Introducing Agile PACKMASTER: Supporting brands in the innovation process.

The beginnings of our new Agile PACKMASTER tool came from a conversation and a challenge from one of our regular packaging clients. They were a regular user of our main PACKMASTER tool and appreciated the packaging expertise we brought to the relationship, but the tool was too sophisticated and not quick enough for some of their work.

They were turning to faster suppliers but choosing them was felt to involve too many compromises – they were getting data quickly, but not the confidence and understanding their business needed to make decisions. They wanted both, and like many clients, they wanted it cheap too.

PACKMASTER has been used to validate potential packaging designs for over 25 years and over that time has amassed a huge normative database of results spanning 46+ market around the world. Analysis of these norms reveals what makes a successful pack, and therefore what metrics are key for a successful pack testing methodology.

It reveals that shelf impact and desire are equally important. While a pack might be great at being seen on shelf, if it fails to communicate the proposition clearly shoppers won’t pick it up. Likewise a pack which is a great communicator will fail if people don’t see it.

So both metrics are important, but how can you be confident you are doing both well? Our Agile PACKMASTER tool was designed to be consistent with our other packaging tools, and so be able to call upon the wealth of packaging norms that already exist.

This is perfect for metrics like relevance, trust, quality and shelf findability which are important for any brand and category, but analysis revealed that more detailed understanding was needed to identify a great pack, aspects which were unique to each innovation.

We believe the role of the pack is to bring to life the proposition for a new innovation. Concept testing will have told you that your new idea has consumer appeal, otherwise you wouldn’t have progressed as far as developing the pack. Analysis of our packaging work testing new innovations reveals a link between packs which fully conveyed the proposition and in turn relevance, and those which delivered purchase interest as strong as the concept.

So how is this all relevant to a light-touch packaging tool like Agile PACKMASTER? We used this understanding of what makes an effective pack, to ensure the new tool focussed on metrics which best identify success. It assesses how well the key messages unique to your innovation are communicated, whether it is relevant, high quality and trusted, and it also gives you an objective assessment of shelf impact and findability so you can be confident your pack is seen.

The result is a light-touch tool that gives you results that match the pace of your innovation process, at a price which allows iterative learning, with the added bonus of normative data and results interpretated by people who know packaging, giving you clear understanding of what to optimise and the confidence to proceed. Plus with the ability to flex across both NPD innovations and design refreshes for existing brands, Agile PACKMASTER is already becoming a firm favourite with clients.

If you’d like to discuss how any of our packaging tools can help your innovation process, please get in touch today.