An Interview with John Silva, The DuPuis Group

In his recently published book Package Design Workbook, John Silva, Vice President and Creative Director at The DuPuis Group, considers the entire process of creating a consumer package from top-line strategic innovations to printing processes. Here he talks about the antidote to design commoditization, how the science of research and statistics alone will never produce a real competitive advantage, and which marketing tool is the only one that reaches 100% of a brand's consumers (care to guess?).

A quick Amazon search for "packaging design" turned up 1,173 books. I'll ask you what your agency, The DuPuis Group asks your clients: what makes yours different from the competition?
Many packaging books address a specific packaging discipline, form, or technology. My business partner, Steven DuPuis and I address the whole process, focusing on the collaboration of art and science that needs to occur for packaging to be truly successful. Marketers and package designers share a common goal--to strengthen a brand's connection with the consumer by creating heightened trust and an increase in market share. Our book helps navigate the challenges and opportunities in that process and celebrates great packaging from around the world that has achieved its purpose.

Your book contains extensive information about the package design process--why give it away? Aren't you creating competition for yourself?
If sharing our approach and process helps marketers, packaging managers, students, and yes, other designers understand how all our disciplines must work together to succeed, then we all win. Steven and I both feel strongly that design has become commoditized over time, eventually relegated as a line item expense. It's up to us in the trade to express our vitality and reinforce our role in the strategic process as an investment that can return in vast multiples. Besides, sharing our process in a book of any depth cannot possibly give away the core of own brand; our people and the manner in which we apply our craft.

What advice would you give a consumer goods company concerned with staying competitive in an over-cluttered marketplace?
Beware the parity line--it's the invisible ceiling that is made of proof and an absence of risk. By proof, I mean demanding concrete validation that what you are about to do is guaranteed to be safe. And by absence of risk, I mean making decisions based first on what you have to lose rather than what you have to gain. But the truth is that the pursuit of safety leads to common, expected results. When choosing the path for a brand I advise partners to enhance their research and data with creativity and instinct. Remember: breakthrough ideas come from vision and boldness, not just data and measurement.

In a market that is demanding sustainability from business, is it the role of the designer or client to ensure the best choices are made?
Designers have the opportunity and shared responsibility to bring earth-friendly options and techniques to the table. However, most real sustainability measures require additional cost, capital outlay or other adjustments within the supply chain -- such change needs to be within the clients' will and larger objectives.

Talk about a project that went wrong, that lead to a key insight you relay in the book.
Any wisdom you find in our book is likely the product of some failed endeavor or intention gone wrong. Anyone who claims wisdom otherwise is either naive or lying. One key insight that sprung from a less than positive experience is understanding the immense role of packaging on brands. Packaging is the only marketing tool that reaches 100% of a brand's consumers and plays a pivotal role in up to 80% of their buying decisions. It is arguably the most strategic consumer touch point a consumer packaging goods company has in its tool box and should be budgeted for accordingly.

Another is the importance of brand stewardship through final print production. We have seen cost-saving measures such as cheaper substrate choices, sub-standard print options or weak quality assurance erode or even destroy the impact of what gets delivered to the shelf. The consumer will respond viscerally to your package and does care about your intentions.

There's no consumer experience more overwhelming than shopping for wine--aisles of choices, identical bottles, and little knowledge about the product itself. This is the perfect consumer storm. Packaging is often the only differentiator for the everyday shopper. As a packaging designer, what informs your choice as you stand in the wine aisle?
I have 3 kids and I know they will do or wear outlandish things to get attention. But how they appear on the outside is not always reflective of their true self--what's inside. Similarly, I am not easily convinced that a bottle of wine with attention-getting visuals (akin to my son dying his hair purple) is what it pretends to be. I may be stopped by a outlandish label and appreciate it as eye candy, but I also look for signs of what's real; vintner, varietal, age, and type of closure for example. Show and tell me who you really are in an authentic way and I'm more likely to be sold.

JOSH LEVINE has been helping build powerful brands for over ten years. He launched his company The Matter Collaborative to help creative entrepreneurs build business by increasing their value to clients through positioning, messaging, and innovation. Find out more at abiggerfuture.com