Conveying brand information via water bottles

Packaging is a brand’s last chance to sell its identity to consumers. The imagery, text and name of the individual product should be carefully chosen to maximize appeal. There are dozens of factors that lead customers to purchase decisions – past experiences, advertising, brand reputation and more. However, all of these ideas are mere contributors to an overall choice, and packaging design always gets the last word, at the final moment before the sale is made.

Looking at the ways in which brands design every element of a package to go together symbiotically shows the opportunities that exist in the labeling space. When businesses spend time and money changing the way their items appear, they make sure to think in detail about the effect the products will create.

Nestle’s water example
According to Packaging World, one of the latest examples of a high-profile packaging redesign comes from global food and beverage conglomerate Nestle. Its bottled water brand, Pure Life, recently received a complete makeover, combining a new ad campaign with a revised graphical look and a new tagline: “Pure life begins now.”

As that marketing message implies, Nestle wants consumers to think of a bring and positive future when they pick up a bottle of water. In graphic design terms, that means lots of cool and refreshing colors, combined into a new, watercolor-styled logo. That logo, called “family within,” was picked to indicate optimism for future generations.

Differentiating factors
When picking out a label for a bottled beverage, design considerations go beyond the labels themselves and extend to the sizes and shapes of the bottles. Packaging World pointed out that Pure Life water is available in several amounts to emphasize that the product is there for customers at all times of the day, wherever people may be.

Of course, even within a field as narrow as bottled water, there are ways to put very different messages in front of shoppers. In late 2016, Drinks Business Review described PepsiCo’s latest version of H2O: Lifewtr. This water variety only comes in two bottle sizes, with many different label designs created by outside artists. As opposed to no-frills Nestle water, PepsiCo’s option draws attention to its bells and whistles – electrolytes for taste, pH balancing and so on. Brand representatives linked Lifewtr to creativity, a feeling conveyed via the art on the labels.

Making the sale
When it’s time to design a new label and reach customers at a critical decision point, companies can take the process of printing the revised labels in-house. This move relies on powerful label printers, such as the Afinia L801. Check it out in our U.S. store or on our Canadian site.