There’s life after PI

Great design wins hearts as well as carts

Purchase Intent. Two words that have dominated packaging research for decades. If a pack pops, if it wins the shelf, if it nudges that all-important “yes”— it’s a success.

Fair enough, purchase and visual salience do matter. We’ve got our own solid tools for them — PatternID, AI-predicted visibility, behavioural shelf tests. They’re part of the picture.

But if that first moment of truth is all you’re focusing on, you’re in danger of selling your pack, and your brand, short.

Because great packaging design doesn’t just win at shelf.

• It gets invited into homes
• It sits on kitchen counters
• It shows up on Instagram (shelfies, anyone?)
• It gets remembered

And most importantly, it gets bought again.

That’s the bit a single purchase metric can’t tell you.

The industry’s been seduced by what’s easy to prove

In a world hooked on fast data and ROI, it’s tempting to stick to the stuff that’s easy to wrap in a deck and sell to stakeholders. Clicks. Carts. Conversion rates.

PI scratches that itch.

But brands aren’t built on transactions. They’re built on connections. The kind that sparks emotional resonance, meaning, and desire. That split-second feeling of “this brand is just right for me”.

And the danger when we focus only on the transaction, is that we miss the bigger picture, leaving the real brand value on the table.

We believe in life after PI

At The Big Picture, we’re not here to throw out shelf metrics. We’re here to go deeper. To help brands think beyond the moment of purchase, and start treating packaging design as what it really is: their most consistent, visible brand asset.

That’s why we built Pack360 – our model for understanding how pack performs at shelf and beyond:

• Capture: Can people see and find you?
• Clarify: Do they get you?
• Connect: Do they want you?
• Cultivate: Are you shaping long-term brand meaning?

Those last two? Often the most powerful. And also, often the hardest to nail.

But hard doesn’t mean impossible.

Meet Spark: measuring and cultivating emotional connection

Design that connects emotionally—that sparks something—is what drives loyalty, love, and repeat purchase.

We’ve codified this into our Emotional Spark, a deeper quant metric that combines 5 key emotional drivers.

Spark gives us a way to capture what’s often ignored: the emotional pull that drives repeat choice. Plenty of tools can tell you what gets noticed. But few can tell you what sparks emotional connection, what gets remembered, felt and wanted.

The most loved brands don’t stop at first impressions

Take Robinsons. Faced with a wall of private-label lookalikes, they didn’t just update their design, they reasserted their identity.

The new pack didn’t just stand out. It sparked emotional connection. It reminded people why Robinsons matters – across generations, occasions, and formats.

Standing out is one thing. Being meaningful and worth remembering? That’s the real win.

Packaging has a job to do far beyond shelf: to build equity, deepen relationships, and quietly whisper the brand’s story again and again.

That’s where we play.

So yes, purchase matters. But it’s just the beginning.

The future of pack insight lies beyond the first glance. It’s about how design lives on – creating memory, meaning, and desire across every moment of truth.

We’re not just after love at first sight. We’re building for long-term desire.

There’s life after PI.

Are you ready to explore it? Get in touch