Great packaging doesn't happen by accident. It starts with asking the right questions, in the right order - before a single design gets made.
Too many brands still redesign packaging by jumping straight into design: a moodboard, a few references, a prettier label, a subjective debate about colours. But packaging is the most important brand asset in FMCG. It's seen at the moment of purchase, it has to work in seconds, and it has to communicate brand, product, benefit, flavour, format and price - all while sitting next to 40 competitors trying to do the same thing.
This checklist gives you the process - from commercial brief to shelf-ready system - so your next redesign, relaunch or range refresh is built on strategy, not a creative gamble.
Inside, you'll walk through the seven steps:
1. Define the commercial job
2. Understand the shelf you're playing on
3. Build the design strategy before the design
4. Develop creative routes with a clear job to do
5. Validate the work before you bet the launch on it
6. Refine for shelf, production and rollout
7. Launch, learn and keep optimising
Built by Mind Control - packaging and brand specialists - and Stickybeak, the consumer insights platform built for FMCG brands. Between us, we've seen what separates packaging that wins on shelf from packaging that just looks good in a deck.
Because packaging that only looks good in a presentation isn't enough. It has to work in the real world.
