What does it take for a brand to stand out? There’s not one specific factor that determines a brand’s success, but there are common assumptions about what makes a brand successful. A question we receive from many ByQuest clients is around the bottle shape itself and a desire to re-engineer the bottle from the ground up for something special and unique. After all, some of the biggest brands in the world have their own, one of a kind bottle shape. If custom bottle designs are what the industry’s leading brands have, do all successful brands need to have a unique shape as well?

Here’s a different way of thinking about this question. If a painter came to you asking for a totally unique canvas because none of the existing canvases would be able to support their vision, does it make sense to create a totally unique canvas for them?

Deciding what size and shape the canvas should be and how the image will be laid out are important decisions, but neither requires that the canvas itself be an original design. Imagine all of the world-class masterpieces that can be created on the standard canvas available to anyone today. It’s not the canvas that makes a masterpiece, but instead the artistic vision and concept that creates a powerful piece of art.

A bottle design is like the artist’s canvas. Just like having a custom canvas doesn’t make an artistic masterpiece, a uniquely fabricated bottle design is not the only way to make your brand stand out. In fact, you can make a powerful brand statement using a standard, readily available bottle shape when you combine that with a strong creative concept. Ultimately, it’s the creative concept that when paired with the right bottle, will create brands that are truly memorable.

Here’s an example of two hypothetical brands ByQuest has created, both using the same, readily available, and affordable bottles to prove the point. Do these two brands have similar brand statements? Do they share any commonalities as brands?

One is steampunk industrial inspired and largely crystal clear glass to show off the gorgeous rum inside. The other is a frosted bottle with different architectural block to capture interest in a gin product. While consumers would never see these two products next to each other on the shelves of a retailer, even seeing them together here, do they invoke the same emotions? Not at all. In fact, it’s the strong creative idea that gets communicated in an impactful way, much stronger than the shape and profile of the standard bottle shape. The essence of The Unstandard® is that a powerful creative idea can turn an ordinary standard bottle into something that is totally “unstandard”. 

Building a powerful brand starts with a strong creative concept and vision. Working with a strong packaging partner like ByQuest will help to build out that vision and direction for the brand. You may not need to launch your brand with a custom-made bottle which takes a larger investment in dollars and time.

Are you curious about what this would look like for one of your brands? Reach out to us, and ByQuest can set up a time with our team to look at how you can use a standard, off the shelf bottle and create something that is completely “Unstandard”. As always, keep unpacking.