In August 2026, brands are more focused on their product packaging rather than launching a new product in the market. Ahead of London Packaging Week, experts from Bulletproof, Distinctive BAT, Free The Birds, Here, PA Consulting, Stranger & Stranger and Villeger explain what that means for the brands designing for lasting loyalty.
Today, social media platforms and various other methods help consumers get acquainted with a product, which makes them familiar with it instead of spotting it on a shelf for the first time, as they have already encountered it through advertising, social media, reviews, or recommendations. Hence, today brands prefer to work on their packaging more instead of introducing a product. The packaging is not simply judged by whether it captures attention, but by whether it confirms everything the brand has already promised.
Beth Drummond, creative director at Bulletproof, believes keeping promises is one of the defining challenges facing today’s packaging designers.
“The second look isn’t won on the shelf. It’s earned long before the consumer gets there. Great packaging acts as the final confirmation in that journey, not the opening introduction.”
If packaging today has to prove its worth, then it can also be stated as the one holding the responsibility of changing the role of design itself. Design is no longer simply responsible for attracting attention. It also shapes how consumers perceive value before they’ve even experienced the product.
Andrea Battello Hung, design director at Stranger & Stranger, believes that is where genuine innovation begins. “Innovation is about shifting perspective. The most powerful innovations are the ones that make us think, ‘Of course. Why hasn’t it always been done this way?’ Design is not decoration. It’s a way of changing the perception of value.”
Vincent Villeger believes the packaging that continues to earn consumers’ confidence is rarely the packaging that chases fashion.
“Timelessness is key, and it’s why it’s so central to my practice. Design features that are too specifically anchored in a particular time or trend might appeal at first, but lasting power comes from how honestly the design expresses the brand’s values. Packaging is about expressing the underlying constants.”
For decades, packaging was treated as the one whose ability would be judged to stand out from the crowd, and while that still matters, a different set of questions now take over once a consumer picks up a product. Hence, packaging is majorly considered a shift that’s increasingly shaping conversations across the industry, including in the Design Hub at London Packaging Week.
Packaging has a huge responsibility of attracting consumers as well as maintaining their trust. Cathal Gillen, co-founder and head of strategy at Distinctive BAT, believes that brands often state packaging as a mode of communication between the product and the consumer, but in case of a real encounter, there are certain questions revolving around design.
“For the first glance, distinctiveness and stand-out are key. These are the key metrics that help brands win,” explains Gillen. “For the second glance, it’s down to understanding the category codes very well and the most important messaging relevant to that category and brand.”
A product passes certain stages of attention, grabbed with the help of packaging. The first glance is specified on attention; the second one is the stage that helps a consumer decide whether the quality, sustainability, and experience justify the promise. As Gillen observes, “The challenge is that both these areas can be muddied, and often what works well for the first glance doesn’t for the second, and vice versa.”
Jamie Stone, packaging expert at PA Consulting, observes the same progression with the help of marketing concepts of the First and Second Moments of Truth. Grabbing consumer attention is essential, but continued success depends on what happens once consumers begin living with the product.
“Winning the First Moment of Truth (FMOT) remains critical,” says Stone. “If a product isn’t noticed or desired, it won’t be bought. But standout design only gets you the initial purchase. The Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) – the experience of actually using the product – is key to driving repurchase.”
Such issues have become more complex online. Between clicking “buy” and receiving the parcel, consumers are left with nothing but anticipation and expectation. Villeger also believes that packaging plays a vital role in closing that gulf. “There’s a gap between placing the order and receiving the goods. That can create a vacuum in which doubt settles in. The role of packaging is to place the customer back in the frame of mind they were in at the moment of purchase. To provide validation.”
As Battello Hung puts it, “Creativity isn’t about making a product look better. It’s about making it more desirable.”
10 September 2026
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