Jumping off the shelf, and into
customers' hands
Packaging must succeed in both retail and catalogs. The package must jump off
the shelf into the customer's hands. He must be able to see it, and be attracted
to it, in a store cluttered with hundreds of other items. This same box design
becomes the "thumbnail" visual in CD-ROM and software mail-order catalogs. The
half-inch or inch-square thumbnail of the box shot becomes the visual for the
advertisement in the catalog, placed next to three or four lines of descriptive
text.
No standards, no specialists
Furthermore, there is no standard for packaging CD-ROM titles in any of the
channels: there is no software box standard and no strict standards in bookstores.
The packaging standards for CD audio and for video, stringent in their industries,
will ultimately apply to multimedia CD-ROM titles and must be anticipated. This
means that publishers must design their boxes to suit four different industries
and retail situations, to suit catalog selling, to generate rental interest,
and to succeed in all these environments.
The packaging standards for CD
audio and for video, stringent in their industries, will ultimately apply to
multimedia CD-ROM titles and must be anticipated. This means that publishers
must design their boxes to suit four different industries and retail situations.
To complicate matters further, there are very few graphic designers or packaging
designers specializing in the new media. Publishers must choose among designers
specializing in software, audio, video or book design. And each of them will
specialize in their genre, selling off the shelves of those particular kinds
of retail or catalog outlets.
Let it be seen
It is important that the title and the publisher be in bold print, vivid enough
to be read from 20 feet across the room. The contrast ratio of the title to
the rest of the box must enhance this clarity. Therefore the title, any subtitles
and the publisher must be large and clearly visible. Most retailers prefer primary
colors for their software boxes. However, some software boxes succeed with a
black background and black packaging always sells well in video stores. Compton's
New Media has attempted for years to set a standard with its box design, which
has a black background, but so far the standard has not been accepted industry-wide.
Many publishers prefer the Compton's box size, but vary the design and color.
Publishers should take care with subtitles, so that the name of the product
or product line is not confused with its secondary title. It helps to have extensive
input from professionals and focus groups if two titles will appear on the box.
Sometimes the subtitle is better than the product line name and should be emphasized
graphically.
An image for the whole company
It is best to create an identifiable image for the publishing company and for
each product line and title in a series. The creation of these various levels
of images is best left in the hands of professionals, to allow the images to
work together to support the whole.
It is imperative that publishers
begin now to plan their company and product-line imaging to succeed across all
four industries and their distribution channels. The design must not only sell
off the shelf, but off the catalog page in a one-half inch to one inch square
format.
These professional designers should specialize in each of the industries that
will retail the product: software, audio, video and books. The skills of packaging
design for each of these industries is established and quite sophisticated.
The standards for each industry (or lack of them) affect the design. There is
much less space on a jewel box or a CD, whether audio or multimedia, than is
available on a large box for display on a software store shelf. The standard
video box is limited in different ways. Packages designed for bookstores, if
larger than the accepted measurements, may find themselves in an oversized book
display, in the back cases of the bookstore. Although software stores and bookstores
are somewhat flexible in the kinds of boxes and packaging they will accept,
the audio and the video industries are rigid. This is because their standards
apply not simply to retailers' shelf preference, but to the shipping cases,
palates in trucks and in the warehouse, and store fixtures that display the
items. These industry-wide standards for packing, shipping and shelving will
not change for new media. Therefore new media packaging must conform to these
standards. And these standards may not be applicable to other channels.
Start now
It is imperative that publishers begin now to plan their company and product-line
imaging to succeed across all four industries and their distribution channels.
The design must not only sell off the shelf, but off the catalog page in a one-half
inch to one inch square format. Product names and subheadings must become memorable
and descriptive of the product in only a few words. Copy must be brief and hard-
hitting. The product competes for the buyer's attention with hundreds of other
items on the shelf and dozens of items on the catalog page.
The 20-second sell
The publisher has 20 seconds of the browser's attention span in which the prospective
buyer will pick up the product and read the box, or in which he will stop scanning
the catalog long enough to read the description. The multimedia industry is
currently devoid of direct sales reps to the end-user, experienced sales people
in retail, preview mechanisms and full-page advertising. So the box must do
all these jobs, and do it in 20 seconds. The planning for the success of this
20-second sell will take months. It is important to begin now.
Joey
Tamer refines the vision, strategy and success of companies --
Fortune 1000, capitalized start-ups and investment fund.
www.joeytamer.com
(310) 245 5310 joey @ joeytamer.com