Five minutes with Mark Christou
Mark is the founder and creative partner of independent Creative Agency, ROOK/NYC, speaks to Transform magazine on creating packaging that sells, and why packaging is key in creating a solid brand identity and increasing sales for brands.
Why is packaging key in having a solid brand identity?
Brand identities live beyond structures, forms, websites, social feeds or billboards, but each of those mediums allow for the brand to tell its truth in unique ways. As a designer who has played in the packaging space for nearly 20 years, expressing the brand's truth on a piece of packaging, large or small, without additional marketing support (POS, etc.) is a fascinating challenge. The brand and package design should feel purposeful, considered and unique and needs to communicate clearly to the consumer.
What makes a good packaging?
A great piece of packaging will make you want to pick it up, engage with it, explore all the details and find out what's inside, whether it’s a boxed mattress or a small razor blade box. The attention to every detail - including the “please recycle me statement" for instance - is a must in creating great packaging. With all that said, truly great packaging is packaging that sells itself.
How do you go about developing creative packaging solutions that build both brand equity and brand awareness?
Our task is first to always understand the messaging hierarchy (both visual and verbal), and then we can play with the aesthetic to make it visually pop on shelf and stand out amid the competitive landscape. A good example of this is the work we did with Health-Ade Kombucha in 2012. At the time, the Health-Ade team had built a great following in the LA farmer's market scene, but had much bigger aspirations to move beyond that small space. Our job was to celebrate the core equity of the brand - the great name, the anchor, and the brand's playful, approachable personality, while creating a bolder look and clearer communication hierarchy that would help the consumer quickly understand what the product was. A year after the brand identity and label redesign project, we managed to design and create a unique custom glass structure and closure - incorporating a bubble texture as a grip on the cap and a large anchor emboss on the base of the bottle, among other details, to reinforce the visual ‘trade dress’ that was so uniquely and ownably Health-Ade Kombucha.
What role does packaging design play in driving up sales for brands?
This question can be answered in a couple of ways. I’ll address it from a retail perspective and not a DTC/social media perspective, as the rules are different. In retail, packaging design plays a major role and we’ve seen bad design drive sales down. Your packaging is your 24/7 sales person. It never sleeps. It must be able to tell the brand's truth as simply and interestingly as possible, in a short amount of time, and it must stand out in a sea of competitors. Great packaging design can and will allow your brand to get that meeting with the buyer, retail partner and investor. We approach every project this way, and honestly if this doesn’t happen, we’ve failed as your creative partner. But that’s never the case.
