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The power of the 'aesthetic imperative'

The best packages compel consumers to sense the pleasure in using the product, giving them space to personalize meaning and build relevance. Here are four examples.

Color, graphics, and a functional product take women into a world of personal discovery. This connection between brand and consu
Color, graphics, and a functional product take women into a world of personal discovery. This connection between brand and consu

The best package designs communicate so effectively on a sensual and emotional level that a consumer can’t help but pick them up. The package lends the product inside a special beauty all its own. In the process, consumers are drawn to the product because the packaging makes them feel as if it’s just for them.

Virginia Postrel, author of the Substance of Style, calls this relationship between the consumer and the package the “aesthetic imperative.” She says that a new emphasis on aesthetic value is reshaping commerce, culture, and consciousness. In package design, she says, this trend is bringing about a shift toward packaging that:

• Communicates through the senses, creating reactions without words.

• Shows rather than tells and delights rather than instructs.

• Has immediate emotional effects, rather than cognitive effects. “You just feel it.”

The consumer feels pleasure and out of that pleasure comes meaning, Postrel explains. “I like that” becomes “I’m like that.”

“The point is not what style you use, it’s that style you use,” she says. “Take something functional and through design, create pleasure through which consumers can derive meaning.”

Following are four packages, from different product categories, that reflect the “aesthetic imperative” thinking that Postrel speaks of, in the quest to increase brand sales.

1. Venus owns a position

Mary Ann Pesce, president of the Gillette Co.’s Personal Care Group, believes that the marketing strategy behind any great brand should respect the brand’s consumers, understand their aspirations, and give them what they want.

Pesce should know. She has been a driving force behind the launch and growth of Venus, Gillette’s shaving system for women. The brand has achieved 26% annual growth and exceeded $500 million in sales.

Superior performance is fundamental to any successful product. But the right packaging, Pesce says, is essential to transforming a product into a brand and creating a compelling and ownable position in the market. Gillette gained these insights through extensive discussions with women. Where men treat shaving as a simple daily ritual, women view it as a process of discovery that, Pesce says, “could resonate with every woman and make her feel her best.”

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