Group projects in school could be a really good experience or a very bad one. You either got an amazing team who turned its portions of the work in on time, or you got the slackers who wouldn’t collaborate. (Or maybe you were the slacker, and in that case we may not have anything more to say to each other.) But no one can deny that working together is a plus, especially when the outcome elevates your brand and increases revenue. And how does one do that? This month’s cover story, “Winning at Retail,” is more than just a feel-good, kumbaya-type story about teamwork. The article goes deep into what you can do to improve point-of-sale materials so that they compliment with packaging, not hinder it — which means everyone comes out on top.

One of the first things I learned about as your new editor-in-chief was the carat (well, there were many things, but this one stuck out as the dust started settling from my quick entry). A few years back, BRANDPACKAGING redesigned its logo to include that character as a simple reminder of our goal to elevate brands by way of packaging.

Our Packaging That Sells conference, coming October 1-3 in Chicago, will be doing just that — making the role of packaging matter in the consumer product marketing mix. We all know we have mere seconds to make sure our brand’s packaging is the one noticed, so we need to “Make it Matter.” If you haven’t attended the conference before, be sure to attend this year. We’ve got a lineup of excellent speakers from the industry, a display of top packaging design, plus other fun stuff like our badge design contest (get a head start on your design — the art major in me will definitely be present).