Brands are navigating an unforgiving moment right now. Consumers are more price sensitive and harder to convert than ever. The instinct is to shout louder and discount deeper but, for many brands, the squeeze on sales is real.
Persistent sluggish sales are an indication that the friction lies somewhere else. A prime candidate for that friction happens to be packaging. It is the most overlooked element in a brand’s commercial toolkit. It gets locked in at launch and isn’t re-examined for a long time. It feels complex and effort-intensive. And, internally, it lacks a clear owner between brand and operations teams. That’s why packaging rarely makes to the shortlist of suspects. But, it should.
Packaging is, effectively, a brand’s final pitch to a shopper when they are staring at the shelf. For a new brand, packaging does the entire job of driving awareness, generating consideration, and converting to purchase. Even for established brands, packaging has taken on renewed importance these days. Indie competitors are breaking category codes and shoppers are evaluating brands through different lenses than before, with more emphasis on clean ingredients, local provenance, and sustainability.
Correcting for any of these areas has to be treated as a strategic push, and not a cosmetic tweak.
Content optimization: Make every facing work
Most packaging energy goes into the front of pack. That is, after all, what the shopper is most exposed to. Back and side panels are often treated as an after-thought, mostly for regulatory obligations.
The question to ask of every facing is simple: Is this moving a shopper closer to purchase? Back-of-pack copy that does not add new persuasive weight is a missed opportunity. Side panels, particularly for brands selling into independent retail, are underused merchandising tools. If a retailer can orient your product in multiple ways on a limited shelf, then you are likely to get more space than competitors.
The one fundamental question to ask is what kind of reassurance the packaging offers at the moment of decision. Understanding the shopper’s mindset is critical. The right copy answers questions before they arise. Sometimes, the most persuasive thing a panel can do is show, not tell.
Grounded, a Quebec-based company, makes OG, a ground meat alternative made from Canadian yellow peas. The product is not yet well-understood, so the company decided to let the shopper see what they are buying by incorporating a transparent window on its pack. Paired with clear preparation instructions, the pack closes the confidence gap.
KIND bars solved for a different problem. In a category dominated by heavily processed products and skeptical consumers, KIND leaned into transparency with their packaging. Instead of saying who they were, they showed it: real, whole ingredients.
Format as a commercial decision
Content optimization is about working harder within your current packaging format. What about the format itself? Most brands adopt category conventions — the bottle, the box, the sachet — without examining whether those conventions are serving them.
The strategically important question is whether your packaging format supports your brand’s positioning. A brand that has built equity on sustainability claims but ships in layers of plastic and carton is creating a contradiction, which is immediately noticed by today’s savvy shopper.
Two brands have turned packaging format decisions into genuine commercial advantages. Mid-Day Squares, the Montreal-based functional chocolate snack, chose a square format in a category defined by rectangles. That single choice of a non-conforming shape creates visual disruption on shelf. Further, it avoids easy categorization as either energy bar, cookie or confectionery, which, in turn, opens up multiple merchandising locations across the store. The retailer gains flexibility, the brand gains exposure, and the consumer gains multiple points of discovery.
Liquid Death has taken this principle further. It broke the bottled water category code by abandoning the bottle for tall boy aluminum cans. Heavy metal graphics replaced natural imagery. As a result of these upstream decisions, Liquid Death can execute credibly in the water aisle, the beverage aisle, and the hydration set. Just like Mid-Day Squares, each placement draws attention precisely because it violates the visual language of its consideration set.
The underlying principle in both cases is the same: When packaging creates distinctiveness based on the core proposition, it generates commercial outcomes.
Packaging as strategy
Packaging tends to get treated as a cost line and a compliance exercise. In fact, it is a strategic asset that decides, in three seconds, whether you stay on the shelf or get added to the cart.
SKU velocity problems rarely trace neatly to a source. But when packaging isn’t optimized, it is effectively a self-created headwind. Pouring scarce dollars into more media and trade spend may just be adding water to a leaky bucket.
In the next sales review, put packaging on the agenda and treat it with the same rigour as media and trade spend. The shelf will notice.
Archana Kalegaonkar is the founder of Hidden Sight, a boutique brand strategy advisory for founder-led food and beverage brands. Based in Montreal, she draws on 20+ years of senior marketing and general management roles across PepsiCo, Kellogg, L’Oréal, and Roche. Connect with her at archana.kalegaonkar@hiddensight.ca and www.linkedin.com/in/archana-kalegaonkar.
