You say YES, I say NO

In any creative development process there is likely to be subjectivity in decision making and somewhere Packaging is a perfect and an ideal example. It is amazing how from the very beginning each one involved in the process starts nurturing a favourite design and wants to see it going into the market. This ' My Favourite ' slowly starts becoming almost a commitment and gives into debates and arguments on how 'My judgement is better than that of yours '. These debates and intellectual rationalisation is often an expression of how well one understands the consumer and how well this meets the brief. It is not uncommon to somewhere even redefine the brief to fit in the idea which 'I' believe is right.

The real drama begins when the Designs move to different functions and it is a stark and a clear demonstration of ' You say yes and I say No'. The race begins on what should go into the Consumer research and is my idea getting into the research or not.

One can say that it is not unhealthy to see this flow of expressions, infact it may even be fruitful as long as it is keeping in focus a well defined and a steady brief. The Packaging development team and the Designers can ensure that, they time and again remind the project holders and the decision makers on the Brief set out and the Objectives defined for the Brand. It is infact extremely desirable if the 'Yes and No' debate is helping the refinement and helping the creative add more and more value to the Packaging.

The Consumer research results are awaited with a baited breath and then the endless discussions commence on the interpretation and answering the question

' What next '. In principle one should take in each and every input from the research and thoroughly analyse before discarding or disregarding, thus helping to build in a way forward brief for the development.

The challenge is to ensure that the innovation and the creative expression does not get diluted and ultimately the approach that rightfully deserves to go to the consumer gets the final ' Yes '.