I posted about Goods of Desire in the past and here’s another great little take away that they’ve launched. It’s a great way to take a bit of Hong Kong home with you. Part of what makes the travel experience is the “charm”, character, and uniqueness to a place. These small souvenirs from GOD address and identify that exact connection or experience we may have to Hong Kong. Clever!
What would you choose as small charm souvenirs for your hometown or favorite city?
A couple months ago I had a discussion with a classmate about our adjustments to living in Beijing. One of the biggest adjustments that seem so simple and natural in our respective home countries is the idea of brands. We know who to trust, what to expect from quality and service, and where to go to look for specific needs. Something that is seemingly obvious in our daily activities has been turned upside down upon our arrival to China. This is certainly all apart of traveling and exploring a new place. But learning all this information is an overload and can be difficult. One thing that I have noticed is for water: of the plethora of choices, locals prefer Nongfu Spring.
Seeing the Business Insider article about 19 Chinese consumer brands was definitely one place to start! Of the better known names are China Mobile, Tsingtao, and Baidu. And a few of the lesser known: Tingyi Packaged Noodles, Want Want food, and Bailian women’s lingerie. I’ll have to start following up on these and understanding their range or products when I’m back in Beijing.
The Shanghai based branding firm Labbrand reviews the impact of packaging design on business in a cultural context, particularly in China. Product brand managers need to pay special consideration to how their consumers view color, materials, images and typefaces, while considering the contrasts between Chinese and Western markets.
Packaging design and color has a a big impact on the failure or success of the product it packages. If the consumer is not attracted to the colors and the packaging, they may pay no attention to the product itself.
People use a little more than a minute to make up their minds about a product they see for the first time, and a big part of this judgment is based on colours alone.
“All of us have involuntary physiological and psychological responses to the colours we see,” according to the Chicago-based Institute for Colour Research, a group that collects information on the human response to colour and then sells it to industry. “Colour…impacts our appetite, sexual behaviour, business life and leisure time,” says Eric Johnson, the institute’s head of research studies.
I knew that different cultures and countries have different opinions on particular colors, but I had no idea that the French, Belgian, or Japanese are not attracted to green packaging or that Islamic cultures react to yellow in a negative way because yellow symbolizes death. And of course for the Chinese yellow is associated with the emperor’s clothing and red represents happiness and fortune. The article lists a variety of other colors and the perception from various cultural contexts. The choice of color is powerful when designing packaging for certain markets.
However, this does not apply to every product category: Chinese consumers generally find appealing these bright and shiny colours for food products but tend to prefer white and pastel colours for personal care and household items. For instance, General Mills adapts the colours used on own product packages in the Chinese market by using bright and flashy colours.
These examples really illustrate the importance of understanding a local consumer market when developing products (both 3-dimensionally and 2-dimensionally).
Researchers estimate that more than 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at point of sale . Here the consumer takes in rapidly all the products displayed – and likewise hastily looks for clues that help him make a decision.
Products brands that are successful on the Chinese market clearly take into consideration how images and patterns printed on the packaging influence consumers decisions towards own products.
Packaging has an incredible power over what people buy. The same way people express themselves through the clothes they wear they also make statements about who they are through the products they buy. Indeed, we buy products not just for their functional attributes but also – and maybe even more importantly – because these products promise to fulfil desires and longings. The package that enfolds the product carries a big part of that promise.
The challenge when trying to build a locally consistent “promise” is to interpret the global brand identity and creative concept in a meaningful way for the Chinese market. The package design needs to attract attention, stimulate curiosity, build a connection and ultimately lead the buyer to think the product is the best one offered. China is a country with a long history and a rich culture, creating codes in the minds of consumers that must be considered during package design. In order to be successful in China, foreign brands need to reinterpret their identity through the eyes of Chinese consumers to truly understand how colours, patterns, images, typeface and material choices can contribute build a meaningful product experience.
Dueling Starbucks and Peet’s coffee shops are located directly across the street from each other in the town of Alameda, CA (Bay Area). I’m sure it’s not the only corner in the area with multiple coffee shops. When two huge coffee chains open shop so close together, it certainly shows the presence of coffee culture.
Coffee culture and cafes are growing in Beijing. In certain areas there are multiple cafes in the neighborhood, particularly in the university area of Wudaokou (五道口). I’ve spent my share of time in these cafes and it’s not much different from the ones in the States: friends gather and chat, spend hours using the wifi and doing work, or running in for a quick snack and drink. I must admit that the food and coffee quality could use improvement, but knowing that the cafes are easily accessible and growing in numbers shows a definite demand for the service and atmosphere.
I had heard about Lemonade when it came out and recently watched it on Hulu, a 35 min movie about laid off advertising professionals, who turned the bad news into an opportunity: “It’s not a pink slip, it’s a blank page.”
What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They get creative with their own lives. Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”
The over-riding theme here seems to be passion…we continue to hear that passion is often key to success and to just get up and do something. I’m preaching to myself, of course…haha. Definite inspiration to get up and do something
Jan Chipchase writes a short entry about the failure and successes of color-changing diapers that alert parents of a wet diaper (or nappy):
Yellow nappy stripes – a familiar, comforting sight for parents indicating that the contents of the container/nappy are dry – with a few drops of liquid the stripes turn blue. Whilst it would be disputed by the marketing departments of FMCGs its rare to see (what most people consider to be) genuine leap-forward innovation in mass-market consumer goods such as nappies and razors – but genuine innovation this is. This nappy design is an absolute time saver – parents/carers no longer need check inside the nappy/feel the groin area for moisture/hold-baby-up-to-nose before heading to the changing table. The yellow/blue stripes provide parental confidence; reduce the risk of baby miscomfort; save time; and reduce the risk of erroneously changing a nappy.
But the feature is far from perfect: there appear to be false positives (where the blue stripes appears with no apparent dampness) – it will be interesting to see how motivated manufacturers are to ‘fix’ this issue given the (if 1 in 20, then ~5%?) bump it provides to the bottom line.
Design helps people in big and little ways, but design is also about business; it’s very insightful knowing that as much as Mr. Chipchase does research and design, he also reminds us that we have to consider the bottom line of the new innovative products we develop.
If you don’t know about Shanghai Tang, (in addition to the Chinese translation of Shanghai’s Bund), it’s a high-end fashion brand that uses traditional Chinese design to influence it’s lifestyle and fashion products.
Shanghai Tang is the first luxury brand emerging from China. Its design mission is to revitalise Chinese innovation and to interweave it with the dynamism of the 21st Century.
Some of their products are quite standard, simply changed with a Shanghai Tang graphic, while other products are much more unique and intriguing like this dimsum inspired basket for trinkets. There are certainly some interesting Chinese inspired gift ideas among some splurges for yourself if you dare
Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa rents out it’s penthouse as a trailer park. Teaming with Cape Town design studio Whatiftheworld, the hotel worked with local artists to decorate the 7 American Airstream trailers as two-person accommodations. The trailer park is situated around the hotel’s rooftop bar.
In addition to the concepts from “The Ballad of John & Yoko, adorned with a guitar and simple white interior, to Goldilocks and The Three Bears, which has a quaint storybook feel to it,” there’s a more local feel from the Afro-Funk trailer by Carla Soudien.
The trailer’s earthy colours set the tone for an African experience – minus the wildlife. Soudien was inspired by the street fashion of Cape Town and this is represented in her careful attention to texture.
What a great way to collaborate with local artists and create unique experiences for travelers! Not to mention the poetic nature of the project, where we think of trailers for traveling. Now, the trailers are permanently parked and made into housing for those same travelers. Each Airstream has a small garden, air-conditioning, and running hot and cold water. I want to visit! I’m so curious how the interiors are have been redesigned.
