Mattel partnered with Adobe to use the gen-A.I. Adobe Firefly (a nice rhyme, there) for generating packaging concepts. These are for, you guessed it, Barbie dolls that come in cardboard packages.
The Five Most Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
In a blog post published on the Adobe Blog, Adobe offered motivation for why Mattel chose to use gen-A.I. here. The main reason was to save time and, since time is money in business, money.
This application of gen-A.I. promises to speed up the creative process in visual design, for those companies that apply it.
Ultimately, this can shorten the factory-to-table process of getting mass-market toys into stores for Mattel. One can extend this to other industries that could use gen A.I. to expedite the product-design process.
Though the backgrounds here go onto physical toy packages, this does have digital parallels. For instance, Pinterest has announced gen-A.I. background generators for ads on the platform.
One of the perks of using gen A.I. in this context, according to Adobe, is the surprise factor. As it is with human creativity, A.I. will turn out designs that indeed do come with surprises and unexpected flourishes. It gives one the impression of imaginitive design.
Thinking Inside the Box
What Mattel realizes is that product differentiation is the key to doing well in many industries.
That is why visual design and appeal can be such a profit-generating difference-maker in business.
In the case of Barbie dolls, the dress of the doll itself is only half the battle in getting the consumers interested in the product. Another part is the box that the doll comes in.
For that reason, Mattel must design the box so as to thematically complement the doll itself. An example that Adobe cites in its blog is the Sue Bird Barbie doll, which got a gen-A.I. marketing boost in the design of its cardboard packaging.
As a result, the Sue Bird Barbie is displayed in front of a cardboard backdrop of a basketball court.
The Benefit for Other Businesses
Of course, it is worth mentioning that Mattel is indeed a large corporation. That is, a large corporation that can even afford to have such a thing as a design team at all.
For smaller businesses, including and especially those that qualify to meet the U.S. Dept. of State’s definition of “small business”, the very existence of this technology may unlock new doors that were previously chained shut by resource constraints.
The benefit, then, for businesses of all sizes is that A.I. will help level the playing field a little bit, in the area of visual marketing and product design.
Of course, the larger businesses will naturally have more capital to actually create products and marketing items such as visually eye-catching packaging.
So, the A.I. can create the visual design for the product or its attendant marketing materials. But the A.I. will not exactly create the product for you. The capital still must be available for such an endeavor.
What This Means for Small Businesses
More opportunity to make money, of course.
What this technology does is enable for more effective visual communication. What that means is that consumers will be met with even more effectively eye-catching marketing materials in many forms.
Just imagine, if you will, even dollar-store item racks that are raised to a new level of eye-drawing commercial aesthetics.
Designs dreamt up by an algorithm that lightly puzzle one, so as to inspire a head tilt and closer inspection.
Cutesy company mascots typed to life in the window of a web browser, then emblazoned on the cardboard cage of a pre-purchase product.
For small businesses, it will be easier to stand out in an already crowded market. And small-business owners will notice competitors with advertisements online, and brick-and-mortar presences, that have reached a new level of visual interest.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
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