Guy Douglass, md of packaging design consultancy Brand on Shelf (BOS), was dismissive of the view that, with tighter budgets, it makes little sense to pay for redesigns that the consumer might not even notice.
"We do a lot of work for Asda," he said. "They want to balance all the talk about value with increased quality perceptions, and you don't achieve that by cutting back on design and print."
BOS helped to shape parts of Asda's 'Chosen by You' range, its revamped own-label offering spanning 3,500 different products, relaunched in September. According to Asda, 500 of the products were new and a further 1,000 reformulated.
At Perception Research Services (PRS) International, a global consumer research firm, executive vice president Joe Schurtz believes retailer attitudes to own-label branding began to shift around five years ago. "They recognised that packaging can be a strategic tool for them, too. It can make an economy range look less expensive, or it can make a premium range look like a credible branded alternative."
One theory is that packaging and branding are becoming less important as online shopping takes a larger share of total sales. "Of course, online is growing," said BOS's Douglass. "But it still has only around 5% of grocery sales."
Schurtz at PRS believes that instore sales are likely to remain the basis of most retailers' business models.
To a great extent, this is explained by the value of impulse sales, said Schurtz, an area where packaging plays a critical role. "On average, shoppers enter a store planning to buy 10 items, and, on average, come out with 19," he added.