The Product Problem

Over the holidays, I found myself at a round table playing cards with my brother in law and a few other family members. This particular side of the family is incredibly competitive in all things and they are, no doubt, very good at playing cards. When we first sat down to play, my brother in law was dealing and kept dealing cards counter clockwise and wanted to run the games counter clockwise too. Let me tell you, it really threw us off. We had a hard time remembering who’s turn it was, we kept forgetting what was played when and it threw everyone at the table off their game.

Each of us had to pay more attention to what was happening just to keep the game going. Plays and strategy that are usually easy for everyone at the table were significantly harder, we were missing simple plays and strategy, so much so that the best players at the table found themselves in the middle of the pack because of this altered game play. Needless to say, after a few rounds we all voted to go back to clockwise dealing and playing.

I share that story to remind you that sometimes doing the opposite of what is the “norm” is just enough to get noticed. Sure it might throw things off a little but it also just might get folks who ordinarily wouldn't care about what you are doing to pay close attention to you. Even if you end up going back to dealing clockwise, you’ve made the impact you were seeking…which is gaining attention where there was none to begin with.

For a year, I’ve had a photo on my phone that I just can’t stop thinking about. This photo was posted by one of my LinkedIn connections who had recently visited their local Whole Foods. When they passed the RTD (Ready To Drink) beverage cooler, they got excited about all the fun colors of the cans. Now, colors are cool and all, but it reminded me of a quote from the Incredibles 2 where Syndrome shared his plan to make everyone “super” and in making everyone “super”…no one would be. Silly example, I know, but the point stands. Especially if you are trying to play ball on a retail shelf. If you are trying to fit in with your competitors (who occupy the shelf space you want to occupy) your product might just end up looking like your competitors.

In fact, you are fighting a losing battle because habits are strong. So, here’s the blog in a sentence: If your shit looks like everyones shit, that might be why your sales are shit. Ok, that was harsh. The point is, you won't be maximizing your sales if your product looks like everyone else's. The problem isn’t that it looks like everyone else but rather homogenization.

Your product doesn’t need to look like other products - it shouldn’t.

When your product looks like all the other products on the shelves it serves your ego. Meaning, you are able to say to yourself, “See, we’re keeping up with the Joneses'...but here's the real question: who pays your bills? Hint, hint, it’s not the Joneses. Your buyers the folks who pay your bills and they are looking for reasons to buy your product vs. the other guys. So give them a visual reason. Connect with them. Sell to them. Not your competition.

Inspiration - take it from other places.

You need to stay conscious of what the competition is doing, to be sure, but don’t make it your whole personality. In fact, you should be taking inspiration from folks who aren’t in your industry. The folks who are driving change in tech, in other parts of agriculture, in health and beauty because your buyers aren’t only looking at your industry. They are looking all around. They are going to that hip restaurant that just opened, they are buying beer from that national brand that hired that big agency to run that catchy campaign, they’re drinking the water that Kim Kardashian is drinking but they certainly aren’t making a buying decision based on how similar your product looks like to the leaders in your industry.

Learn what not to do from your industry.

From where we sit, there’s a lot to learn from our industry on what not to do. From designing things that are just rip offs of other folks, to designing things in such a way that you miss the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the folks who are buying your products. When it comes down to colors, there is a problem. Folks want to design based on your competitors' designs instead of using a compelling strategy. I can almost hear you saying, “We don’t have competitors.” Ok, fine, folks in our industry who are doing similar things…how's that? If you’re designing based on other folks' design choices, you are reverting to the mean i.e. homogenizing your products to become more like your competitors.

I’m not saying that seeing a trend and going in the opposite direction is always the right course of action, but it is often a wise thing to consider. Sure, there are moments that following trends, with restraint and intention, does make sense. However you have to be selective and thoughtful in these choices. When it comes to color specifically, there is plenty of space to consider following the pack yet breaking the norm in other ways. Perhaps it's the size or shape of your packaging or perhaps it’s using similar colors but in a different way than your competition.

If you’d like to lead the pack, it’s time to consider gleaning inspiration from the folks who are outside of our industry. The point isn’t to be contrarian, but rather to establish that what you are doing is outside the norm, just left of center, and a little intriguing. Intriguing enough to grab your product off the shelf instead of the other guys.

For example, let's imagine that many of the folks who buy your green or roasted coffee are also skiers. If your goal is to connect with skiers and gain their attention, you want to find skiers who also love your products and use it while they are skiing or before they get out on the snow. If this is the case, there might be an opportunity to pull some inspiration from the colors of ski brands that are crushing it. Perhaps there might be an opportunity to speak to skiers in a different way than just using words. Perhaps you speak to them through color in a way that your competitors are not. Perhaps you speak to them as a ski brand might instead of the coffee brand.

Your product should (visually) shout…from the shelf.

Remember that time you bought that bottle of wine just because the label caught your eye? It felt like it was shouting at you from the shelf. This is what we’re talking about. Your product should shout from the shelf. The challenge here is that shouting often implies that you’ll use loud colors but that's not always the case. 

If you are using color as your volume knob, it can be a challenge to know when you’ve achieved your desired goal but this is why you and your agency should be spending time upfront researching, strategizing and planning the work you are about to do and the outcome that you are seeking to make through said product/packaging design.

A few months ago, a client asked us to design some packaging for them. They were excited to finally commission someone to design a fully custom bag for their roastery. This was going to be a large expense for them but they understood the value in it and the opportunity to further expand their brand beyond their local community.

When we completed the packaging, we followed up with them and they had mentioned that they were thrilled with the bags and were excited to get them out into the world. A few months passed and I got a call from this client and he wanted to fundamentally change the overall look of their newly designed bag. This caught me off guard because this client was so happy with the bags just a quarter prior. So I pushed in a little with this client and asked, “What’s the real motivation here?” The response had zero to do with the bags and everything to do with the fact that there was a new roastery that had opened up down the street from them and they had similar packaging colors.

Once I discovered the real reason for the desire to fully redesign the bags, I reminded this client that if you change your design just because there is someone who copied what you are doing, you’ll always be changing it and you’ll end up following the industry instead of pushing it because you are reacting instead of proacting.

A perfect example of this is all the many soda companies that have copied or tried to copy the overall look and feel of companies like Coke and Pepsi. Sure, they are giants and aren’t particularly concerned with little soda or drink companies popping up, but the point stands. They aren’t changing their overall design just because another company designed a can with bright red or deep blue as their primary color. They’ve established their own strategy that doesn't include trying not to look like their competition. Competition will never go away and neither should it but your design & sales strategy should be proactive instead of reactive.

So, don’t make design decisions from a reactive place. This will cause you to spend more time in defense than in offense. You'll miss key opportunities because you’ll be distracted with trying to build walls instead of charting your own course to the top of whatever mountain you’re trying to climb. Also, it’ll cost you more money in the long run.

If you are seeking to speak to your industry in a way that doesn’t add noise, you cannot follow the pack. You cannot create from a place of homogenization. You must create from a place of strategy, a place of meaning and from the belief that the very thing that you are doing is taking steps toward the kind of world you are trying to create.

Your colors might be the problem. But it might also be something else.

Are you looking to redesign your product packaging or your brand? Send us an email at hi@thelevco.com.