Going global

Editor's note: Scott Young is president of Perception Research Services, Fort Lee, N.J.

Our company specializes in packaging research and, lately, more companies are asking us to help them develop "global packaging" for their brands. Generally, this means a single design system, in which text can be translated into local languages.

Global packaging certainly offers tremendous benefits in terms of economies of scale. More importantly, it just makes sense as our world becomes smaller and consumers' attitudes and tastes become more universal. However, marketers also face a minefield of challenges in developing effective global packaging, given that competitors, retail environments and, most importantly, customers and their attitudes, vary from market to market.

With these challenges in mind, I'd like to share several insights gathered from our research, along with some guidelines for evaluating global packaging systems.

Developing effective global packaging

In developing global packaging, marketers should be skeptical of broad generalizations across products, categories and countries, particularly "can't do" statements such as "Red packaging doesn't work in Brazil." Generally, the right packaging solutions are specific to a particular brand and its situation and we've found that breaking convention is often what leads to breakthrough packaging. However, our studies have also shown that the fundamental principles of effective communication are consistent worldwide and that marketers would be best served by:

Communicating visually
In any culture, people acquire their information primarily through pictures and visual icons. In fact, our eye-tracking research has shown that shoppers spend over half of their time on the visual elements of a package, a figure that is typically consistent across markets. With respect to specific visuals, I can offer two interesting anecdotes:

  • "Lifestyle" visuals (particularly pictures of people) are very difficult to do well. Often, people interpret them quite literally/narrowly and end up telling you why they are not like the person in the visual. Multi-cultural "collages" (one Asian woman, one Black man, etc.) are also frequently dismissed as overused.
  • Product visuals are critical, even in categories and cultures where the product is frequently displayed at retail. If nothing else, it provides a reassurance that the right product is in the box, and minimizes the likelihood of opened boxes that can't be sold.

"Owning" a color or a unique shape
Because people are primarily visual (and translations are a very inexact science), non-verbal symbols are vital to convey branding and messages across cultures. "Owning" a color (such as Kodak yellow or IBM blue) is one effective strategy and a powerful way to help insure visibility, consideration and brand recognition at retail.

  • Color can also be an effective way of differentiating products. In introducing a new global packaging system for its four sub-brands, Motorola found bright colors consistently signaled products for home/personal use, while darker colors suggested products for business use.

Shape can also be an effective tool in differentiating from competitors and battling "knock-offs," as local companies are often unwilling or unable to change their production processes to replicate a structure. Importantly, we've also found that a package's shape says a great deal about the "personality" of a brand. One prominent and familiar example is Coca-Cola's contoured bottle, which the company found to invoke a sense of nostalgia and to be linked to many shoppers' positive associations with the brand.

Keeping it simple
Our research has also shown that the time people spend with a package is generally not related to the amount of information on the label. This means that when more messages are placed on a label, it decreases the likelihood that any single message will be seen and read. Therefore, marketers must identify the three or four key points to be communicated at retail and prioritize accordingly.

  • Interestingly, Asia appears to be an exception to the "keep it simple" rule. While people in most countries typically associate design simplicity with ease-of-use and sophistication, the Japanese are more comfortable and familiar with louder and busier packages, particularly for technology and software products.

Allowing some local customization
As you might assume, the critical selling points for a specific product often vary by market, depending on the competitive set and the market's level of development. For example, a certain feature (low fat) may differentiate a product in one market, but not in others. For this reason, the best global packaging systems are often those that present a consistent global look but allow for some flexibility by market. For example, they may mandate the number and positioning of messages (i.e., four bullet-points in the left column), but allow each market or region to decide on which messages to place on the label.

Speaking with customers

To develop effective global packaging, or to ensure that a packaging system will work around the world, marketers must start with their customers. From experience, I can offer two important guidelines for doing so effectively:

  • Show each person only one packaging design for your brand. The most accurate findings come from monadic studies, in which each person is shown only one packaging option for a product, and responses from the people who saw Option A are then compared to those from people who examined Option B or those who saw Option C. Packaging "beauty contests" (in which several designs are placed in front of a shopper and he/she is asked to pick a winner) often provide misleading results. All of the options may be terrific or all may be poor, but one will always emerge as the best. Since people will never see different packages for the same brand, these side-by-side comparisons also tend to take people away from their perspective as shoppers evaluating a product. Instead, they become art directors and focus too much on design aesthetics. This is important, because one lesson we've learned is that as that the most attractive package design is not always the most effective packaging design.
  • Use consistent research measures globally...but interpret findings locally. When conducting global research, it is important to remember that the basic criteria for packaging effectiveness are universal. Whether in Bangkok or Boston, a package must be noticed in store, convey key messages, and ultimately generate purchase interest. Therefore, a consistent research methodology (which addresses visibility, communication, and persuasion) should be used in all markets.

However, within each market, a brand's packaging should be judged relative to its competitors. Ratings are only relevant in the context of a customer's other choices and people in different cultures tend to evaluate things quite differently. Therefore, mandated absolute "scores" in each country (such as "The packaging must have 50 percent purchase interest in each country") often don't make sense. A more appropriate approach is to use a consistent competitive objective across markets ("top quartile in the category").

"Selling in" global designs

Finally, I should mention that "selling" a design to your customers is often only half of the battle. In most companies, introducing global packaging requires addressing the sensitivities of local marketers, who nearly always have their own priorities. While consumer research can be valuable in getting a company past the competing opinions of regional marketing directors, it is also important to consider which packaging systems are shown to customers. Specifically, we have found two common problems:

  • Local marketers are nearly always resistant to having the "home" or headquarters country's packaging system forced upon them.
  • Attempts to "blend" existing designs (introducing a combination of the European and North American package) often lead to watered-down, lowest-common-denominator packaging that is deficient in every market ("global mediocrity").

Given these realities, we've found that entirely new design systems often have the best chance of winning with both customers and your company's regional marketing executives.