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A vision for the future

Veteran branding experts say the packages that will have staying power will be rooted in solid consumer research and precise targeting rather than on passing fads.

Pw 11138 Book Cover

The sacred pillars of marketing long have been summed up in the four “Ps”—product, price, place, and promotion. Current thinking in marketing circles, however, adds two more Ps—positioning and packaging.

Both will increase in importance over the next decade, say Herbert Meyers and Richard Gerstman, “because we anticipate that shopping will experience revolutionary changes resulting from limitless conceptual opportunities for making the shopping environment more exciting.”

The authors outline how and why in The Visionary Package, and as decades-long thought-leaders in branding and package design, both know their subject matter well. Meyers is the retired founding managing partner of Gerstman+Meyers (now Interbrand), a brand identity and design consultancy that serves Fortune 500 clients worldwide. Gerstman is chairman of Interbrand U.S. and founding managing partner of Gerstman+Meyers.

Consider the advent of single-serve yogurt cups and bottled water, or the apothecary-like shape of the Absolut Vodka bottle. “What makes these packages visionary is that, being based on solid marketing criteria and precisely targeted positioning instead of on marketers’ or designers’ whims or current popular trends, they have withstood the flow of time, even when modified repeatedly, to adhere to the changes in market conditions,” the authors state.

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