How To Increase Value For Money with Packaging

The Relationship Between Value For Money and Packaging

A brand that justifies its cost and is worth paying for has strong Value for Money. It is the cost/benefit equation coming to life, where what a consumer pays for your product must be less than the benefit they gain from using and experiencing it.  

To grow your brand’s Value for Money through Packaging, there are a few different angles you could take. You could make your product appear more premium through a packaging change, without adjusting the price. You could play up the benefits of your product, and still keep the price the same. Or, you could create different pack sizes at different price points to rebalance the cost/benefit equation. The danger here is over-engineering your packaging, until it actually undercuts the power, and therefore perceived value, of your brand.   

When aiming to improve your brand’s Value for Money, specifically through Packaging, consider the below:

1. How can I emphasise what people love about my brand on pack, to reinforce value? Take what people love you for: your benefits, tone of voice, personality, origins… And put it front and centre. Make sure people see that you are special, that you are different, and make them want you. Emphasise all your highpoints to make people feel that they would pay above the odds to have you.  

2. What pack changes can I make to showcase value?  If you’re looking to grow your brand’s Value for Money, you could consider a pack change to make your brand look and feel more premium at its existing price. You essentially want people to feel your brand is worth paying more for, so from a packaging perspective, one way to do that is to make the pack itself a bit more experiential. Play on sensorial cues to make people feel that your product is worth more.  

3. What pack sizes could I create to rebalance value?  If changing the pack itself is not the way to go, another route is to rebalance the pack/price ratio: how much product you’re going to give for the cost people are willing to pay.  You can do this by creating larger sized packs (often called “Value packs”) which reduce the “per ml” or “per gram” cost without having a grossly negative impact on margin.

4. What claims could I make on existing packs to prove value?  Creating on pack claims to emphasize your value is another route to take with packaging.  The percent “extra” or “more” your product delivers helps people understand the value they are getting through the purchase.  Consider using value-led claims on pack as a way to make people feel your brand is worth paying for. 

What should you do next?

• Understand what emotional and rational value your brand has for people. Put it front and centre on pack.  
• Take a look at your existing pack to determine if people are getting as much value from it as it is costing them. Consider making your pack feel a bit more premium at its existing price, and you’ll see your brand’s Value for Money increase. 
• Look at your price and product architecture to determine if there is another pack size you could launch that would give consumers a better cost-value equation. 
• Determine how you could use claims language to specifically call out the value of your product. Packaging which claims to give consumers added bonuses in terms of extra or more product tend to see their Value for Money increase too. 

How to determine if it’s working.

• Once a change is made to your Packaging to increase Value for Money, take a look at that Driver’s change over time—once the new packaging hits market, you should see it grow.
• On weeks when your product is sold at full price, you should see your Value for Money improve versus prior weeks at full price before any Packaging changes were made (ignore promotion weeks). 
  
  
  Guidance from:
  Michael Coden | Head of Marketing, ProQuo AI
  
  Michael has spent 10 years developing and building brands across the US, Europe and Australasia for global companies.