Client Meeting

Our client came into our lecture, where he did a presentation about the company, Edward Bulmer: Pots of Paints Ltd, and answered some of our questions.

He started by explaining that Edward Bulmer was an interior design company and their paint specialised in restoring big buildings and being used on stately homes. Their paints are made from purely natural ingredients and they currently have fifty colours, including white.

Their target audience is the upper-class, which became even more clear during the presentation, as the client kept referring back to the high-quality that his audience have come to expect.

They listed Farrow and Ball as their main competitor, as well as Little Greene, Rendona paint and Ecos Organic Paint.

He said that the main positive factors of the Edward Bulmer company were its historic aspect, its health considerations to humans, how it is sympathetic to older buildings and its colour. He later went on to say that colour was the main reason why people bought their paint, that 75% of people used this company because of its colour. 

They have two types of paint: oil-based paint and solvent-based paint. The solvent-based paint is currently transported in plastic containers, while the oil-based paint is transported in metal. The client made a point of saying that you cannot put water-based paint in a metal container, as it will rust.

At the moment, their paint is transported with an outer bucket, with the inner container nestled inside. This is so that if the paint is thrown around, the actual container is more protected and if there are spills, the outer packaging helps. However, the client did say that this was a waste of resources and that they would like something more efficient. He also said that they used to put a leaflet in with the packaging, which explained how the outer bucket could be reused. Yet people merely threw the leaflets into the skip, so they no longer do this.

It costs the client money when there is a spillage of their paint, even if it is not their fault, so it would be good to create packaging that is incredibly secure and is able to withstand being thrown around by carriers. The transportation itself can be quite rough, so this would be good to keep in mind when it comes to designing the packaging. The client mentioned that Little Greene's paints packaging were the most reliable that they knew of. Little Greene have a thick cardboard inserts that sit inside the paint tin and this seems to work well.

It was also mentioned that a handle can be very useful when it comes to transportation. If the paint can be picked up easily, then there is less chance of the carrier handling it recklessly.

The client was pleased with the current rebrand of their logo and so asked for that to stay. He said that he would like the typeface and colouring to also remain, though he added that this was not set in stone.

He mentioned that the label for their packaging would cover a large number of their products, so perhaps this could be something to keep in mind when thinking that it has to match tins of a number of different sizes. The client suggested the idea of having transparent areas on the label, so that you are able to see the shiny metal of the tin through the label, and I thought that sounded like an interesting idea, if, in fact, I was to use metal for the container.

Then it came to the questions. Someone asked if they would ever consider using powder paint, but the client replied no. He said that now people expect paints to be ready for them to use immediately.

He mentioned that their target audience usually can afford to employ an interior designer, are retired and more than 50% of them use a decorator, rather than applying the paints themselves.

The packaging of Innocent Smoothies was mentioned, and though the client said he liked their design, he said that he thought humour was perhaps not the way to go with this company, as the target audience might not get it. He mentioned that the company Earthborn have taken this type of approach, though this was not what they themselves were looking for.

The fact that their paint is eco-friendly is not a driving force on their labels. The client said that they have, “Moved away from a folky, eco-look to something more traditional.” And he was pleased with this. He said that it was premium paint with a supporting eco message. The environmentally-friendly aspect of their paint was a plus, though most of their customers bought their paint for its colour.

When asked if he had considered using bio-plastics for his packaging, the client replied that he not thought of that, though he seemed intrigued by the idea.

Someone asked if their paint would ever appear in shops and the client replied that it would, though these would be interior design shops, high-end and independent. These paints would not appear in places like Homebase.

The next question regarded whether the client would like to see their paint in a clear container. However, the client said no to this, as their paint did not look particularly attractive before it was mixed up. 

We were then able to take a look at the companies previous packaging and take a look at the paint itself.

Sample pots:

 Previous packaging: