Nutella’s Personalized Packaging Connects with Consumers

Millennials show less interest for mainstream brand offerings and are more intrigued by customized brands and services.

According to a study by Deloitte, shoppers would actually be willing to pay more for customized products or services and they prefer to be actively involved during the process. This has made businesses rethink how they manufacture and market their products and services. 

The challenge has been to create products or services that feel unique while still being profitable. Thanks to technology, mass personalization is now becoming a reality and shoppers seem to love and buy it. 

A food company who successfully managed to connect with consumers through personalization is Nutella. In February this year, Fererro distributed millions of a limited-edition collection of their popular chocolate spread Nutella with unique label designs sold exclusively in Italy. The packaging it was achieved by using innovative technology and on an algorithm by which they created 7 million unique packaging designs. The new labels had eye-catching colors, shapes and patterns and they all sold out within the month. 

The marketing campaign was called “Nutella Unica” (Unique Nutella) and was created by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather Italia. It was so successful that Nutella already is launching the same campaign in other European countries. The campaign was aiming to “make each hazelnut spread jar as unique and expressive as the Italian people,” and this message was delivered by a video.  

Nutella is not the only company who has launched successful personalized campaigns. Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke Name”, which was re-launched in the US earlier this year, was extremely successful. Using algorithms is not a new thing, in 2013 Amazon created a product curation and recommendation algorithm.  This was huge for mass personalization since data driven suggestions made it possible to connect to every seller on the platform. 

Mass personalization transcends advertisements and brings marketing to a new level where consumers no longer see customization as luxury but rather as an expectation.