I took a look at a very large company's new "Branding Platform" document the other day.
It was very typical of what some organizations do by default. The branding document dictated how the brand should look over various types of media. I'm sure the actual branding strategy and thinking was fine, but it's always the details that make the difference in the end. Naturally I am focusing on the packaging design component here!
I review a lot of student portfolios through the seminars I give and the associations I belong to. I can always tell the difference between a junior and a pro. The packaging design section of the brand document was obviously executed by a junior staff member.
The agency of record for this Fortune 500 company was a large advertising agency. If you understand the culture of an ad agency, you'll know that there is no glory in packaging design. So naturally it was a task that was efficiently shuffled down to a lower billings/hour staff member.
The whole thing was rubber stamped by the Creative Director and sold into the executive suite as a complete branding and design directive. Unfortunately for this company, the results they get from their lack of a cohesive and well-researched packaging design is not going to be very good. After all, research by the Wharton School shows that up to 50% of purchase decisions are made at the point of sale...regardless of all the advertising and branding work you may have done!
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