The Safe option

Very often we come across Marketers and Brand Managers, who when start a project or write a brief want a very innovative Packaging but later on want nothing but a Safe Option, something that has been tried and tested. There is nothing wrong with going with the Safe option with your Packaging after due evaluation, but what may be incorrect is, if an Innovative Packaging solution is developed but dropped without a conclusive consumer research.
The other perspective is that what if all the Marketers of the world decided to go with a Safe option, there will be no Innovation in Packaging, how will new approaches emerge, how will the Consumers get Packaging that is changing with the times.
The evaluation with the Safe option should be thorough, very often in a rush to reach the market and getting the satisfaction of having completed the task, we may sub -optimise the complete objective. If the Brand is intended to just garner additional sales with the help of the Sales push, the Safe option in packaging may work. However if you wish to add Imagery and contemporary values to your Brand, you may need to take a more aggressive approach.
Marketers who have left the path of the safe option and tried out serious innovation in Packaging have had success all the way through, they have been able to heighten the equity of their Brand and added more and more consumers. Marketers who have stayed with beaten path have ended up copying the Innovators and proved to be lacking in a futuristic approach for your Brand. Very often such people justify their strategy by saying that they are copying as they need to be in line with times, but we need to realise that the consumers once lost do not come back with ease.
Very often a risk averse approach may throttle an 'Out of the box' Packaging idea, but this happens more in the cases where marketers lack acumen and a willingness to take up serious challenges. Consequently denying challenges to Packaging developers as well !