Do you recognize these perfume bottles?
© Merve LindloffActually, too many more or less beautifully packaged fragrances are flooding us, so that one could notice everyone - for women alone more than 200 new perfumes appear each year. "In order to find our way around, we have to select, and that works above all through the look", says Johannes Schneider from "decode" in Wiesbaden, one of the most respected marketing agencies in Germany.
In most cases it is the packaging that gets us. To about 80 percent, carefully estimated. Outward appearances give orientation and make life easier. But the fact that one recognizes certain forms at some point automatically, we owe to another simplification tendency of our brain: "It follows so-called diagnostic cues, just color or shape, and puts them in fractions of a second together." Is the sum, we recognize certain products already on the outline "says brand strategist and advertising psychologist Schneider. And: "If we then see certain elements over and over again in a certain context, a pattern can build up in the brain." So a Chanel vial becomes a personal pictogram for: Perfume Department. And, alas, someone changes the familiar shape or even fills the fragrance in the bottle of the competition. Even connoisseurs can be guided by the fine nose - they can not even crawl out their favorite fragrance.
The so-called "reliability of form", as the design experts call, is a guarantee to be included in the Hall of Fame of our memory. And changes, such as to be more modern, must be minimal, otherwise the custom-forged connection breaks apart. This happened to an orange juice manufacturer, for example, who lost several million euros within eight weeks due to a change of packaging - and quickly revived the old design.
The "Same same but different" strategy of the annually re-printed bottle torso of Jean Paul Gaultier's perfume works better - some are coveted collector's items. Another good reason for look-fidelity: For each new bottle (casting) molds have to be made, which is very complex and expensive. Also the luxury of profiling in advance lavishly on prototypes, as design legend Pierre Dinand, the u. a. designed the "Opium" bottle, no manufacturer indulges today. The maestro sometimes needed over a hundred designs to find the ideal shape and color. Today, only about three months remain for the entire design process, until an odor comes on the market, an average of one year passes.
If this creates a classic, fine. But how do you create one? Above all, he must be memorable, yes. But is not it all too clichéd when a Dita Von Teese bottle plays with black tassels with which the burlesque artist is associated? "People love clichés, it works," says Andrea Brandt. You designed u. a. Flakons and is owner of the Hamburg agency "Donkey". But if such a bottle for eternity is good? The expert: "Do not make anything too complicated." My formula for a classic: Create a timeless projection surface, and if the scent is right, you can memorize it and recognize it from a distance. "
