In preparation for 2020 trends, many of our clients began to comply by adding new products and updating current formulas to meet customer expectations. One trending category we saw a focus on was the everyday snacks. Sprouts Farmers Market, for example, decided to introduce Grain Free Tortilla Chips to some of their snack shelves alongside brands like Siete, Garden of Eatin’ and The Real Coconut. Ingredients like cassava flour and coconut flour stand strong as healthy replacements for the standard grain bleached flour, wheat and barley. Smart and Final added to their Sun Harvest brand by introducing coconut flour as another way to reinforce the variety of options consumers have as trends change. Simply including or substituting these new ingredients isn’t enough to convince shoppers that the product is worth buying. That’s where we at Marketing by Design (MBD) come in!

Product packaging tells the product’s story and sets an expectation for what the food experience will be like. Going back to the Grain Free Tortilla Chips for example, our team worked hard to research many brands that helped inspire us to create the new packaging, reflecting 2020’s trends, for this new product. Details like bright captivating colors, strong flavor rich photography and informative claims are all important when communicating the product’s personality. Since MBD had four flavors of those new chips to work with, you can imagine the team had a lot of fun with the designs.

Another category we saw changes in this year was desserts. Plant-based products have been booming and while there are great plant-based alternatives to Dairy, they will never replace the entire industry. In 2019, Sprouts Farmers Market and 7-11 added products like Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts to their shelves. Both products have multiple unique flavor recipes made up of rich ingredients that appeal to those shoppers looking for a guilt-free belly-happy dessert.

When working on the designs for these desserts, we focused on fun colors and decadent imagery to express the various flavors that each brand had to offer. In addition to those elements, an on trend change across the packaging for these alternatives is creatively emphasizing that the product is a dairy free option. Calling attention to that on the packaging is an important part of communicating the product’s personality. Another element important to communicating trends and industry shifts is the romance copy. Romance copy, a description about the product typically added to most packaging, truly is an opportunity to tell a short story for a consumer to read. It should be powerful, concise and enticing, acting as another way to encourage shoppers to try something new and on trend.

Many brands look to revamp old products and add new products to their shelves and we’re lucky enough to work with our clients to help make those products come to life. Our team at MBD is constantly searching for new trends, so it’s important that when we do notice a new shift in the industry, we communicate it with our clients and advise them with the best creative options to highlight and execute those changes.

2020 is projected to be a very sustainable year in the product packaging industry. We are expecting great change in packaging materials, in product ingredients & claims and in the way trends continue to be communicated creatively to consumers.