Brand personality and packaging design

Brands, like people who buy it, form their own personal appearance over time. The personality of the brand, or brand personality, is determined by the connection between the consumer and the brand. Brand personality is a summary of consumers’ knowledge, thoughts and feelings, and has the same objectivity and intuition.

Nike, Starbucks, BMW and other world-famous brands have invested huge sums in brand image development, advertising, and sponsorship to create and maintain an attractive brand personality for a specific target market. Why? Because brand personality intentionally or unintentionally conveys some information to consumers. It is this communication and communication that determines the consumer's buying decision.

The brand personality of wine is determined by many factors: the country of origin, the name of the country of origin, the variety, the awards received, the score of the product, and the price. They are the objective information that constitutes the personality structure of the brand. The intuitive connections that consumers rely on to complete individual performance are very subtle: point-of-sale, brand series, brand image, and of course, product packaging.

If consumers are very familiar with a wine brand, they will expect that the packaging of wine will strengthen their already existing positive information. Excluding consumers' "predicted" information, wine packaging may play this most important role in the process of establishing brand personality.

In either case, the packaging of the wine establishes and reinforces the unique brand personality of the wine and helps determine which wine brands are invited to the table and which wine brands are left on the shelf.

A few years ago my packaging design studio HKA made packaging upgrades for a famous American wine brand. The project includes a very detailed and independent consumer market survey to assess consumer perceptions of new and old packaging designs. Both old and new packaging use the same brand name and similar brand structure, but there are only minor differences in the design: refine the brand elements, change paper and color, improve print quality, and use more complex neck marks.

Although there are only minor changes, the target consumers have different opinions on these two kinds of packaging, and consumers' impression of the brand is also greatly affected.

Consumer surveys show that only the impressions generated by packaging are enough to make a huge change in the expectations of consumers for a brand's taste, quality, and reputation. It can be seen that the personality of the brand is very different.

Content and style

The Kendall-Jackson brand is a good example of how brand identity can be created, supported, and evolved through the evolution of packaging. Such brand personality maintains its core value stability while expanding consumer appeal. Brand personality is preserved, but brand style continues to move forward.

For 15 years, HKA has evolved the packaging of the Kendall-Jackson brand. Each evolution of the packaging consolidates and improves the brand image of the Kendall-Jackson leaf logo and family name. Other elements of the brand packaging have also been refined to express the relentless pursuit of quality by the Kendall-Jackson wine brand. While adjusting the packaging style of the wine to meet consumer expectations for premium quality wines, the brand image (or personality) is enhanced with each packaging improvement.

This consumer survey made it clear that Kendall-Jackson is “the first brand image that consumers trust” (Merrill Lynch Research, May 2002), which further proves the value of brand evolution.

Perhaps the following facts are more proof of the value of brand evolution: Kendall-Jackson is the first best-selling brand in the United States in the 750ml fine wine market in 2002.

Achievement expectations

Hardys, Australia's leading winemaking company, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2003. As part of the celebration, Hardys launched the new wine collection Hardys stamp series in the US market. The new series has previously been successful in the Australian and British markets. While it is introducing a brand new and time-honored Australian brand image for American consumers, it will also fully tap into the rich heritage accumulated by Hardys Corporation for 150 years. Hardys' new 750ml glass bottle and its innovative 3-litre small oak barrel with high-quality single-variety wines express their unique product positioning to consumers.

Hardys' new packaging in the US market embodies what Americans expect from a distant brand new Australian personality. The new packaging magically combines bright colors with strong impact, Australia's unique natural landscape, and contemporary Australian art. It has improved the brand image of Hardy's stamp series in Australia in an all-important way. The innovative design coupled with Hardys's quality logo has ensured that the Australian Hardys stamp series wines are both trendy and continue Hardys's quality tradition.

The Hardys stamp series wines are the first to be launched in the US market in 3-liter oak barrels. Therefore, it is particularly important for oak barrels to reinforce the brand personality of the traditional 750ml glass bottles and to express that the two different forms of packaging contain the same high quality wine.

To support this guiding ideology, the front panel of the oak barrel is printed with an exaggerated photograph of a 750-ml bottle with a colorful background, suggesting a trendy, entertaining and warm hospitality. This design can assure consumers that they drink the quality of bottled wine from a practical oak barrel.

Crucially, Hardys puts bottled wine and bottled wine side-by-side in single-species at the store's price.

Since the launch of the new series in the United States, sales of both types of packaging have been very good. In the first few months, only 100,000 barrels or more were sold in oak barrels. The Hardys stamp series is changing the attitude and expectations of American wine consumers for boxed wine. The Hardys brand is promoting the establishment of a brand new wine market - high quality single-carton wines marked with vintage. This is the victory of Hardys, and it is also a strong proof of successful brand positioning through packaging design.

Source: China Wine Online Author: Joe Smith