🧠 How Packaging Became Our Secret Weapon at Walmart

Hey there,

Welcome back to the 69th edition of Brandish,

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand.

Packaging is one of the most overlooked parts of branding, but it’s the first thing a customer sees.

It’s what catches their eye on a crowded shelf or a scrolling screen.

And if it’s not retail-ready, it’s a missed opportunity.

We learned this the hard way.

When our unflavored collagen peptides first hit Walmart shelves, they weren’t moving as expected.

The product was great—clean ingredients, competitive pricing—but the packaging?

It felt out of place in the retail aisle.

Something had to change, and fast.

So today, we’re breaking down exactly what we changed and why it worked.

So kick back,

Grab a Brez,

And let’s talk about how we went from struggling sales to our best-seller status.

How We Turned Packaging Into a Sales Machine

PickFu is essentially a survey tool that gathers feedback from a highly targeted audience.

You can filter respondents by age, gender, hobbies, buying habits—even geographic location.

It’s usually used for testing product images, but we saw potential for something bigger…

Optimizing our packaging.

We started by testing our collagen peptides’ packaging against competitors like Vital Proteins and Ancient Nutrition.

Vital Proteins, owned by Nestlé, is the legacy brand in the space—practically synonymous with collagen.

Competing with them meant understanding not just their strengths but also their weaknesses.

The feedback was eye-opening.

Customers found our all-pink design too "childish," and the wave graphic we used felt distracting.

Most importantly, shoppers cared about the story our packaging told.

They wanted clarity—how much collagen per serving, what makes it different, and why they should trust us over a legacy brand.

Using PickFu, we fine-tuned our design in 20 iterations.

Pink was balanced with white to signal unflavored content.

The wave graphic was minimized to reduce clutter.

Most importantly, we highlighted "20g Collagen Per Serving" in bold, clear text—something none of our competitors did.

The insights weren’t just cosmetic; they were strategic, and addressed exactly what shoppers needed to make a confident choice.

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Details That Define a Best-Seller

Packaging isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about communication.

What’s the first thing a shopper sees?

What makes them pause and pick up the product?

For example, Vital Proteins didn’t list serving size on their label.

Their product claimed "20g Collagen," but it required two scoops, giving only 14 servings per container.

Meanwhile, our product offered 20g per serving with 30 servings in total—double their amount.

This advantage was hidden because we hadn’t clearly labeled it.

So we flipped the script by making transparency a priority.

Our front label highlighted "20g Collagen Per Serving," "30 Servings Per Container," and other unique benefits like hyaluronic acid, biotin, and vitamin C—none of which Vital Proteins offered.

We framed these ingredients as "essential beauty nutrition" to highlight their added value.

Another key insight was understanding the emotional aspect of packaging.

Comments like "It looks like a kids’ product" drove us to design for a more sophisticated audience.

Subtle changes—adding white accents, refining typography, and balancing colors—shifted perceptions from whimsical to premium without losing approachability.

Packaging That Speaks Retail

The impact of these changes were quick and undeniable.

Once the new packaging hit shelves, our collagen peptides went from lagging sales to becoming our best-seller at Walmart.

Units per store per week quadrupled.

That’s the power of a retail-ready design.

This wasn’t just a one-off success.

We used the same principles to revamp our entire product line.

Each new powder and pill followed a "template" rooted in what we learned.

Burn, our first pill product, became the starting point for a design strategy that worked seamlessly across categories while keeping each product unique.

Beyond design, pricing played a crucial role.

At first, our advanced formula was priced too high for Walmart’s value-focused customers.

But by slightly reformulating and optimizing our cost structure, we hit a competitive price point without sacrificing quality.

Combined with the packaging overhaul, this made us not just competitive but dominant.

The Psychology Behind the Perfect Label

Packaging is a mix of art and science.

It’s about more than catching someone’s eye.

And about answering their unspoken questions and solving their doubts.

Here are the biggest takeaways:

1️⃣ Test, Adjust, Repeat.

Tools like PickFu aren’t just for Amazon sellers.

Use them to gain real-world feedback on any visual element.

The more targeted your audience filters, the more actionable the insights.

2️⃣ Transparency Builds Trust.

Highlighting clear benefits like "20g Collagen Per Serving" and "30 Servings Per Container" turned our packaging into a persuasive tool.

3️⃣ Leverage Emotional Cues.

Color, typography, and layout matter. ‘

Balancing pink with white and minimizing busy graphics helped shift perceptions from childish to premium.

4️⃣ Outperform, Don’t Just Compete.

By adding unique callouts like hyaluronic acid and biotin, we didn’t just match Vital Proteins—we exceeded them.

5️⃣ Pricing Complements Packaging.

The most beautiful packaging won’t sell a product if the price feels off.

Align your cost with your audience’s expectations.

Wrapping Up

Packaging is more than just a container; it’s a conversation with your customer.

It’s how you stand out in a crowded aisle, convey trust, and inspire action.

Tools like PickFu gave us the insights we needed to fine-tune our approach and achieve measurable results.

Whether you’re launching a new product or rethinking an old one, start with the question: What story is your packaging telling?

For us, the answer transformed not just our Walmart sales but the way we approach branding across the board.

As always I appreciate you reading.

And until next time,

Ankit