By Lane Casteix
The floodgates of creativity are open on new cocktail recipes. Just about any flavor you can imagine is going into the bartender's bag of tricks. And when you thought they had pushed it to the limits, we discover no one has really done much of anything creative with the lowly ice cube - that is until now.
By Lane Casteix
A lot is expected from your packaging. Its core responsibility is it must contain and protect the product until delivered to the consumer, but it must do and be more than that.
It must be easy to use. If your customer finds it difficult to remove the contents for use, this could drive them to seek alternatives. What worked well as a package for many years may be seen as "dated" and inferior to newer ways to package products.
The package must also sell the product. For many brands it is the only sales tool the consumer ever encounters. That means the packaging must have strong "shelf presence" with "eye appeal" so it will be noticed in its selling environment.
The package must also deliver a message about the product. What do you want your customers to believe about your product? The package needs to convey that to them in a way that is believable.
The package has many responsibilities and has the potential to make or break a brand, depending on how well it is designed. This is a job for experts and is one that should not be entered into lightly. Identify weaknesses of your package before you attempt a redesign. Understand what about it works and what doesn't. Look at your competition and technology. Are you behind the design curve? Is there a way to move out ahead of it?
I am sure these are questions Wrigley asked themselves before they entered into a complete redesign of the key brands in their chewing gum line. They faced stiff competition from other gum makers who had newer packaging technology and more modern and target graphics on their packages. And they were losing share of market because of their allowing the competition to get ahead of them. Read the story here, but we will have to wait and see what the final design results are of this effort to revive a sinking brand. I think we can expect to see changes in the form of the gum (probably tab instead of stick) as well as changes in the way the package presents the product.
By Lane Casteix
According to a study done by researchers at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney (I assume in Australia), the use of plain, dull cigarette packaging would reduce the use of tobacco.
Think about that for a moment.... That implies that the current non-"plain, dull cigarette packaging" is helping sales. That means packaging can impact a brand's sales. Eureka!
By Lane Casteix
According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, out of home (OOH) advertising grew by 7% in 2007. This is significant when you consider that most other forms of media advertising saw declining sales, especially the daily papers.
By Lane Casteix
Okay, let's have some educational fun. Take the "Awareness Test" below. It is an ad done in the UK for motorcycle awareness, and since I ride a motorcycle, this is a pretty important subject for me.
So, pay attention!!!!
By Lane Casteix
Recently I wrote about the importance of keeping your packaging current. In the article I mentioned Wrigley's efforts to update their gum packages.
Recently Wrigley's announced a new package with a different shape and reduced the size of the package - but reduced the number of sticks from 17 to 15 and kept the price the same. This might have been okay, if they had explained what amounts to a price increase in terms of increases in cost of production. But instead Paul Chibe, Wrigley's vp North American consumer market-gum, said consumers wouldn't care if they were getting 15 sticks of gum instead of 17 sticks. "To them the value goes up because they're getting a better tasting product in a better package. Price is not the way the consumer is looking at this," he said. Sorry, this looks like a thinly disguised price increase.
The take-away from this is be careful how you handle packaging changes, and more importantly be careful how you explain them.
By Lane Casteix
The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in ad revenues in 50 years. There are a number of factors contributing to this. Among them is the fact that readership is dropping rapidly as well. Ad costs are based on circulation. Readership down, then they must charge less for the ad, because fewer consumers will be reached.
Many papers are seen as biased to one political party or another, and there are numerous alternative sources of news, such as TV and the internet. Cable TV and the internet offer the news on a basis that is very current and convenient; you can get the news when you want it. This is a big advantage over the "old tech" of newspapers.
Another reason is the moving of advertising dollars to interactive forms of advertising, such as the internet, where ROI (Return On Investment) has become king. These mediums are far more effective at measuring response. The advertiser can determine how well his ad is working and find that out much quicker. This reduces advertising cost and increases the effectiveness of the dollars spent.
