Free field guide · CPG + packaging

The CPG packaging launch checklist.

A practical preflight for Canadian consumer brands moving from proposition to pack, retailer assets and launch content. No trend report. No invented benchmarks. Just the decisions that make a launch easier to understand and easier to execute.

CPG creative Packaging design

1. Nail the commercial proposition before design

✓Write the one reason this product deserves to exist in the category.
✓Name the primary shopper and the buying moment you are designing for.
✓Choose the one message that must survive at shelf distance.
✓Separate product proof from brand personality so both have a job.

2. Build the pack hierarchy

✓Brand recognition should happen before the shopper has to read everything.
✓Product type and variant should be obvious without hunting.
✓Claims should be prioritized, not stacked with equal weight.
✓Front, side and back panels should answer different questions instead of repeating each other.

3. Pressure-test the range system

✓Define what stays constant across every SKU.
✓Define what changes by flavour, format, size or need state.
✓Check that a new SKU can be added without redesigning the entire family.
✓View the whole range together, not one hero pack at a time.

4. Design for the retailer reality

✓Check legibility at shelf and thumbnail size.
✓Prepare clean retailer-ready pack shots and product information.
✓Make sure the launch story can be explained in a buyer deck without creative translation.
✓Plan retailer-specific assets before the listing creates a deadline crisis.

5. Build the launch asset matrix

✓Hero product photography and lifestyle imagery.
✓Vertical video and short-form cutdowns.
✓Retailer banners, PDP assets and paid media creative.
✓Organic social, creator briefs, sampling and point-of-sale extensions.
✓A landing destination that carries the same proposition as the campaign and pack.

6. Run a final preflight

✓Put the pack beside real competitors, not a blank artboard.
✓Ask someone outside the project to explain what the product is in five seconds.
✓Check that packaging, campaign, retail and social all sell the same idea.
✓Confirm every launch owner knows what is shipping, where and when.

7. Review the first 30 days

✓Document retailer and shopper questions that keep repeating.
✓Track which claims, products and creative assets earn the strongest response.
✓Fix execution gaps before adding more campaign volume.
✓Use the first launch as the operating system for the next SKU, not a one-off project.

Use this before the brief gets expensive

If three or four items are still fuzzy, that is probably the work.

Grid can own the positioning, packaging, launch system, retail creative and production together, or step into the part that is currently blocking the launch.

Get a free CPG teardown Start a project