A bad packaging designer, 42, said yesterday, "We realised very quickly that the customers values had become misaligned with the core values of the brand. Extensive research found that users no longer wanted premiumisation in a period of economic woe. Even the key ABCDE demographic spurned premiumisation for simpler, basic (but still luxurious and aspirational) brands.
We looked at some of the post war creativities and began an extensive redesign of the core range. First we removed all serif fonts - sans serifs are considered cheaper and more basic. Then we took off all foil blocking which frankly customers felt alluded to an offensive debauched era. Lastly we made the tough decision to make all packaging two colours, thus giving the impression we had only used half as much design time.
We call this Austeritising Your Brand and we believe we can increase sales by up to 110% using this approach."
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many a true word said in jest...
Posted by: graham peake | Apr 29, 2009 at 18:31
I'm not so convinced he understands why this method is better. Sounds like he's unlocked the magic of design, but isn't this just common knowledge? Essentially this is Less is More, or maybe I'm just not reading it right.
Posted by: rgraphix | Apr 29, 2009 at 22:16
If you're not reading it as satire, rgraphix, then no, you're not. Great stuff, Ben.
Posted by: Alex | Apr 29, 2009 at 22:50
Is it April 1st again so soon?
Posted by: Neil Martin | Apr 30, 2009 at 00:41
Tether-ending stuff Ben.
Posted by: John | Apr 30, 2009 at 00:47