Recently a colleague and I studied the packages of 13 brands of ice cream in store environments. We compared the packages individually as well as en masse in the freezer cases.
Here’s what we found: The higher priced brands featured:
- Consistent design throughout all lines: premium, light, no sugar added, fat-free, slow-churned, yogurt, co-branded, seasonal, etc.
- Consistent signature brand elements: icons, colors, flavor ribbons, etc. Examples: Breyers’ green leaf, Edy’s brown-and-white striped rim
- Large logos
- Small or no photos of ice cream
- Subtle design differentiation between lines
- Subtle flavor callouts
- Subtle category callout: “ice cream”
The lower priced commodities featured:
- Inconsistent design throughout all lines
- No signature brand elements
- Small logos
- Large photos of ice cream
- Bold design differentiation between lines
- Bold flavor callouts
- Bold category callout: “ice cream”
Our conclusions: Higher-priced brands promote the brand prominently on the packaging for quick recognition. The line, flavor and category are almost an afterthought. Presumably, their customers are brand-loyal and look for the distinctive packaging first before selecting a flavor. The commodity ice creams scream flavor prominently, apparently attempting to attract customers away from the other lower-priced options.
When buying ice cream, which do you shop for first? Brand, flavor, price, or line (e.g., fat-free or slow-churned)?
