One of the most popular TED talks of all time is Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”—a topic further detailed in his book, “Start With Why.” According to Sinek, companies discuss products from their perspective of what they do, how they do it, and why they exist. But, to paraphrase Sinek’s thesis, consumers don’t invest in what a brand does, they invest in为什么they do it.
Sinek dives deep into brands like Nike, Apple, and Harley-Davidson, and even into historical personalities such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers. These entities all started with a为什么，这对与目标市场的内在欲望和痛苦保持一致的信息是至关重要的。作为第一个接触点，包装对消费者感知，认知理解和购买意图具有巨大影响。为了包装提供者向客户提供最大价值，他们应该习惯如何沟通品牌为什么through their packaging.
与商店货架拥有类似的产品和产品，包装提供商的作用是为客户提供最大的品牌和产品差异化，同时可以实现品牌的沟通为什么。产品can stay the same over the years, becoming institutions in our collective psyche, but consumers and marketplaces change with the fashion of the day. But even if products are the commodity, the constant, packaging can be redesigned numerous times within the lifetime of a shelf SKU. Packaging has to adapt to keep a legacy product competitive.
When we take a step backward to understand this process, it’s important that packaging providers understand primary consumer data, otherwise design is a shot in the dark. Research tools like eye tracking, facial coding analysis, and hedonics can be used to collect primary data on relevant consumer behaviors like visual perception, emotion, and taste. Many companies, even the Fortune 100, don’t have an established playbook for this kind of testing, nor do they have a dependable, scalable way to acquire the relevant primary data to come up with truly transformative ideas.
This is really where packaging suppliers can take the reins as thought leaders by making themselves the key entity between relevant primary data and the brand. By coming to the table with data and a plan to develop a physical product identity around it, packaging suppliers can adapt their expertise to meet the needs of the market and their clients, establishing the为什么虽然履行了How.
Dr. R. Andrew Hurley是创始人包装洞察力and包装学校，克莱姆森大学副教授。
