Consumer brands are being squeezed on two sides, by

• The generics and own-labels, and by

• The counterfeiters

And an increasing number of savvy-shoppers are deciding that brands are not worth the premium over own-label and value brands.

What can brands do?

They can fight back with deeper insight into consumer real needs and treat the packaging around the product as a key differentiating factor. Packaging that does more - that has functionality in tune with the aspirations and lifestyle of the typical brand buyer. What more brilliant example than Toilet Duck (figure 1).

Tinkering with brand design via graphics brand make-over is a dangerous business yet is the first response to rejuvenate a brand. Frequently it results in an early incremental increase in market share which quickly is eroded once consumers realise it's the same old product.

Clever design is the start of smart packaging - giving a product enhanced functionality with little complexity apart from a strong message that you understand how the consumer used your product before, and the attendant problems. Which you have now solved for them with the new smarter packaging...

Remember when shoe polishing used to involve two different brushes and a metal tin with a key opening device that would never open.....but now see Figure 2.