It was Peter Drucker, the leading business thinker of the 20th century, who said that business has two functions: marketing and innovation. This article is going to merge both ideas. Packaging is ultimately a marketing function, it is the final marketing message your customers will see before buying your product. If you’re selling in a retail store, your packaging can be a major factor in determining the success of your product.

Today, to break through the clutter of hundreds of other competing products, it pays to be different. Look at what your competition is doing and make sure you have an innovative and unique look. Packaging innovation will make your product stand out, help build your brand, and give your product personality. Whether you like it or not, your product will initially be judged by its packaging.

So how do you create innovative packaging? You can pay thousands of dollars to a packaging design company to come up with some ideas or you can come up with the ideas yourself. Here are ten ideas that will hopefully spur some packaging innovations for your own products.

1. Create a reusable package

The boutique beverage market is mature and extremely competitive, so you might think there are few truly new ideas when it comes to packaging. You would be wrong. POM Tea has created something truly different. For starters, the product itself is different: it’s tea infused with pomegranate juice. But it’s the packaging that’s remarkable; the drink is packaged in a regular tall glass with a lid and a clear shrink wrap label. It says on the label: Remove the label, keep the glass. At our local Wild Oats it retails for $2.79, not that expensive for a bottled tea, and you get a free glass. No need to worry about recycling here – you can reuse the packaging.

2. Add a little more to your packaging

Sometimes you can have very standard packaging, but stand out from the crowd just by adding a little twist. Amy’s Kitchen has done just that with their line of pasta sauces. It’s a standard size jar with a standard color label that really matches all the other pasta sauce offerings. What sets them apart is the paper and gold bow on the lid of the jar. It looks just like the way your grandmother would package it, and you can’t walk down the pasta sauce aisle without noticing it.

3. Make design the focus of your packaging

Most people think of the product first and the packaging second, but Method Products turned that equation on its head. They focused on packaging from the start – they wanted to create packaging that was beautiful, that didn’t have to hide in the cupboard. They created a premium line of cleaning products with packaging that could be displayed in the kitchen or bathroom as a home accessory. Just walk down the aisles of any Costco or Target and you’ll see that this focus on design really makes Method Products stand out.

4. Create fun packaging

Fun packaging doesn’t have to be just for kids, after all, adults like to have fun too. The bright colors and unusual shapes that dominate children’s products can work in adult products, but a more subtle approach is usually better. One industry that has started to embrace a little more fun in its packaging is the wine industry. Just take a trip to the local liquor store and check out all the funny animals on wine labels these days. We have penguins, kangaroos, frogs, horses, swans and many more creatures that appear on wine labels. We may not be ready for a penguin-shaped wine bottle, but a colorful penguin label can add an element of fun and really stand out from more conservative wine labels.

5. Let your true colors shine.

Candle-Lite is the goliath of the candle industry with over 160 years of continuous candle manufacturing operations. Their packaging is nothing fancy, just a candle in a clear jar, but the colors they choose are eye-catching. They use bright colors, often with multi-layered candles, and let these colors shine through with simple clear jars. And a simple label on a white background accentuates the colors of the jar. On the shelf at my local grocery store, their candles really stood out from the dozens of other brands.

6. Expand your labels with sandwich printing

If you are selling a clear liquid in a clear bottle, then you have an option available that can give you more packaging space for very little additional cost. I mean the print on the back of your labels. You can’t put regulatory information on the back of your labels, but you can run contests, tell a story about your company, or give ideas on how best to use your product. It’s an easy way to give your customers more information and not detract from the presentation of your package.

7. Try the metallic look

Most labels are printed on white or clear stock, but there are many other options available to you. One thing you may want to consider is using metallic foil for your labels or packaging. With a good design, the metallic look can be very eye-catching compared to the same white design, and it really isn’t that much more expensive.

8. Focus your packaging on a specific objective

Unilever’s Ax line of products has a very specific target audience: young men between the ages of 18 and 35. Therefore, they created their packaging to appeal to that target. The Ax shower gel package looks like it could contain motor oil as a shower gel. It’s a thick, molded black plastic container that has a rugged appearance that directly appeals to this demographic. Here is a product that has tailored not only the content but also the packaging to its specific target market.

9. Merge two packaging concepts

Another very competitive industry is the beer business, where the big players are always looking for an advantage over their competitors. Last year, Anheuser Busch introduced a completely new packaging concept that ended up winning several packaging awards. The concept was so simple it’s amazing no one has done it before. We all know that beer comes in glass bottles and aluminum cans. What Anheuser Busch decided to do was simply combine these two concepts and they came up with the aluminum bottle. It was different, it looked elegant and striking, and it was 100% recyclable.

10. Look for inspiration in nature

Nature has some amazing examples of “innovative packaging”. Consider the banana, the pea pod, the kangaroo bag, the pine cone – these are all examples of nature creating efficient packaging. Nature’s packaging is often elegant and beautiful, as well as efficient. There are shapes, colors and even packaging concepts that you can borrow from the example of nature. So the next time you go for a walk in the woods, look around you and marvel at the innovative packaging created by nature.

The idea of ​​this article is really to make you think more about your packaging. Take one or two of these ideas and think about how they can be adapted to your product. If you focus on your packaging and create something that is unique to your business, you will be more successful. Remember, your packaging should not only contain your product, it is your ultimate marketing message to your customers. Look at what your competition is doing and make sure you deliver a strong message with your packaging.

Copyright 2006 Peter Renton