As you drive around, I’m sure you’ve noticed the housing market has exploded. It doesn’t seem to matter where you live either, lawns are littered with For Sale sign after For Sale sign. There seem to be a few tell-tale signs of a house going on the market, too. First, you’ll see a pile of discarded items by the curb or perhaps a garage sale. Next step is to have the house painted or pressure-washed. Lastly, the landscaping is spruced up. All of these actions are logical steps homeowners take to add as much curb appeal and desire to their home as possible to make a quick, profitable sale.
This “home-staging” process got me thinking about the similarities between selling your home and brands selling their products. Since packaging serves as your product’s “home”, it’s imperative to give the packaging as much “shelf appeal” as possible.
Brands can take the same logical steps that home-owners do. Assess the outer packaging. Does it do a good job of aligning with your brand story? Will it grab the attention of those loyal or new customers? How does it stand up next to the competition? Are your sales on target?
If some of these areas are a bit lacking, a slight refresh may just be the ticket (we like to call this “micro-surgery“). Micro-surgery can consist of changing up different messaging, highlighting new attributes, tweaking or updating fonts and even changing colors (as long as they stay true to your brand guidelines). It’s a much smaller step than a full rebrand and can help you gauge what is working and what isn’t; a series of minimal changes that will update the look of your packaging.
Radical changes will leave your consumers feeling confused or even searching for your product on shelf. The idea here is to stay true to your brand but polish up it’s “home” just enough that your consumers will pick it up with a smile and say “this is even better than before.”
Unlike the housing market, I don’t foresee any bidding wars going on, but hopefully your products are selling as quickly as houses are!
Want some help with your products “curb appeal?” Call us, we’d be happy to do “micro-surgery” for you.