Less is More & The Power of Communication

Your brand, like people, can give off the wrong vibes if you’re constantly stating every fact, claim and communication in the hopes of attracting attention. Ironically, it’s the best way to repel people.

While every brand has an embarrassment of riches - stories to tell, truths to proclaim, accreditations to share - the most successful ones understand their audience, what they care about the most and tailor the messaging with restraint to their advantage. The more claims a brand makes, the more meaningless they all become. It shows a lack of brand confidence and a lack of understanding of their target audience.

Communication strategies and communication hierarchies, are tools meant to whittle down the treasure trove of communications to the most essential and powerful pieces. A good rule of thumb is to feature no more than 3 master claims on the front of any package. 

When we redesigned GoodPop, they had 10 different pieces of communication on the front of their pack; vegan, gluten free, dairy free, calories, non-gmo, real wholesome ingredients, coconut cream and orange juice, non-gmo, 4 pops, flavor name. Phew!

Our redesign helped refocus their communication strategy and emphasize only what mattered most; Dairy Free, 90 Calories, Fair Trade Ingredients, USDA Organic. 

Country Archer’s packaging, before we redesigned it, buried their lead claim of 100% Grass Fed Beef, overemphasized the product identifier (beef jerky) and treated calories, protein and fat all the same which diminished each of their impacts. Our work rebalanced their claims and highlighted that which mattered most and minimized all the other elements.

In our work with Diana’s, we took the visual emphasis off the claims, which in many ways competed with the product photography, and reordered the visual hierarchy so that the product imagery and flavor name took center stage while consolidating our 3 hero claims (GF, Calories & flavor romance) to the bottom to support the overall proposition.

All of these brands were widely successful after adjusting their communication strategies and hierarchies. The refined approaches made them more potent with first-time buyers and created more loyal purchases. It’s a testament that if you truly know your audience well, you’ll know which claims matter the most to them—and reap the rewards. 

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