Week 2 - How does packaging indicate brand value?

T2 tea vs Lipton tea

T2 is a tea that thousands of people start and end the day with. T2 have stores all over the world including; 65 stores in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and America. It is Australias leading tea retailer, offering the countries largest range of premium, fragrant tea and tea wares from all around the globe. A select range of T2 teas are also served in some restaurants and cafes throughout Australia, while packaged T2 can also be found on the shelves of leading food purveyors. The iconic brand is beautifully packaged up in an experience that is both unique and immersive; a celebration of the centuries-old art of tea making. 

Lipton tea is the tea that is positioned in the middle of the price spectrum. Lipton teas are a blend selected from many different plantations around the world. The Lipton Yellow Label is blended from as many as as 20 different teas. Apart from the Lipton Ice Tea, none of their products are available fro retail in the United Kingdom, as only caterers are supplied. 

What colours, typefaces, graphics does the company use on the packaging? What does this say about the value of the product?

T2 uses brightly coloured packaging, ranging from blue to orange. Orange is the main colour they use for their packaging because its extremely bright and fun. The typeface used on their packaging is a sans serif, bold. They use the heavy weight just for the "T2" writing than as you move down the writing gets lighter in weight and smaller in size but the typeface stays the same. The packaging does not have images or pictures it sticks to just text, this is because their packaging is so bright that there is no need to have graphics, as it will overload the design. As well as the orange boxes as their main packaging, they also have orange paper carry bags. These are used because its easier to carry than a box. They only have "T2" written on them in white. They also have gift wrapping. The gift paper changes all the time as it represents the look they are going for at that time. The last packaging they have is a black bag with the coloured label on it. This bag is like a zip lock back that you can refill your tins with. The colour of the labels determine what flavour the tea is. The packaging that T2 uses shows us that they are encouraged by their target users. Using bright colours attracts the eye of so many people. When a brand takes the time to get their packaging and designs perfect you can tell that thats only half the energy that they put into the products themselves. The beautifully designed packaging tells us that the T2 produces care about the way people view there products, and when products look good, the people straight away believe the value of the products are of high standards. 

Lipton tea uses bright yellow for their packaging, with touches of red and green to add some effects. The logo typeface used on their packaging is a serif, bold, than on the rest of the packaging they use a san serif typeface thats smaller in weight. This packaging is quite different to T2, as Lipton has graphics on their packaging. To start with they have their logo, than they have a picture of a clear tea cup with green leaves situated next to it. This graphic i think it great for packaging as straight away we can tell it is a tea brand. The packaging that Lipton tea uses shows us that they have gone with a simple look, but also gone with a look that many other tea brands go for. The graphics used are very popular with other brands so it puts them in a category with them, and not one by itself which is what you want. Using the bright yellow attracts the eyes of people too which is a great marketing strategy. Because the Lipton tea brand only has one type of packaging it shows that the company has not put too much effort into there designs so it could mean that they don't value their product as much as other companies do to their own. The beautiful yellow does make a statement but since they haven't thought too much of their packaging people might steer clear from that brand and be pushed towards a different company that has thought of everything. 

What materials are used in the packaging (ie. card stock, foils, specialty papers, print treatments)? What do the materials tell you about the product value?

T2 simply uses cardboard boxes as their main type of packaging. They have sticky labels that are than stuck onto the boxes to tell you what the product is. The labels have a glossy finish and are very smooth. The boxes themselves are also smooth. With the orange paper bags, they are the same materials used with brown paper bags, just much more sturdy. The tea refills have a matte finish to the outside and have a foil inside, to keep the loose leaf tea fresh. Inside the cardboard boxes the loose leaf tea is wrapped in a clear plastic air tight bag, this is to keep the tea fresh and does not make a mess. The materials used for the packaging of their products are quite reasonable. They use these materials for a reason, and they show their audience that the care for their products by simply looking after the tea itself in safe bags and boxes. The materials show the target audience that the value of their products are of high standards because they are all bagged up and packaged perfectly so nothing can go wrong. 

Lipton tea uses a cardboard box as their packaging. The cardboard box has the Lipton logo on it which has been printed into the cardboard, along with all the other writing and the graphics. The cardboard box has the colours on the outside but inside is just your typical brown cardboard box look. Inside the cardboard box their are tea bags and they are all sitting side by side with no extra wrapping. The only thing that is keeping them fresh is the cardboard box itself. The cardboard box shows that the packaging is sturdy but when opening the box, the value of the product drops massively as their is no other protection for the tea bags. This decreases the value of any product if the packaging is not correct. 

This is my mood board for my brand and product.

The brand I want to create is a home decor brand. I like to have a broad range of items to be able to work with. The product I would like to create is a range of candles.

Candles are something I use and enjoy using, they relax the body and can make the home look beautiful. Another reason for choosing candles is that every household has them/needs them and they are always very popular at the markets. Families use them for either design or practical use. So since ill be having such a broad market, I feel confident my candles will sell.

I will design multiple candles, all shapes and sizes. They will have different techniques used on them, for example, some would be painted on and some would be engraved. Using different techniques shows the audience I have put lots of time and effort into them and will make them feel confident in buying my products. 

I will call my company something similar to "Elegance" as i want my home decor items, and candles to be beautiful and elegant. This is the type of logo I would use for my brand identity for my candle brand. The typeface which is a cursive typeface works well with the home decor theme. Cursive typefaces are flowing and soft just like a home should be.