Packaging: The Primary Sales Agent

by Joey Tamer

Multimedia titles' distribution is primarily through mail order and retail, and is currently accepted in software stores and computer superstores. As we have discussed in previous columns, the distribution channels for multimedia titles will expand into video and audio stores and ultimately to bookstores during the next couple of years. This broad-based distribution presents an interesting challenge to publishers of new media titles. They must create an image for their company and product line, and prepare packaging that will be successful across all of these diverse channels. This challenge is sharpened by the understanding that packaging is the primary sales agent for a multimedia title. This is particularly true because there is currently no "preview" mechanism, such as movie trailers or commercials for multimedia titles, and because the current market is so small, it does not justify the cost of full-page advertising. In recent meetings, I have seen distributors accept a new media title for distribution on the condition that the packaging is reworked to their satisfaction. It is likely the distributor understands the success of packaging in a retail environment better than the publisher, and in this case the suggestion might be supportive and helpful. However, if it is August or September and the product should be on the shelf in a couple of weeks, a package redesign will delay its release into retail by some six to eight weeks, missing a good portion of the Christmas selling season. Therefore it's probably a good idea to figure out the intricacies of packaging before this critical time.

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