What Makes a Good Packaging Brief?
The 5 Most Important Questions Before Starting a Packaging Design Project
These are the questions we ask in every briefing conversation. Because experience shows that what is clarified at the beginning often saves a great deal of time later – and avoids unnecessary debates about personal taste.
A good packaging brief should clarify, above all, what problem the new design needs to solve, which brand assets should be retained, what competitive environment the packaging needs to succeed in, what shoppers need to see and understand first, and how success will be measured.
Answering these questions upfront creates a much stronger basis for design decisions later in the process – and helps keep subjective discussions about what simply “looks better” to a minimum.
What problem does the design need to solve?
Is the brand not visible enough? Is it attracting the wrong target group? Is the positioning unclear? Is the range difficult to navigate? Is the product moving from D2C into retail?
The popular answer “it just needs to look more modern” is not enough.
What must not change?
Colour, logo, shape, typography, illustration style: which elements have already become Distinctive Brand Assets?
These should not be modernised lightly. Changing established brand assets can come at the expense of recognition and brand equity.
Where – and against whom – does the packaging need to win?
We do not just want to know who the main competitors are. We also need to understand the specific environment in which the packaging has to perform – whether that is the chilled aisle, a discount retailer or an online shop.
This allows us to analyse the relevant category codes and identify where the brand should fit in – and where it needs to stand out.
What does the shopper need to see and understand first?
The brand? The product? The variant? The benefit? Taste appeal? Functionality?
This is one of our favourite topics, because almost every brand has a lot it wants to say. But ten equally prominent messages do not create effective packaging. They create a visual search puzzle.
A clear information hierarchy is therefore essential.
How will we measure success?
What should the new design actually achieve?
Greater visibility? Easier navigation? Stronger brand recognition? Improved brand attributes? Higher sales?
Defining success criteria before the design process begins makes it much easier to assess later whether the redesign has actually solved the problem it was intended to solve.
When is a packaging brief not enough?
If the question “What does the brand stand for?” is still unanswered – which is more common than you might think – then the project should start with brand strategy, not design.
Because design can bring a positioning to life. It cannot replace one.
Hopefully, these five questions provide some useful inspiration for your next packaging brief.
---
LinkedIn Post: 21.10.2026 by Katja Wagner
Comments