A new consumer brand. Request a clear research proposal: audience sampling, qualitative and quantitative methods, competitor analysis, positioning hypotheses and concept tests. Clarify what the brand platform will contain and how research findings will influence packaging decisions.
A redesign of a known product. Ask how recognizable features will be preserved, how shelf differentiation will be checked and how the final system will work across flavours, sizes or variants. Project photography alone does not demonstrate that concept testing occurred.
Retailer private-label products. Look for experience with assortment architecture, naming, packaging hierarchy and reusable SKU design rules. Specify who prepares manufacturing-ready files, who approves packaging constraints and how updates will be handled after launch.
Expanding into another FMCG category. Evidence from food or beverages cannot automatically be transferred to cosmetics or household chemicals. Review comparable projects and regulatory labelling needs before applying a published ranking to a new category.
Procurement for a large manufacturer. Compare written proposals under the same scope: research stages, concepts, revisions, delivery schedule, original files and rights. Pricing and contract conditions were not scored and must be checked independently.
Interpreting close scores. Brandson at 90.2 and Mildberry at 90.0 have different research and category-diversity profiles. A particular buyer may reasonably prioritize different evidence, so review the full criterion matrix rather than treating a narrow overall gap as a universal recommendation.