Design: No Laughing Matter

Picture this: Acquaintances from across the road drop in suddenly. You offer them hospitality; in true Indian tradition they say, “Kuch Nahi” (nothing, please). This is your cue. You dip into the cabinet and pull out, what else, but a bottle of excellently brewed Kuch Nahi. The contents of the bottle would be immaterial. The packaging label will steal the moment. This is just what an enterprising Sikh in UK has done by creating a bottle of Kuch Nahi. An excellent example of witty packaging designed to cross shelf positioning barriers. In the conventional hierarchy of brands placed on shelves according to their quality, price and pecking orders a product packaged in humour will easily find a special place in anyone’s mind. Marketers have always known in their guts that customers have an emotional response (feeling) much before they make rational decisions (think) towards a product purchase decision. In branding terms this emotional appeal is called engagement or ‘connecting.’ In a social context it is the equivalent of a shared smile, a witty exchange or…

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