Zappi relaunches Optimize Pack to help brands win at the shelf

Packaging plays a critical role in how products get noticed and chosen. On the shelf, it’s your most powerful salesperson—and has seconds to do its job.

The best packaging designs are built iteratively, with the consumer’s voice in the loop from the very beginning. But to do that well, teams need packaging research that’s fast, affordable, and comprehensive enough to guide the right decisions at each stage of development.

Today, Zappi is relaunching Optimize Pack—a refreshed, more robust way to test your packaging and stay closely connected to how consumers actually see, feel, and choose on the shelf while there’s still time to improve it.

Ideal for early-stage testing of your high-stakes pack design or pack testing at any stage for low-medium risk packaging projects.

Early-stage packaging decisions shape everything that follows—from design refinement to go-to-market confidence. But without the right signals early on, teams risk optimizing the wrong thing or discovering issues when it’s too late to change them.

What brands need at this stage isn’t more data—it’s the right diagnostics. A pack has three critical jobs to do, and Optimize Pack is designed to assess each one clearly and consistently:

1. Does the pack stand out? Measure whether your pack cuts through in competitive context, with behavioral signals like Stand Out and Findability, alongside pack distinctiveness to understand visibility and recognition on the shelf.

2. Does it have the power to drive purchase? Understand whether your pack can win choice when it matters most at the point of decision, using Purchase Choice in context and claimed measures like Purchase Likelihood, Appeal, and Advantage—supported by rich diagnostics such as heatmaps and attribute associations that explain why it works (or doesn’t) and how to improve it.

3. Is it on brand? Get a comprehensive, consumer-led read on brand fit, including spontaneous and prompted Brand Recall in context, Distinctive Brand Assets, and deeper diagnostics like Brand Linkage, Brand Feeling, and Brand Believability.

Optimize Pack brings these together. This isn’t about testing more. It’s about learning better, faster and in a more connected way—so teams can make smarter decisions with insights that are fast, focused and easy to act on, before designs are locked in.

Shopping decisions are quick. People don’t analyze packaging—they react to it.

That’s why Optimize Pack now includes behavioral measures through the Lite Shelf module. Metrics like Purchase Choice, Stand Out, and Findability help teams understand whether a pack cuts through and competitive context.

Paired with a strengthened branding module, Optimize Pack goes beyond measurement—using diagnostics like heatmaps, emotional response, and open-ended feedback to turn insight into clear next steps.

Data alone doesn’t drive decisions—clarity does.

AI Quick Reports give teams an instant head start. Key insights and implications are surfaced with the click of a button, helping teams get to the “so what” faster—delivering roughly 80% of the analysis in about 1% of the time.

The result? Less time interpreting data. More time improving the pack.

When teams want to dive deeper, Optimize Pack also gives them access to ‘Charts’—just like any Zappi solution—allowing you to slice and dice your data. These charts have now been streamlined, with fewer charts, clearer visuals, and a more intuitive flow for pack.

Optimize Pack is built for early-stage and low-medium risk pack testing, where learning fast makes the biggest difference.

It’s a core part of Zappi’s Innovation System—helping teams test, learn, and iterate before decisions become expensive or irreversible. By combining behavioral signals, brand diagnostics, and connected reporting, Optimize Pack gives teams a clearer path from insight to action.

This relaunch marks a major step forward for Optimize Pack— and a renewed focus on helping brands make better packaging decisions, earlier.

If you want to know what will get noticed, feel on-brand, and drive choice—Optimize Pack is ready.

If you’re already a Zappi customer, log in now and test your pack today. Not yet a Zappi customer? Contact sales for a demo today.