We thought brand managers and package designers were the only ones who believed in the power of packaging! Not so. It’s truly inspiring to see consumers jazzed about well-thought, well-executed structural packaging.

You’ll see what I mean when you check out the YouTube pizza box concept that delivers, serves, and stores the leftovers in the same package. How about one million hits and counting! Obviously, this ingenious package structure has people buzzing ... Isn’t that what great marketing does? It creates buzz. I’ve always felt that packaging is one of the most important marketing initiatives of all. Remember: It makes product and brand tangible to the consumer.

Not long ago, the same idea from Orville Redenbacher lit up the Internet. The concept is a simple one: The bag that pops the corn also turns into a serving bowl. A host of videos popped up on this unique structural packaging, no pun intended: with much the same result. Check this out.

There have been other ground-breaking package design ideas. Remember how Birds Eye started a revolution in the frozen vegetable aisle when the company developed steam-in-the-bag technology?

What this reaffirms: Packaging adds value to consumer products. But in some cases, it adds more overt value, thanks to its structure. This ought to serve as a challenge to the package design community. How can we rethink category packaging to add more value for the brand and for consumers?

Questions:

• Which structural packaging examples add more value to the consumer products they contain? Name names.



• Which consumer product categories might benefit from changes to their packaging structure, adding more perceived value among customers?



• Are there specific brands you purchase because the packaging rather than the product are the key differentiators? Which ones and why?