Eroding Brand Equity with Design. Frequent Design Changes Not Always for The Better.
Package Design Magazine asks Lemley for editorial on the redesign of PAM Cooking Spray packaging.
In the article, Lemley States, “Many times packaging updates are handled as knee-jerk reactions to marketplace performance and competition. The keys to managing frequent updates are to have strict, powerful, authentic (uniquely ownable) brand and packaging standards in-place prior to needing an update.
I do think the industry is entering a new era of frequent lateral design updates. I am not sure this is good for anyone except packaging design firms and the brand managers who are looking for a short term needle movement. Often the design details are trendy which ensures that they will need to be updated again as soon as the style changes.
The PAM update is nice; and yet, it’s also a good example of design eliminating consumer-centric point of sale relevance in the process of attempting to be optically pleasing. I suppose that PAM has enough brand equity in the non-stick coating spray category to forego showcasing what it is and how it benefits the consumer, but I would want to see data to prove this before modernizing anything, particularly the logo.”
View the entire forum here.