Storecheck London 2024 – long live diversity!

Anyone who reads our blog posts regularly will know that we travelled to London in 2022 to explore the trends in the supermarkets there. This year, we flew to the English capital again – with the same goal, but with new insights.

Below we take a look at the features of the products, packaging and shelf design that particularly caught our eye this time. We can already anticipate one thing: In 2024, variety will rule London’s stores more than ever.

Country kitchens on a grand scale

The best example of the distinctive diversity is the enormous breadth and depth of country cuisine products. In British supermarkets, the entire world is represented in culinary terms. We’re not just talking about three or four spices from India, two types of Thai curry and a packet of tacos; the range of country cuisines really is huge. And the accompanying designs are often extremely creative.

As we show in our article on the three most important points of successful packaging design it is always a challenge to set up a label system that works optimally for a large number of products, varieties and flavours. Numerous brands that are represented in London’s supermarkets do this surprisingly well.

The design realisation varies from brand to brand. Some use different illustrations, adapt details of the patterns or use suitable landscapes. Others play with a mixture of colour, type and texture, such as M&S and Sainsbury’s. But as much as the designs are adapted to the respective national cuisines: The brand staple sits perfectly with these brands.

Think Pink

Pink as a cliché girl colour was yesterday. Today, the colour is all the rage – and not just among the fairer sex. Men now also like to wear pink shirts or shorts. And brands are using the colour for products that would not initially be expected. It is no longer a speciality for sweets, but is very much the case for beans, tofu or sardines. We first noticed pink as a surprising colour code during our store check in the Baltic States, but it is obviously a more widespread trend. If we look at the psychological background, it’s not surprising.

According to colour psychology, no other colour has such a strong effect on the human psyche as pink. The tone is said to stabilise positive feelings and generally lift the mood and ensure a better mood. Pink is also said to have a calming effect, meaning that the sight of pink surfaces can calm hyperactive people, for example. The colour is also said to convey a sense of security and alleviate aggression and anxiety.

Significant examples of the use of pink: Coca Cola, Heinz and Warburtons have switched certain packaging to shades of pink to raise funds for charities that actively support the fight against breast cancer. Available exclusively in ASDA chain supermarkets, the packaging is a sophisticated pastel pink colour. A portion of the proceeds generated by the sale of these products will be donated.

Basic Selection: simply appealing

The products in the Basic Selection are always characterised by simplicity, but display a regulated system with dominant, yet minimalist typography and relatively simple, yet natural-looking food shots. All in all, the packaging embodies the “Basic” category in an authentic and appealing way. This sets them apart from comparable products or brands in Germany, whose designs often have room for improvement in terms of aesthetics.

Minimalism in many facets

Bold typography against a bright white background, a splash of colour against a clean background, a simple arrangement of plain shapes – these are just some of the ways in which clarity and elegance are expressed in minimalist packaging designs.

The agency responsible for the packaging design of Eager’s juices summarises their approach as follows: “In a market full of misleading overclaims, we helped the Eager brand build a defiantly ordinary branding for their ordinary juice.”

When food shots are used, they are subtle, thoughtful and modern. You can hardly get more minimalist than M&S – and yet all the important features are there: good colour coding, an interesting arrangement and the presentation of the product from the outside and inside.

Sometimes brands completely dispense with graphic elements and combine transparent packaging with expressive typography. This makes the branding absolutely recognisable, but essentially the product speaks for itself.

The power of typography

For many brands, typography is the only design element – and yet these brands still manage to stand out and make a name for themselves. This is due to the range of creative solutions that are now possible using typeface design alone. One look at the shelves in London supermarkets is enough to realise just how much potential there is to focus on typography in packaging design.

Illustrations as a key visual element

Brands that operate with images generally do so through illustrations: modern, colourful, artistic and humorous, in love with detail, telling stories. The illustrative designs of products in UK stores are sometimes miles ahead of those in this country in terms of creativity and innovation. They are often complemented by striking typography, resulting in an all-round contemporary look.

Diverse approaches for appetite appeal

Brands use different approaches to achieve appetite appeal. Increasingly, the product is allowed to speak for itself – through viewing windows or completely transparent packaging. If a food shot is used, it often forms the most important component of the design in this context. The best examples of this are the wall of chips and the flour in a truly appetising bread look – a brilliant idea, in our opinion. With such impressive food shots, which also appear genuine and natural, the other design elements are secondary because the products themselves look irresistibly delicious.

Nutrition facts in focus

Nutrition facts are being communicated more and more prominently. Many brands explicitly state on the front of the packaging how many proteins or how few calories the respective product contains. Nowadays, such information is no longer just hidden in the nutritional table, but is a deliberately used sales argument.

In some cases, entire brands are based on a specific nutrition fact, such as Skinny Crunch or – even more clearly – Hartley’s 10 Cal and Fibre One 90 Calorie. Such brands target the ever-increasing health awareness of most people and literally don’t beat around the bush. Instead of just filling the popular categories with their own products, they nail the trend directly in their name. Others are doing without the sledgehammer and integrating the nutrition-related facts into the layout, but this is usually also very impressive.

“I want to eat fewer calories and more protein. I want to do something good for my body in general.” This now almost typical way of thinking is the reason why countless functional shots, superfoods and nutrition facts that are visible at first glance play a remarkable role on the packaging in London’s supermarkets.

Although the designs of these products generally follow the principle of “less is more”, the few elements that are present – especially typography, colours and colour combinations – are maximised, for example through font size and colour intensity. However, this does not necessarily mean that the letters are particularly thick and the colours extra strong; some brands make their products stand out with thinner typography and bright, white looks, while others create a wow effect with large numbers and bold colours.

Colour blocking on the shelf: aesthetic and practical

Colour blocking is characteristic of the shelves in London stores. Great importance is obviously attached to the visual effect of the shelves. The differentiated colours create a colourful surface whose different shades vie for the viewer’s attention, but also help them to orientate themselves and find what they are looking for quickly.

Festive special editions

Finally, let’s take a brief look at the festive special editions, where two aspects in particular caught our eye: firstly, the high quality of the realisation and secondly, the alternative style. Finally, we are no longer (only) presented with the typical Christmas and Valentine’s Day illustrations that we have seen at least 100 times before. Instead, we are seeing modern colour combinations mixed with traditional details in generally creative and high-quality packaging solutions.

In addition, the limited editions for certain occasions are often no longer limited to confectionery, but include various food products so that consumers can put together an entire holiday menu. There are now also special festive designs in the vegan segment, as shown by the OMV!