotional bond between parent and baby, evoking care and joy in every moment.

Inspired by the precious everyday moments that bring families closer together, the redesign elevates the brand’s premium positioning while improving navigation across the range through clearer architecture and stronger variant distinction.

The result is a more engaging experience that strengthens shelf standout while reflecting the care and trust at the heart of Cussons Baby.

Cat food or dog food?

The pet food aisle can be very confusing. There are a wealth of offerings with different benefits and age ranges for our furry, four legged Friends.

Clearly, navigation in this aisle is key. Not just between benefit and age range but also it would seem for actual animal type. Have a look look at this example from Sainsbury’s.

The similarities between the cat and dog variant are far too close.

Whilst animal type are in separate sections in the big supermarkets, smaller supermarkets where less spaces allocated can have these packs right next to another. Not ideal for those with sight issues or short of timers scanning the shelf quickly.

Packaging should be there to help and assist the busy shopper, not add another level of confusion

Thanks to Gary for sending this over to me

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Here’s a really confusing pack. One is full sugar and the other sugar-free. The main signpost for this difference though is the reversal of the colours of the brand logo.Now, some brands allow some flexibility to their colourways but the Fanta logo relies on the dark blue in the logo to be the shadow in the letter form to make it 3-D. This reversal then creates a negative of the primary brand logo.Less a colour variation, more an inconsistent treatment of a primary asset. In a world of copycat brands, this relaxation of rules can look counterfeit. The other issue is on-shelf impact. Take a couple of steps back and the reversed logo is much less effective at creating stand out.Great brands are consistent in their treatment Dilute brand assets and dilute recognition.

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If your brand has a unique offering, it’s up to you to tell the consumer what that is. That may seem a very obvious thing to say but there are many brands out there that aren’t fully clear with the consumer.

If the consumer doesn’t know the meaning or origin of something, they may tend to make something up based on their limited understanding.

Take the Pack below for example. On first inspection, because there is nothing obvious on the can you may assume that this is a statement about sustainability or the environment. It’s actually because the coffee is made from green coffee beans!

The next thing you then have to explain to the consumer is what the benefit of it being made from green coffee beans is. These are two incredibly important pieces of information.

If these aren’t presented, then the consumer is going to take the information that is there and make something up based on the assets and communication used.

The other easy error to make is that it’s a derivative of Coca-Cola. Probably because of the lines going up the side of the pack cueing the old Coca-Cola can Design.

So if you don’t explain what makes you different, the consumer may do that work for you and it may be wrong.

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You’ve got three seconds to tell me the brand and the product.

It’s a tricky one isn’t it?

If you are the brand leader in the energy drink sector, you should be completely obvious to the consumer.

There were no easily identifiable brand assets on view and it takes a second or so even when up close to decode what the product variant is.

In situations like this, it’s an opportunity to own the fixture rather than provide an Escape Room type puzzle for your loyal consumer

Win the shelf, win the consumer.

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Here’s a great example of why you should check your shelf impact next to a competitor before pressing print.

There is a fine balance between following what’s right for the brand story, in the case of Go Ahead here, lightness, with making sure that doesn’t compromise any punch when your product is on shelf.

Always ask your design agency to create shelf visuals with any initial concepts before you narrow down to a lead favourite. It’s much better addressing this in the early stages of the project rather than when you have a warehouse full of stock.

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Getting the architecture of your packaging correct can mean the difference between standing out and completely disappearing.

Have a look at this example. We had bought it a little while ago and were so impressed with the product that we were scanning the shelves trying to track it down again, but having trouble finding it

It’s quite unusual for products to feature a landscape orientation on such a big pack as it uses up so much shelf space. In these instances normally portrait is better as you can get more SKU’s in on the available width.

To compound the issue they’ve used a centralised portrait layout on a landscape pack so creating lots of dead space to the left and right hand side that could be better utilised to make the product jump out.

When you are stacking so much information and imagery is often better to use a left right layout so that you don’t get multiple elements competing with one another.

Remember, go for the orientation that allows you to stack the shelves with multiple SKUs and always design the Pack with this orientation in mind

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Regular readers of my posts may remember my thoughts on the previous iteration of the Ineos packs being to utilitarian and monolithic design across all sectors making it very confusing to navigate between different product ranges. Whilst the latest iteration has moved away from some of the functionality of it predecessor in both graphics and copy, it’s created new problems in an attempt to remedy the old.

The most important aspect to look at here is the logo. The black logo type on the red texture completely disappears in the supermarket environment. Taking a couple of steps back at the fixture renters it almost impossible to make out.

One of the things they struggled to communicate last time was the plant powered aspect. A functional and very utilitarian design tends to work against this more natural proposition.

The plant powered communication has now been relegated to a much smaller area on the base of the label. This makes it hard for not only this element of the back to stand out but with its look and feel still rooted in science and utilitarianism, for it also be believed by the consumer.

So whilst the new design may be a step in the right direction in softening the industrial and scientific approach, it still misses on a few of the aspects that the redesign desperately needed to win over new consumers.

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Great brands have an engaging story. Without a story, you are behaving more like a private label product, and that makes it incredibly tricky to engage with your consumer.

It also makes it very tricky to qualify the higher price point than an own labelled product

I stumbled across this product at the weekend which suffers the very same. At first I thought this was a Sainsbury’s own label product.

It behaves very much like an own label product:

All of the elements such as the logo, the descriptor, and the iconography all compete for attention. They are all executed at the same size, equally space down the pack.

The naming felt generic and gimmicky rather than one that transported you somewhere.

The SRP was blank, this is a fantastic canvas that can be used to communicate the brand story, hold the brand message or contain a call to action.

The only taste cues, the coconut image was hidden behind this wall of blankness.

In short, it screamed private label.

When you are competing against the big players in any sector, it’s important that you catch and hold a consumers attention. You need to be intriguing enough to make them pick the pack up and explore all sides.

That’s when you know you’ve got them hooked.

Miss the story and miss this valuable connection.

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