26 June 2012

Short-run printed packaging; a supermarket odyssey – part 4

After one week of my “study” into the ever-changing world of packaging in UK supermarkets this summer, it's clear there's a big push on taking advantage of British sentiment, with themed packaging in most product categories.

Cleaning products, boxed meals, picnic food, treats, desserts, alcoholic drinks and soft drinks have all been treated to a lick of paint on their packaging, using the Union Flag as the central theme.

With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and London 2012 Olympic Games highlights of this summer's festivities, it's evidently an ideal time for brands to capitalize on patriotism amongst Brits.

This week has seen the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships and the England football team's exit from the Euro 2012 football tournament.

The Union Flag theme will carry over into the tennis, bridging the gap between the Jubilee celebrations and the start of the Olympics on July 27.

There was quite a short time lag between England's loss to Italy and my shopping trip on Monday (June 25), and there was plenty of support for the Three Lions still visible on the shelves despite the defeat.

For instance, the England salad bags photographed on June 18 and featured in part one of this blog series, were still on show.

They'd moved from the bottom shelf in the salad fridge to eye-level, so I presume the success of winning the group on June 19 with victory over Ukraine and the hope of BBQs aplenty ahead of the Italy game on Sunday evening led Morrisons to give the product more prominence.

Carslberg, McCoy's and KitKat still had their football packaging on show, although the latter two feature generic competitions to catch consumers' attention.

McCoy's is also co-promoting a darts competition; an astute move given the England football team's recent performances in major tournaments, notably the Euros. I'd expect to see the football side of the promotion fade away as the Euro 2012 tournament closes on Sunday.

It'll be interesting to see how much of a push the Team GB Olympic football team receives on packaging in the next weeks.

It's the first time Great Britain has entered a united team at an Olympic Games, and is sure to give brands another opportunity to capture shopper sentiment as the summer progresses.

Don’t forget you can contribute to this photo blog by taking a picture, wherever you are in the world, of short-run printed packaging, or of generally interesting, exciting and unique packaging examples, and posting them on Twitter mentioning @D_Pittman_PPW and #packageprinting.

Even if you’re not on Twitter, I’d still like to hear from you and see what you see on the shelves and down the aisles of grocery stores, supermarkets or other retailers near to you. Email your photos to dpittman@packprintworld.com.