When packaging talks, who's listening?

Buying instant noodles was easy when we, the millennials, were growing up. We could count the options on our fingertips—everyone’s favourite, Maggi, the newbie on the rack, Sunfeast Yippie, or Top Ramen noodles. The day you felt specifically adventurous or bored, you would pick up a newbie, only to realise that Maggi with ketchup remained the gold standard of experimentation.

Today, not only has the way we buy instant noodles changed (think: direct-to-consumer and quick commerce) but so has the way they are marketed. From ‘Taste Bhi, Health Bhi’ (Tasty as well as healthy)  campaigns to ‘No Palm Oil’ and ‘High Protein and Fibre’ claims, the marketing rhapsody of instant noodles—and many more ‘healthy’ products—is buzzing with new reasons to believe.

While these claims are debatable, what intrigues me is the way the products are being packaged—breaking conventions and rewriting the rules of design. We now see the classic tension between form and function playing out in India’s FMCG space—not in product engineering, but in packaging design. 

Traditionally, form followed function. The goal was to catch the eye on a crowded retail shelf, communicate instantly, and get tossed into a shopping basket. There were unsaid rules of packaging design that art directors in big advertising agencies swore by—honesty, clarity, simplicity, practicality, and most of all, shelf impact.

However, as the way we shop evolves, so do these norms. The new-age health food brands are rewriting that script. Their packaging is often text-heavy, design-light, and intent-rich—shifting its primary function from driving impulse buys in a retail setting to communicating brand identity and values in a digital-first world. The function here isn’t about visual seduction; it is about values.

Transparency as a branding tool

If you have been in the cycle of losing and gaining weight, you might have come across ‘The Whole Truth’ on Instagram. At first glance, the content resembles a fellow gym bro’s soliloquy on our everyday food—sometimes irreverent, sometimes hard-hitting.

When you scroll away from certain posts, such as a cartoonish man snorting chips or a burger disguised as a monster, you come to the founder’s reels and uncover a larger purpose: dissecting half-truths propagated by big food brands. A Goliath move indeed!

This transparency extends to the packaging as well. The brand seems to have moved away from the conventional packaging norms of clarity and simplicity with over 30 words printed upfront on a protein bar wrapper.

There isn’t a huge logo plate, no chocolate dripping as if it came out of the heavens itself. It even has the ingredients listed up front. If you don’t read it carefully, you might just miss the brand name altogether. Yet, the packaging stands true to the brand's purpose: telling consumers the whole truth.

Ingredient storytelling over visual seduction

When Maggi launched Vegetable Atta noodles, it sprinkled wheat bushel and peas on the packaging with a green tinge to denote a healthier alternative. It did lose a bit of shelf impact from the existing bright yellow packaging, yet the health-conscious Indian mothers were quite influenced by the ‘Taste Bhi Health Bhi’ claims.

Wickedgüd, known for its multi-grain noodles, has taken ingredient storytelling a step further. Each packet clearly displays key ingredients, along with protein, fibre content, and a ‘No Maida’ promise upfront. One might call the design cluttered but it lists all the alluring promises a millennial mother is looking for.

Similarly, Open Secret has adopted a playful yet informative approach. Its packaging prominently features an asterisk next to ‘Unjunked’, with the fine print explaining how it is ‘baked not fried’ or uses cleaner ingredients. The sheer volume of messaging might seem excessive, but it forces consumers to pause and engage, something traditional snack packaging rarely does.

The quick commerce effect: Where shelf impact no longer matters

In contrast to legacy brands like Maggi, Lay’s, or Dairy Milk, where retail shelf impact was crucial, these new-age brands don’t rely on physical store presence alone. Their primary distribution channel is quick commerce, where the traditional rules of packaging are disrupted. Here, shelf impact is irrelevant because the consumer is making decisions based on search results, ads, or influencer recommendations, not an in-store impulse buy.

This shift enables brands to prioritise storytelling over aesthetics. Consumers discover products through SEO and digital marketing, and once they land on a brand’s page, the packaging becomes a secondary factor. The strategy is working. Many of these brands are scaling rapidly without ever needing the traditional ‘big shelf moment’.

Can these brands win offline?

As these new-age brands expand into offline retail, a critical question emerges: will their unconventional packaging still hold up? In a kirana (grocery) store or a supermarket aisle, where what you see is what you buy, can ingredient-first storytelling replace the power of a bold, recognisable brand name?

With increasing awareness around nutrition, especially in urban centres, consumers are scrutinising ingredients more than ever. The vilification of maida over the past decade has led to a surge in ‘clean label’ products, and brands are banking on this shift.

However, will a kirana shopper in a tier-2 city be as receptive to packaging filled with text and claims? Or will these brands be forced to reintroduce the clarity and simplicity that defined FMCG giants for decades?

When packaging becomes the battleground for trust, the wrapper matters almost as much as what’s inside. And for many digitally native brands, the message is the meal.

In a post-truth world, this battle between transparency-driven packaging and traditional shelf appeal seems to be only the beginning of a new wave of packaging innovation. Will it be a fleeting trend or a lasting disruption in the industry? Time will tell.

— Tanishtha Kaura, senior strategist, Edelman India.