Ever since Kotler’s famous ‘4P’s of marketing’, packaging has always been seen as a poor cousin to product in the marketing mix. And since packaging has often been the domain of technical experts, not marketers, it’s focus has been largely functional – to wrap the product, protect its contents, mark its uniqueness and seek attention on shelf. In essence, packaging evolved as a ‘beautiful gift wrap’ to adorn the ultimate brand hero, the product.
Seen through a System-1 frame, however, packaging deserves to be reimagined. Whether consumers see a brand’s advertising or not, they surely touch and feel the pack every time they use the brand. Packaging hence needs to be actively managed and leveraged with all the creativity we as marketers can muster.
The following quote, attributed to Antonio Damasio, invites us to imagine packaging differently. If the pack is your brand’s ‘frontier touchpoint’, we should design each encounter with it for maximum impact. And to address “feeling creatures that think”, marketers must design packs to address how we feel. Tomorrow’s iconic packs will need to be imagined as sensorial systems, not just beautiful containers. Brands will orchestrate sight, touch, sound, smell and even taste cues to prime expectations, deliver experiences and justify premiums. Let’s take each sense in turn.
“WE ARE NOT THINKING CREATURES THAT FEEL, WE ARE FEELING CREATURES THAT THINK”
Post by Prasad Narasimhan, Managing Partner based in Bangalore, India
1. SIGHT
- Coca‑Cola’s bottle with its distinctive silhouette, colours & iconography is instantly recognized anywhere.
- Tiffany’s signature box & white ribbon is a visual “promise of luxury”, a ritual as special as the product.
- Method’s design-forward bottles make even cleaning products feel like lifestyle objects.
- Paper Boat’s packs hark evoke nostalgia – in line with its tagline of “Drinks & Memories”.
2. TOUCH
Haptics often close the sale. We unconsciously use weight, grip, temperature, softness and texture to decide if a product is premium, natural, safe, or techy. Packs today deliberately program touch to match positioning; from velvet-matte for indulgence to rigid, cool metals for performance.
- Apple’s slow, friction-controlled unboxing is engineered to feel premium and even ceremonial
- Skinn sports glass jars, cool-to-touch finishes and subtle embossing to make product feel luxurious.
- Nespresso’s metallic pods and matte-finish sleeves signal luxury and precision.
- Pringles canister’s cylindrical form and the “stack” ritual are tactile signatures.
3. SOUND
Sound as a sense is massively underused as we have posted on here. The crack, fizz, snap and rustle become branded “audio cues” that signal freshness, indulgence, or sustainability. Brands are learning to treat sound in packaging as deliberately as they’ve used fonts – engineered owned.
- Moët’s champagne cork pop plus subsequent fizz is an audio shortcut to celebration.
- Pepsi’s carbonation “pssst” and fizz instantly reinforce coldness and refreshment.
- Kit Kat bar’s snap underlines the brand’s promise of a break, now a brand asset in itself.
- Lay’s engineers the loud crinkle of the bag to signal indulgence and freshness.
4. SMELL
Smell is so hardwired to memory and emotion, it is almost reptilian. This makes it a powerful tool for brands that use smell deliberately to preview product experience, reinforce freshness, or to create a signature scent, be it in-store or in-home.
- Axe body spray packs use atomizers, scratch & sniff labels so shoppers can sample without full use.
- Lenor Unstoppables detergent uses micro-scent release around caps/lids to build an olfactory signature.
- Several coffee brands now use one-way valves to let out roasted aroma but keep oxygen out.
- Body Works installs strong scents around secondary packaging to make smell the primary “interface’, with pack graphics merely guiding choice.
5. TASTE
Packaging can prime taste expectations, guide portioning, and sometimes even be edible. Foods brands of tomorrow could even treat the pack as a “pre-taste” device; shaping how intense, creamy, crunchy or healthy the product feels before it even touches the tongue.
- Toblerone’s triangles and portioning guide bite size and breaking ritual, which in turn shapes perceived indulgence and shareability.
- Babybel’s wax-peeling ritual builds anticipation & slows consumption, making it feel more snackable.
- Minute Maid’s colours, visible pulp and condensing liquid prime sweetness and refreshment perceptions.
- Edible/near-edible packaging: Several brands are experimenting with taste-integrated packaging.
ORCHESTRATE PACKS FOR ALL FIVE SENSES
In conclusion, brands of the future can do more than just ‘tick off’ the five senses individually. They can instead choreograph them into one coherent brand moment, where each cue says the same thing in a different language. This is the stuff of truer memory structures, richer social currency.
The holy grail could be to covey a singular message across senses, to which each cue is aligned. e.g., Coke stands for “refreshing, uplifting classic,” – where its fizz cues refreshing, its taste uplifts with each sip, and its bottle & iconography shout classic. And of course, these sensorial codes (Distinctive Brand Assets) could repeat across consumer touch points – in ads, in-store, on social and in the pack itself, multiplying mental availability.
Here is a 5-step approach to orchestrate packs for all 5 senses:
Start with a brand’s core promise: one short phrase you want consumers to feel – e.g., “playful indulgence”, “clinical performance”, “the luxury of simplicity”, “reassured clean” – and imagine how each sensorial ‘lane’ drives to the same destination.
Plot the brand’s sensory journey: shelf sight, first touch, opening sound, first whiff, first taste, and even the sound/feel of closing or discarding – design each “beat” deliberately.
Build ownability: A signature opening sound, signature texture, signature fragrance, signature unboxing ritual.
Use senses to encode emotion: energy, luxury, comfort, playfulness, freshness, nostalgia…
Sensorial consistency across formats: Primary/secondary pack, e-Com unboxing, refill systems, in-store display
