The question of the ages, right? You spend months developing a new packaging design. And then you spend another few months and another round of $$ testing it with your customers. You design and re-design, work and tweak and re-design some more until finally it's ready and to launch. Ta-da! Your new package arrives on the shelf, your product gets featured on your website (or in the Tin Shingle Marketplace). It's new, it's gorgeous, it's so 'of the times', fills an unmet need in the the lives of your customers, provides a solution to a problem that they didn't even know that they had. It's gorgeous and you love it.
Until, perhaps, you don't love it anymore, or sales have started to lag, or a new competitor has entered into the market, or customers are changing their habits. So what do you do? How do you know when to change the campaign? Is there ever a right time? A metric?
Unfortunately, the answer is never crystal clear about when the time is right and testing is only going to get you so far. One case has gotten a lot of press lately - Tropicana. For Tropicana, the last year has been a bit crazy.
According to Tropicana president, Neil Campbell, "the entire orange juice category was in decline". Over the last several years, people have been swapping out their juice in favor of Starbucks lattes, new flavored waters, even sodas (remember the Coke in the Morning campaign?). And, unlike what the California Milk Processor board did with the Got Milk campaign, not too much is being done on a National level (by say the Orange Grower's Association) to re-invigorate the category.
So, Tropicana took it into their own hands to try and re-create orange juice as a breakfast hero full of natural goodness to help you start your day with a squeeze.
The launch of the new packaging designs caused quite a stir with everyone and their brother writing in on the subject.
BrandWeek: Tropicana Squeezes Out Fresh Design with a Peel
Food Navigator: Twitter could leave bitter taste in Pepsi's mouth
Noah Brier posts: Why Did Tropicana Redesign?
New York Times: Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
Loyal Tropicanistas were furious over the new packaging saying that it was "ugly" and "generic". Those loyal users took to writing, calling and emailing in their complaints. And, fortunately for Pepsi, Neil listened. And, not only did he listen, but for those of us quickly passing through the dairy aisle, we won't need to search for the Tropicana much longer. We can pick it out easily again, grabbing that familiar orange with the straw just piercing the thick skin.
So what does this mean for you when trying to assess your brand's packaging and whether or not it's time for a change? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself:
- What do my customers think of my package? Do they love it? Hate it? Not think anything of it?
- Is my packaging consistent with my marketing and brand strategy?
- Is my package unique, ownable and differentiated from my competitors? Does it stand out from the crowd?
- Is my packaging consistent with my marketing and advertising campaign? Does it contain relevant link backs to the company - website, telephone number, Twitter handle, etc...?
- Is my packaging easy and intuitive to use? If you were to pick it up having never used the product before, would you know what to do and how to use it?
If you answer 'No' to any of the above questions, you might want to consider changing your packaging so that it is consistent, it is easy to use, it does stand out, etc... Some of these questions, you can probably answer yourself. But, it may be worthwhile to conduct some market research - even basic surveys - to get an 'outsiders' point of view.
To learn more about market research techniques, check out our upcoming live class - Market Research 101.
Melissa Wildstein is the Managing Director of a specialty advertising and consultancy firm, The Matchstick Group and the Community Engagement Officer for Tin Shingle.
To contact her directly, email her at melissa.wildstein@thematchstickgroup.com
