The Packaging Refresh: When Should You Redesign a Product That Isn’t Broken?
Not everything that is old needs replacing.
It sounds obvious, but when it comes to retail packaging, it is surprisingly easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if something has been on the shelf for a long time, it must need a complete redesign.
Sometimes it does.
But sometimes the product, the brand and the packaging are doing a perfectly good job. They just need a little attention.
For established food and drink brands in particular, packaging can build up years of recognition and familiarity. Customers know the colours. They recognise the logo. They know roughly where to find the information they need.
Throwing all of that away simply because the packaging looks a little dated can be a very expensive way of solving the wrong problem.
A well-considered packaging refresh can often achieve much more.
So, when does packaging need a refresh?
There isn’t a single answer. Every brand, product and market is different.
But there are some familiar warning signs.
1. Your packaging hasn’t changed, but the market has
Markets don’t stand still.
New competitors arrive. Retailers change their ranges. Consumer expectations evolve. Photography styles change. Typography changes. Colours that once looked contemporary can suddenly make a product feel like it has been sitting on the shelf since 2008.
Your product may still be excellent, but if the visual language around it has moved on, the packaging can begin to look out of step with the category.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the brand needs to change.
It might simply mean the packaging needs to catch up.
2. Your product is getting lost on the shelf
One of the simplest tests for packaging is also one of the most important:
Can someone see your product quickly?
Retail shelves are busy places. Your packaging is competing for attention with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of other products.
A pack can contain all the right information and still fail to communicate effectively.
Perhaps the brand isn’t prominent enough. Perhaps the product description is difficult to find. Perhaps the colours blend into the surrounding products. Perhaps there is simply too much happening.
Good packaging design isn’t about making everything bigger.
It’s about creating a clear visual hierarchy so the shopper knows what they are looking at, who makes it and why they should be interested.
3. Your range has grown, but the packaging hasn’t grown with it
This is a common problem for successful brands.
One product becomes three. Three become six. Then somebody adds a limited edition, a new flavour, a different pack size and a seasonal variant.
Before long, the range looks like a collection of individual projects rather than a coherent family.
A packaging refresh can be an opportunity to establish a clearer range architecture.
The individual products still need to stand out, but they should also look as though they belong together.
That means considering things such as:
- Brand positioning
- Product naming
- Colour coding
- Photography and imagery
- Typography
- Flavour or variant communication
- Information hierarchy
- Pack structure and format
The result should make it easier for consumers to navigate the range and easier for retailers to present it consistently.
4. Your brand is strong, but the packaging doesn’t communicate it
A brand is more than a logo.
It’s the combination of things that people recognise and associate with a product: its visual identity, tone, reputation, personality and the expectations built up over time.
Your packaging is one of the most important places where that relationship becomes tangible.
If the brand has evolved but the packaging hasn’t, there can be a disconnect.
The logo might be correct, but the overall pack no longer feels like the brand.
A refresh can bring the two back together.
This is where restraint becomes important.
The objective isn’t necessarily to make the packaging look completely different.
It may be about making it look more like the brand it has become.
5. Your competitors have moved ahead
You don’t design packaging in isolation.
Your product sits next to competitors every day, whether that’s in a supermarket, convenience store, farm shop or online.
A pack that looked distinctive five years ago may no longer have the same impact if the category has become much more visually sophisticated.
That’s why a packaging review should look at the wider category, not just the existing artwork.
What visual cues are competitors using?
Where are the opportunities to differentiate?
What has become commonplace?
And perhaps most importantly:
What could your brand own?
The answer isn’t always to become louder.
Sometimes the strongest approach is to be clearer, simpler or more distinctive.
6. Your packaging has accumulated information rather than hierarchy
Packaging has a lot to say.
Product names. Descriptions. Claims. Ingredients. Nutrition information. Preparation instructions. Recycling information. Certifications. Legal requirements. Marketing messages.
And then somebody usually says:
“Can we just squeeze this on as well?”
That is how good packaging becomes cluttered packaging.
Of course, food packaging has to carry a substantial amount of mandatory information. Current packaging requirements are also becoming increasingly complex, particularly for businesses operating across the UK and EU. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, for example, now applies generally to packaging placed on the EU market and introduces requirements covering areas including recyclability, recycled content, labelling and packaging minimisation.
But compliance doesn’t mean the design has to become a wall of information.
The challenge is to establish a clear hierarchy so that essential information remains accessible without overwhelming the consumer.
Sometimes a packaging refresh is simply about making the information work harder.
7. You’re no longer proud to put the old pack next to the competition
This one is less scientific.
It’s also surprisingly useful.
Take your current packaging and put it next to the products your customers are actually choosing between.
Not on a presentation slide.
Not as a PDF on your laptop.
Put it next to the competition.
Then ask yourself:
Does it still look like a product I would choose?
Does it communicate quality?
Does it look current?
Does it stand out?
Does it look like it belongs in the retailer you want to be in?
If the answer is increasingly “not really”, it may be time to take another look.
Refresh or redesign?
This is where things get interesting.
A packaging refresh and a packaging redesign aren’t necessarily the same thing.
A refresh is about evolution.
It might involve updating the typography, improving the hierarchy, simplifying the information, modernising imagery, introducing a stronger colour palette or bringing a range together visually.
The things that already have value are retained.
The things that are no longer working are improved.
A redesign, on the other hand, may be appropriate when the existing visual identity is fundamentally failing to communicate the brand or when the product itself has changed significantly.
That might happen when:
- The target customer has changed
- The brand has been repositioned
- The product has moved into a new category
- The existing identity has become confused or dated
- The packaging no longer reflects the quality of the product
- A major change in format or manufacturing requires a different approach
- The brand needs to compete in a completely different market
The important thing is to understand why you’re changing the packaging before deciding what you’re going to change.
Don’t redesign for the sake of redesigning
There is a temptation in design to change things simply because you can.
New logo. New colours. New typography. New photography.
Everything shiny and new.
But packaging isn’t a blank canvas.
An established product may have years of recognition built into its existing design. Those familiar elements have value.
The job of a packaging designer isn’t necessarily to remove them.
It’s to understand which elements are working, which aren’t, and where the opportunities are to make the whole thing work better.
That’s particularly important with established food brands.
A successful packaging refresh should ideally make an existing customer think:
“That looks better.”
Not:
“What happened to my product?”
Packaging should evolve with the product
The best packaging doesn’t stand still.
As products, markets, consumers and retailers change, packaging needs to respond.
That doesn’t mean completely reinventing the brand every few years.
Sometimes the most effective solution is a subtle evolution that improves shelf impact, strengthens the brand and makes the product easier to understand.
Sometimes it means a more substantial redesign.
And occasionally, the right answer may be to leave the packaging alone.
The important thing is to make that decision for the right reasons.
At Forty2 Creative, we work with brands to create and develop retail packaging that works commercially as well as creatively. With more than 20 years’ experience across branding, design, marketing and retail packaging, and particular expertise in the food sector, we understand that good packaging has to do more than look good. It has to work in the real world.
So before you decide that your product needs a completely new look, take another look at the packaging you already have.
The answer might not be a redesign.
It might just need a refresh.
Is your packaging ready for a refresh?
If your packaging isn’t performing as well as it could, Forty2 Creative can help you understand where the opportunities are and what level of change makes sense for your brand.
From a subtle packaging refresh to a complete redesign, we can help you create packaging that gets noticed, communicates clearly and keeps your brand looking its best on the shelf.
Let’s do something special.
