One strategy for creating a successful lifestyle brand focuses on a reinforced sense of well-being. One section of the store where this message can work well is household products, and a stellar recent example is WD-40's X-14 bathroom-cleaning products.

Why do we indulge the clearly undesirable tendency to create "me-too" products with mundane packaging to match? Recently, I came across some interesting perspectives.

Today's savvy consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips. The Internet provides some of the most in-depth analysis and reviews of almost anything offered in the marketplace -including new products and packaging.

Sometimes, insightful breakthroughs originate from unlikely places. I was reminded of that while listening to Barbara Jirka speak at a conference in Boston last week. Jirka is Channel Marketing Manager for Tyson Foods, and she was presenting at the Kid Power Food and Beverage conference about marketing healthful foods to kids and moms.

Hispanics have purchasing power of $860 billion, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, and all I get on my package is the translation of the words “black beans” to frijoles negros?

Retailer brands continue to post solid dollar-volume increases in a number of categories across all distribution channels. The growth is due in part to retailers’ added emphasis on branding, in which packaging is playing a stronger role than ever in differentiating retailers and creating value.

Valerie Jacobs makes her living by helping consumer product companies identify and capitalize on consumer trends, and the Director of Trend Analysis at LPK notes a rise in the number of “natural” products. Not in the sense of natural versus organic, but natural as a barometer of aesthetic enjoyment.

Why can some products build an army of loyal consumers with little or no advertising and other brands require an expensive promotional campaign for success? Patrick Hanlon, Founder and CEO of Thinktopia, says true brands are belief systems with perceptible meaning to set them apart from commodity products.

Six new packages strut their stuff. Packaging has become more closely aligned with corporate business strategies. Increasingly, it has a seat at management ’ s table.