When beauty appliance company Jerdon Style licensed the Rampage women’s clothing brand for a line of hair styling tools in 2012, it needed a package design that could convey the functionality of the product while delivering the fashion-forward flair of the Rampage brand.
“Our challenge was to bring a lifestyle brand into a category where branding was essentially invisible,” explains Helena Yoon, Creative Director of Anthem, the global creative agency that articulated the Rampage brand, and led the structural design of the new Styling Hair Dryer product and its packaging. “In our research, consumers actually surprised themselves by having no idea what brand of styling products they were using. We also had to bring a powerful style halo into what was typically a very function- and feature-driven technology space.”
In addition to designing packaging that would deliver the “wow factor” of the trendy Rampage brand while still communicating a professional, benefit-driven product experience, Anthem also needed to create a structure and design that would stand out in a highly cluttered and often undifferentiated category; convey the functionality of the product first, with fashionable accents as a secondary design component; project a contemporary point of view, yet avoid momentary fads; and tell a compelling story through familiar fashion language.
From consumer research, Anthem learned that the target consumer—women aged 18 to 32 who describe themselves as “trendy” and “glamorous”—“welcomes unique twists like glitter, leopard print, and bright pops of color, so long as they’re tastefully used,” explains Anthem’s Director, Design Strategy, Jennifer Murtell. “Overdoing these elements would cheapen the perceived quality of the product and lack sophistication. Similarly, visual cues that are too cute and bubbly don’t go over well with this audience. Soft colors and flowery accents with a ‘girly innocence’ feel too young and passive—not dynamic enough to believably be the Rampage girl.”
