What women want from packaging design

Sam Ellison and Emma Jones are Directors of Redshoe Brand Design, a strategic graphic design agency that makes it its business to listen to, and be in touch with, what women want. It uses this knowledge to help clients develop female-friendly brands and create intelligent, eloquent design that talks the language of women more effectively. Emma and Sam are also the UK representatives on the Steering Committee for M2W, the world's biggest conference for marketing to women.

In the overloaded brand world we live in there's still something reassuringly important and different about packaging. After all it's the only item of branding that consumers willingly invite into their homes and interact with for the lifespan of the product.

When honing in on the essentials of packaging design its clear that it's the packaging designer's job to make sure brands get invited.

It would therefore be a fairly sensible question to ask 'Who is doing the inviting?'. And the answer might just surprise you as the consumer's world is not equal. Women account for 51% of the population but make or influence a whopping 85% of all consumer purchases and not just in those categories perceived to be female focused such as health and beauty. They are responsible for purchasing decisions on everything from electronics and bank accounts to new homes, cars and holidays.

It's tempting to assume that marketing to men and women requires similar, if not the same, basic principles but this incorrect assumption that can lead to brands failing to effectively reach women. This is because women have different values, different attitudes, different behaviours, priorities and preferences. And the shock news is that those differences can have a profound effect on the way brands and packaging should be designed.

In our experience, when it comes to brands, women demand more, they set higher standards and value brands that take time to build relationships with them. The danger many brands fall prey to is thinking this process is fairly straightforward and certainly not based on gender. They tend to apply a generic one-size fits all approach to their communication and design. Or, worse, they 'pink and shrink' their products as the route to attracting female customers. This is perhaps why 91% of women feel that marketers simply don't understand them (according to Harbinger's Women & Word of Mouth survey).

The trouble is not so much that 'male' is the default. It's more that there is a lack of recognition that men and women are fundamentally different and that this difference deserves to be explored in the way brands communicate to them. Instead, brands pitch themselves in a middle ground which simply doesn't exist.

So what should brands do to better engage women with their design and packaging?

There is a growing demand for brands to shift the focus, and start designing packaging for people, not products. This is particularly important when trying to reach women. In her book "Why She Buys", leading marketing-to-women expert Bridget Brennan explains: "Women are most interested in what a product does for me. Men are most interested in how the product works."

Brands need to move away from the transactional to a more meaningful relationship because women want to be inspired by the brands they choose. To achieve this requires a shift away from products to experiences; from communication to dialogue. In short it's about raising the bar.

Mastercard's Priceless campaign is a great example of reaching female consumers in this way. The brand targeted its biggest consumer (women) by using personal experiences to tell stories about the things money can't buy. They were universal truths that created an emotional connection, because they put the person rather than the product at the heart of what they did.

Top 5 guiding principles:

1. Know your audience:
The starting point is understanding and knowing who you are talking to. Engaging with women requires genuine empathy and the ability to focus in on what they are thinking and feeling. This is because the lifestyle choices they make and the multiple roles women have are many and varied. Therefore it is essential to understand these roles and not to alienate or stereotype by lumping women into one homogenous group.

Women fulfill more social roles as purchasers than men. Put simply, men do a lot of buying for themselves, women do the rest - from the present for the kid's party and replenishing the shampoo that has run out to the health care plan for an ageing parent, renewing the home insurance and picking up the medicine from the pharmacist. As they are constantly thinking about the needs of the people in their lives they empathise directly with the needs of the end user -it's why women make less 'wrong' purchases. Brands benefit from taking time to understand her different mindsets during these purchases and us this insight to drive their design.

2. Relationships are important

People make decisions based on emotions first and then rationalise them logically. Therefore appealing to emotions and building relationships is an incredibly powerful branding tool. Women in particular respond to stories that draw them in. They look for connections and experiences that they can relate to on a personal level. Brands therefore need to tell a story and make themselves more human. Bridget Brenan concurs, "Storytelling is one of the most powerful techniques for creating an emotional connection with women."

3. Talk her language:
Encourage a conversation and be authentic in what you say. Women respect brands that are open and honest with them and are happy to disclose feelings and vulnerabilities, while men often prefer to hide both. However, brands that are more genuine and straight talking create a different frame for conversation by reducing barriers to both sexes.

4. Think intuitive design:
Women join the dots fast. They are the most discerning consumers with a greater capability to appreciate design, and quickly assimilate messages and brand intent. This gives you great creative licence and means you can, and should be braver with your design. A powerful image can create a magical emotional connection, as well as being more convincing than a list of product features. Take Huggies nappies which, with just one beautiful image, tap into mum's raw emotional bond and desire to nurture and protect her new born baby.

5. Take an holistic approach:

Women's buying behaviour is a lot more complex than men's. For instance, on average women research 10 sources of information before buying a product (versus two for men). Packaging design plays an important part in their buying decisions. Therefore it's important to take an holistic approach that creates great opportunities for your product and packaging to stand out.
It's not just about shape, texture, colour and design. Women are looking for features and information. By understanding your audience, building relationships and adding meaningful details you can differentiate from the competition. If you demonstrate how the product can enhance her life, - then your packaging will naturally be compelling and stand out on shelf.

But does better design for women mean bad design for men?

Redshoe's mission is to find distinct ways of speaking directly to women and the good news is that in our experience if you can do this effectively, you'll also attract men.

As the most demanding, discerning and decision making of consumers, women are the catalyst for creating great brand experiences for everyone. Men and women's brains work differently. As a result women have a higher verbal fluency, a better memory of details and can take in more visual information. This higher bandwith allows us to raise the bar when it comes to design for women. However, these improvements for women don't result in a detrimental effect for men. The launch of Apple iPod is a classic example of improved aesthetic design that engaged a much broader audience by raising the bar of typical technology packaging.

By putting packaging through a 'female lens' and adopting a more thoughtful and nuanced approach it is possible to develop 'bilingual' creative responses that will also appeal to men - so doubling the potential marketplace.