Cisco has redesigned the packaging graphics for its line of six Linksys WiFi routers, with a kaleidoscope of vibrant visual aids and clearly communicated product capabilities, to provide shelf pop and clarity in a category that had become utilitarian and overly confusing.
“Cisco wanted to step up from the category,” explains Kara McCartney, strategy insight director for Landor Associates, which led the redesign. “All of the router providers were following each other when it came to their packaging. If one put something on their box, then everyone else would do the same. Cisco wanted to remove themselves from that battle. They wanted to create something that was intuitive and logical for the consumer, to make it easier for them to choose the correct router for their home or small office.”
From concept to shelf in less than six months to meet holiday sales, the redesign was a “highly iterative” and “fairly intensive” process, explains McCartney, with Landor and Cisco working closely to develop the strategy and organization of the graphic elements on the router box. Cutting through gratuitous information, Landor developed a streamlined capacity chart for the back panel, modeled on the one used on hosiery packaging. “What the chart allows everyone to do is suddenly understand, based on how many devices might be running at the same time, the types of devices in their home, how large their home is, etc., the appropriate router for their needs,” she says.
