Verbal identity

Member lesson

Writing for packaging

Lesson 8 of 10 in Verbal identity.

Writing Copy For Food Packaging - Step-by-step Guide · Plug
Lesson

Packaging copy is writing under the hardest constraints in the discipline. A few words on the front, a crowded back that is mostly legally required, and no opportunity to revise once it is printed a hundred thousand times.

voicewho the brand isthe sameeverywheretonehow it sounds in each momenta welcomean errora receiptbad newsseriousplayfulthe tone changes with the moment. the voice never does
A brand's voice stays the same everywhere, while its tone changes with the moment: playful for a welcome, serious for bad news.
On the left a shopper grabs a strawberry jar from a shelf of jars marked with fruit drawings and colour bands, and on the right, at home, she smiles at a drawing on the back of the jar.
A shopper picks a jar in a glance from its fruit picture and colour band, then smiles at the back once she is home. The front says what it is, and the back is where charm belongs.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    The back of a pack is read in the hand, by somebody who has already picked the product up. What follows from that?

    • It is the most attentive audience the brand will ever get, so it deserves a real sentence rather than the slogan already on the front
    • It is the right place for the name and the variant, since the front is too crowded
    • It matters less than the front, because the sale is effectively made by then
    • It should carry mandatory text only, so nothing competes with the legal wording
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Name, descriptor, variant. Usually under eight words in total.”

    • Voice principle
    • Front of pack copy
    • Descriptive naming
    • Native
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The story, the instructions and the legal text, sharing very little room.”

    • Voice
    • Banned word
    • Empty state
    • Back of pack copy

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