One of the first things we are asked at Biondo when we meet someone new is “what do we do”, what’s our specialty? Our answer is that The Biondo Group specializes in consumer product packaging design and brand identity development.
For most people that’s enough of an answer to give them a cocktail party sense of the services we provide. The packaging design part is relatively easy to understand (graphics and containers/ structures that appear in a Supermarket), the brand identity aspect, less so. If a raised eyebrow appears when the term Brand Identity is mentioned, we have to go a little farther.
Wikipedia explains Brand Identity thusly:
“The outward expression of a brand – including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance – is brand identity.
Because the brand owner assembles the identity, it reflects how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand – and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. This is in contrast to the brand image, which is a customer’s mental picture of a brand.”
In these instances, we love Wikipedia.
But there are ancillary services and activities that are in our (the packaging designers) wheelhouse. These services include: merchandising and promotional display design, dispenser design, the design of retail environments, development of container structures and product or brand naming – some are Industrial Design related, others more “traditional” creative.
Because (back in the day before Solidworks) many packaging design firms were staffed with dedicated Industrial Designers. These three dimensionally talented folks were tasked with designing container forms and shapes, and naturally got to participate in the development of other POS marketing programs when a fresh look, or innovation was required. Biondo Group has always offered structural design as a service and we’ve noticed an uptick in the frequency of this type of project.
On occasion, we are asked to participate in Naming development, another area of specialty on the periphery of packaging design and brand identity. Although there are hyper-specialists that provide only that capability – insuring the name candidates can work in the digital as well as supermarket/ category realms , we are asked to lend a different perspective tempered by years in the Supermarket, staring at and studying shelf sets.. “On package” nomenclature is another area where our experience is often applied.
So, back to the question at hand – what do we do?
The Biondo Group works with brand marketers to make sure their products look as good as they can at point-of-sale (the last few feet of the marketing journey) and serve to positively differentiate their offerings.
In summary, our job is to get the product off the shelf, in hand and finally in the shopping cart.
-sb