by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: November 11, 2009

Take any product in any given store, and you have a product that is packaged in a calculated way to best promote that product and/or the product's brand. Branding is exceedingly important in all facets of marketing, and brand image becomes a leading factor in a business's chances for long-term success. What is brand image? Simply put, a company's brand image is the kind of feelings invoked in consumers by a given brand. For instance, Pedigree brand dog food has a long-running campaign promoting the adoption of homeless dogs in animal shelters. This gives the company a compassionate image and makes consumers feel that Pedigree has a genuine concern for "surplus" animals that may be euthanized if proper homes can't be found. This costs the company comparatively little, just a little bit of package design, and can greatly aid in motivating consumers to buy.

Socially-conscious packaging has been used in many different capacities and with widely varying results. These campaigns ran anywhere from encouraging citizens to vote, to trying to raise awareness about breast cancer, world hunger, and the effects of pollution on the ozone layer. Well-known brands have successfully made an impact on social awareness by these campaigns, while lesser-known brands have strategically used similar campaigns in an effort to boost their reputations. A company that enumerates the dangers of pollution on its packaging suggests, without directly saying so, that it is an environmentally-friendly institution that tries to reduce its own pollution as much as possible.

As more and more awareness has been raised about human dangers to the environment, consumers are beginning to demand environmentally-friendly packaging on the goods they purchase. Packaging which sports a recycling classification icon, announces the percentage of post-consumer content used in the package, or otherwise shows its attention to the environment tend to be held in higher esteem by consumers. Whether true or not, such packaging gives the impression of a more "green" company that has global welfare in mind during its production process.

In order for socially conscious packaging to have any effect on brand image or on consumers, those consumers first have to be somewhat socially conscious themselves or the message will be completely lost on them. Catchy slogans, pitiful pictures, or shocking statistics can have a big effect on brand image toward consumers who have some background information about the issues, but

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>