In this day and age of corporate brands a little personality can be a great competitive advantage.
Take for example Oatly (oat milk) and Innocent smoothies.
Both are in fairly boring industries, (when was the last time there was an innovation in milk?) with little differentiation between competition in taste and yet these two brands make buying milk and smoothies fun.
Most drink producers will view packaging as just a box to tick.
‘Does it hold the drink?’
‘Yes’
‘Then it’s good to go.’
But Oatly and Innocent smoothies saw packaging as an opportunity to delight and showcase humour.
Some will still buy the conventional milks that plug the message of Vitamin D benefits but for those who don’t care too much about what brand of milk they buy (which I think will be the majority of people) an interesting and funny package is going to win the battle for attention everyday of the week.
It has to be stated – the risk in buying milk is minimal.
Most people buy it every week and it costs less than a fiver.
All you need is someone to go:
‘Oh that’s an interesting package, I’ll give it a go.’
Then if it doesn’t taste too bad Oatly has just won a customer for life (provided they keep producing interesting cartons).
Thomas Duggan 