Your most important brand touchpoint in-store isn’t your advertising.It’s your pack.

In a world where shopper decisions are made in seconds, we consistently see in our behavioural research that the majority of visual attention in-store is on the pack

So what does this mean for brands?

Shoppers don’t “read” the shelf; they scan it. Their navigation is driven by colour and shape recognition. Words come later, if at all.

This aligns with findings in books such as Why We Buy by Paco Underhill and Inside the Mind of the Shopper by Herb Sorensen, both of which highlight that shoppers operate on visual heuristics, not rational evaluation, especially under time pressure.

The implication is simple, but often ignored:

·       Pack is the primary communication medium in-store

·       Not your ad. Not your website. Not your brand story.

…. And yet too many packs try to say too much

The reality is that shopper marketers need to manage the shopper’s opportunity cost of time – where would they rather be than spending time trying to decode the shelf (or more specifically, the pack).

The hard truth is that if your pack requires effort, you’ve already lost the battle for conversion.

In-store communication, both on pack and in adjacent POS must be:

• Instantly recognisable

• Visually distinctive

• Effortless to process

Because 

·       Simplicity = speed

·       Speed = visibility

·       Visibility = conversion

The brands that win at shelf don’t communicate more, they communicate faster.

The cost of getting it wrong first up or as part of the pack evolution can be significant. My great friend and mentor, Herb Sorensen often recalled how Tropicana removed the iconic orange with straw from their pack and introduced a minimalist pack design featuring a glass of orange juice. The effect was a 20% drop in sales over two months, resulting in a $30m loss.  

The reason the new pack failed is simple: shoppers use visual shortcuts to make their selections. The orange with the straw graphic was a navigational beacon. Without it, Tropicana looked like a private label alternative and was discarded.