When Brands Stop Shouting, What Happens to Marketing?

For a long time, one of the simplest rules of packaging was to get noticed.

Walk into a supermarket, and it is easy to see why. Hundreds of products compete for attention, often within a few feet of each other. Bigger type, brighter colours, stronger claims and more distinctive graphics can all help a product stand out.

But the way we live with products has changed. We don’t only encounter them on shelves anymore. We see them on our bathroom counters, bedside tables and kitchen shelves. We see them in morning-routine videos, restock posts, and photographs shared online.

That changes what a brand needs to do.

A pack can win the three seconds it gets on a shelf and still feel wrong when it becomes part of someone’s everyday environment. The question then is not simply, “Will people notice this?” It is also, “Will people want to keep looking at it?”

This is particularly interesting in wellness.

Supplement packaging has traditionally borrowed heavily from pharmaceutical visual language. Clinical typography, strong colours, scientific cues and prominent claims are used to communicate efficacy and authority. It makes sense, especially in a category where consumers want to know that a product is credible.

But those same cues can make wellness feel like a response to a problem. Take something because you are deficient. Take something because you need to fix something. The product becomes associated with correction rather than continuity.

Yet much of contemporary wellness is moving in the opposite direction. People are increasingly thinking about nutrition, skincare, fitness and wellbeing as ongoing routines. The goal is not always to solve a problem. Sometimes it is simply to maintain something.

That creates a different challenge for brands.

If a product is going to be used every day, perhaps it doesn’t need to behave like an emergency. It needs to become familiar. It needs to make sense. It needs to fit comfortably into the environment around it.

This was one of the questions we explored while developing vial, a multivitamin packaging and identity system at Presentable. Rather than trying to make the product louder than the category, we started by asking what it should feel like when it becomes part of someone’s daily routine.

The answer was a system built around structure. A modular grid became the foundation for the identity, with individual geometric units representing nutrients within a larger whole. Colour helps identify those nutrients, while typography remains deliberately restrained.

The idea was not to make the packaging “minimal” simply because minimalism looks contemporary. It was about creating something that could remain clear and relevant after the initial excitement of a purchase had worn off.

That distinction is useful for marketers because consistency is often less celebrated than disruption.

We talk a lot about brands that break category conventions. We celebrate the campaign that looks different, the packaging that gets people talking, and the launch that makes everyone stop scrolling. Those things have their place.

But there is another kind of differentiation that comes from being easy to recognise and easy to live with.

Think about the products that become part of a person’s routine. A particular coffee cup. A skincare bottle kept in the same place. A fitness app opened every morning. A supplement box sitting next to the bed.

These products do not necessarily need to surprise us every day. In fact, constant surprise might make them harder to use.

This is where design can play a more interesting role in marketing. Instead of constantly asking for attention, it can help establish behaviour.

The packaging for the vial, for instance, includes checkboxes that allow users to mark their daily intake. It is a small feature, but it changes the role of the pack. It is no longer only holding the product or communicating information. It becomes part of the routine.

That is a useful way to think about packaging more broadly. The best package may not always be the one that communicates the most. Sometimes it is the one that makes the product easier to understand and easier to use.

The same thinking can be seen in other parts of wellness and beauty. The Ordinary, for example, moved away from many of the traditional codes of beauty marketing and placed greater emphasis on ingredients and information. The result was a brand language that felt more functional and disciplined.

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That does not mean every brand should adopt the same aesthetic. It means something more fundamental: visual language should reflect the relationship a brand wants to have with its consumer.

There is a difference between a brand saying, “Look at me” and one saying, “You can rely on me.”

Neither is automatically better. They simply serve different purposes.

There is an interesting Indian precedent for this way of thinking about design too. In 1957, the Government of India invited Charles and Ray Eames to advise on design in the country. Their India Report famously used the humble lota to illustrate how an everyday object can evolve through use, refinement, and purpose.

The idea was simple: an object does not need decoration for the sake of decoration. Every element should have a reason for being there.

That principle feels surprisingly relevant to branding today.

We are surrounded by brands that are trying to say something all the time. More messages, more claims, more visual devices, more content. Sometimes the opportunity is not to add another layer, but to remove what is unnecessary.

This is not an argument for making every brand quiet. Some products need to be loud. Some categories benefit from disruption. Some launches depend on creating a sense of occasion.

The point is to understand what happens after the first impression.

If the product is bought once and forgotten, winning attention may be the primary challenge. If it is used every day, the brand has another job to do. It has to become familiar without becoming invisible, distinctive without becoming exhausting, and useful without constantly having to explain itself.

That is where consistency becomes a marketing advantage.

For us, vial was an exploration of that idea through packaging. But the larger question extends well beyond supplements. As more products become part of recurring behaviours and everyday rituals, perhaps brands need to think less about how they can keep demanding attention and more about how they can earn a permanent place in people’s lives.

The most memorable brand is not always the one that shouts the loudest.

Sometimes, it is the one that simply makes sense every day.

– Written by Upamanyu Das, Co-founder, Presentable. Upamanyu is a designer and visual communicator with over a decade of experience across product design, branding, and creative problem-solving. His work brings together design thinking, visual storytelling, and a strong focus on creating purposeful experiences that are both functional and distinctive.