Great Small Business Ideas to Start: Instant recognizability
Creating a distinctively packaged product will secure it a lasting place in the memory of customers, convey an image, and ensure it stands out among other choices, making it easy for people to recognize instantly.
The idea
How to successfully differentiate your product is a much-debated issue in marketing and product development departments. While superior levels of customer service and quality are important, it should be recognized that people can be visually reliant when forming a first impression of a product. Consequently, packaging your product in an appealing and instantly recognizable way provides a valuable head start in the battle for differentiation.
The flat-sided, sapphire-colored bottle used to market Bombay Sapphire dry gin is instantly recognizable thanks to its striking, translucent design. It can be recognized without having to see the product name on the bottle. With this bold, style-savvy approach, potential customers are instantly drawn to the product and their curiosity piqued. Should customers wish to buy the product again, they can fi nd it quickly and easily in an array of cleverly packaged choices. The dry gin manufacturer emphasized its design credentials by awarding the Bombay Sapphire Prize—the world’s biggest international glass design award. By taking design seriously, it pushed itself further toward pole position in its market.
It is a tactic used by Coca-Cola, whose distinctively curvy, long- necked glass bottle wrapped in the distinctive red and white logo is a symbol of American consumer culture—instantly recognizable on the crowded soft drinks shelves in supermarkets.
Possessing a distinctive design allows people to form emotional attachments to your product and to use it as a status symbol. Your packaging becomes an extension of your logo—don’t neglect it, and don’t be content to merely conform to the industry standard: seek to surpass it.
In practice
- Pay attention to small details in product design: well-crafted lines and curves have a subtle impact.
- Sexuality can be important. Products with a design that loosely mirrors the shape and form of the female body (such as a Coke bottle) are supposedly more appealing (they may make a talking point, providing an added dimension to marketing).
- Intangible products, such as financial advice, are not excluded from the challenges of good product design. Managing the customer experience and designing offices and marketing campaigns are activities that benefit from good product design to make these products and services more eye-catching, enjoyable, and memorable.
- Consider hiring a professional product expert for advice on what design will best work for your customer offering.