When a brand favored by professionals goes mainstream, communication challenges with the new audience can be considerable. The products are usually of premium quality, with a corresponding price point. The right packaging is essential in introducing the brand to mainstream consumers.
In consumer electronics, Shure Inc., Niles IL, shows how to do it and reduce costs. The company has marketed its professional-grade earphones for 80 years to musicians under the Shure brand. But recently, consumers with discerning ears have begun purchasing the earphones to improve the sound quality of their iPods. The professional-grade Shure product family costs considerably more than consumer-level audio products. Without packaging that clearly communicates the product-quality differences, shopper confusion is likely.
Shure responded by reintroducing its brand in new packaging to roll out its SE line and leverage its heritage as a professional-grade audio equipment brand. Packaging, says Jon Stookey, Associate Manager, Integrated Marketing, is essential in segmenting the brand from less-established competitors and signaling differences among its own products.
One challenge the company faced was expressing the value of its super-premium products, which retail for $200 and higher, compared with $30 and lower for budget-quality competing brands. Shure, creating a branding and design strategy with MiresBall Design, began by eliminating its curved PVC clamshell packages in favor of decorated cartons to more effectively communicate the price point, Stookey says.
Shure opted for a fifth-panel, windowed SBS carton. Inside the carton, the products rest in a molded RPET tray. The tray sits inside a high-impact polystyrene tray that provides tamper-evidence over a circular die-cut window on the carton's front panel, yet it allows shoppers to view the product through the package.
The new cartons require only half of the packaging components that were needed for the clamshells, reducing materials costs by 20%, Stookey says. Distribution and transportation costs are lower, too. The 5-oz cartons weigh 50% less than the nearly 10-oz clamshells, notes Chris Stelter, Project Manager. And by changing from curved clamshells to cubed cartons, twice as many packages now fit on a pallet, he says.
The carton design is equally important in brand positioning. The dominant red color has been retained. But designers opted for a richer red on the package top and black on the bottom, with white lettering and a blue band across the carton's midsection. This color scheme supports a high-end product and signals the brand's U.S. heritage, explains John Ball, Partner and Creative Director at MiresBall.
The foldout fifth panel contains in-depth technical information about the product. On the front panel, the tagline "Legendary Performance" and photo of a performing musician, with the message "Developed for the pros!", also signal product quality.
