Notes

[MUSIC]
Okay, so let's talk
about packaging.
Packaging, as I said, has very strong
effects on perceptions.
And it's very a very interesting category.
So let's, let's kind of look at packaging.
we started learning a lot about packaging
here in the U.S. in the
1930s, and what happened in the 1930s was
that the, the grocery store was moving
from the person behind the counter where
you would go to a grocer or
you'd go to a butcher or bakery and you
talk to somebody behind the counter.
And they were moving to self service
supermarkets.
So that the consumers were going to go up
and down the aisles
of the supermarket by themselves and pick
out products without any help.
When this started happening it was very
clear that the
packaging the product was in was going to
matter a lot.
And so the question was, how will people
use packaging
cues to choose what they're going to
choose in a supermarket.
And so one of the early famous experiments
was done with detergent.
And they put the same detergent in two
different boxes,
because what we were testing here was the
differences in the packaging.
And in one package, they had a design that
had ciricles,
and in the other package they had a design
that had triangles.
And they wanted to see which one people
would choose.
And it turned out it was very reliable.
People preferred the, the detergent that
was in the box with circles.
So then they let people take both of these
detergents home.
now remember the detergent in both boxes
was the same.
What was different was the package.
And so the consumers took both, both
packages home.
They much preferred the package with the
circles on it.
And they use the detergent from both boxes
and
then were asked, which detergent did you
like better?
And this is what was really surprising.
Not only did they like the package better
with the circle, but
they believed that the detergent in the
box with the circles worked better.
That was astonishing at the time, people
couldn't
believe it because it was exactly the same
detergent.
So they redid the study a few times with
larger sample sizes and consistently got
the same result.
That was the beginning of understanding
that the
package Absolutely in, influences the
perception of the product.
And now today if you look at Tide, for
example, still has those circles
on its product.
even when it goes in different col,
countries,
things will change in the package, but you
will still see those circles which we know
were really preferred by consumers for
choosing detergent.
And they're in that bright yellow that,
that really pops out at you.
So, packaging is in, is very i-,
interesting, because it can influence
at the point of purchase, it helps you
choose what you're going to choose.
But as these ex-,
experiments showed you, it continues to
have
an influence at the point of consumption.
So it not only gives you a reason to
choose when you're purchasing.
But it also influences your perception of
the product experience itself.
and there are multiple objectives in a
package.
You can identify the product, you can
present some kind of information the
package
can be used to protect the product, it can
be used to store the product.
It can aid in consumption, it gives you
more information on how to use the product
appropriately.
So the package not only using perceptual
cues,
the packaging not only uses a lot of
color.
but the packaging is also pretty
informative.
I've talked a lot about color before.
and so you have to know that packaging
aesthetics are and the function are very,
very critical.
The colors are used to help
grab consumers' attention in, in a sea of
competing messages.
And it also though has to be used so
that you want to buy the product again and
again.
So you want to choose, the, the variations
of colors and
designs so that they'll make for an impact
impactful package.
but you have to, as I mentioned earlier,
know your distribution channels.
Because, you don't necessarily control the
way the package is ultimately distributed
and
there are certain, you might do some
really cool things with
your package and then the retailer doesn't
necessarily abide by the
way what those, that packages exhibited
and that's just the reality
and you have to think it through that when
you're doing it.
Let me go over some iconic packages and
how they've
really changed customer perceptions and
really helped build market share.
I've talked about color, and color is
extremely important, so let
me say that colors on packaging can really
do these same kinds of things.
But I'm not going to be redundant and
mention
color again, so let me focus now on shape.
So one of the new products that came out,
Calvin Klein
came out - a number of years ago, tens of
years, decades
ago I think actually, with one of the
first products that came
out with a fragrance that was designed for
both men and women.
It was unusual in that case.
And a lot of the ads showed
very designy ads, and they showed models
that The gender was kind of ambiguous.
And so it, it was a very interesting
campaign and
they really wanted the product to be seen
as edgy.
And so if you look at this package of the
CK Cologne
that they came out with, you can see that
edginess in the package.
The shape of the cologne was in the shape
of a flask.
Which is an interesting thing for a
cologne.
You know, it's not usually the shape
of a, of a product you think for a
cologne.
And you can also see that they used a
symmetry in
their logo, which again, really gave this
notion of of edginess.
And a lot of times when people choose
fragrance, this is one thing
we know for sure, they, they're not really
experts at choosing different scents.
And so the packaging and the brand name is
very
influential in what people choose as the
fragrance they like.
another famous,
famous, famous shape of a bra, a bottle
was Absolut.
This was one of, this campaign I don't
think is being used anymore, but it's one
of, it was used for about ten years,
it's one of the most famous print
campaigns around.
And the whole print campaign was
predicated on the shape of the bottle.
So vodka, a lot of times people
have difficulty telling different vodkas
er, apart.
That's not to say they're not different.
But some people have difficulty at times.
Especially after the tenth drink.
and so the bottle really, really is
important.
The brand name and the bottle,
establishing brand loyalty.
The Absolut bottle was interesting because
most of spirit bottles
have a longer neck because bartenders are
people use a product.
They, they hold the neck to pour.
So actually this wasn't as easy a pro,
a, a, a bottle to use, but it's because it
was
so distinct that the shape of the bottle
was so important.
And they really, really focused on the
shape of the bottle in the ads.
The ads went through different stages,
some of, some
of the ads just showed the bottle, some of
the
ads showed other things in that shape,
like I
remember a famous one where they had an LA
ad.
And they had the swimming pool in the
shape of the Absolut bottle.
and they did a lot of, they used
celebrities,
they used artists, they did a lot of
creative things,
but it was always around the shape of the
bottle.
Another iconic shaped bottle is Coca-Cola.
So Coca-Cola, as I mentioned, is a very
very very strong brand name.
But part of that brand imagery comes not
only in their logo, in their
red color, in their famous polar bear ads
and other types of ads they have.
But, also in the shape of their six and a
half ounce bottle.
That was their first
product and a very distinctive shape that
people could tell it
was a Coca-Cola from all the other soft
drinks out there.
When the bottle went from glass to
plastic, originally, when Coca-Cola came
out with
their plastic bottle, they lost their
unique
shape, and that was a decided
disadvantage.
And so they managed to figure out how to
recreate their iconic glass shape
in plastic.
And I remember I was a marketing professor
when they did this,
and they sent out to marketing professors,
you know, an empty bottle, or
empty plastic bottle of Coca Cola in their
iconic shape because they were
so happy that they had managed to
reproduce this in this new medium.
Because they understood how important that
was.
And another very famous bottle of course
is the Heinz ketchup bottle.
I've been told this is in the Smithsonian,
I'm not sure that's true,
but it could be, because it's a museum
piece.
People recognize the quality of the
ketchup
because of the shape of the bottle.
And this, again, kind of like the
Absolut bottle, is pretty interesting,
because that
shape in that glass bottle makes it
difficult to get the ketchup out of.
So it's not even a product that helps the
product and use the product.
It actually gets in the way of using the
product, and yet still it
really really define the quality of that
ketchup, by the shape of the bottle.
So, shape is extremely important at, at
causing at creating brand imagery and
brand identity.
And, shape also can be in and of itself an
excuse for a new product.
One of the most successful new products in
the soft drink industry was the
refrigerator pack.
They did some market research and they
found out that if the cans
of soda were in the back of the
refrigerator, people did not consume it as
much.
So if they wanted people to consume
the product, they needed some mechanism to
bring
the cans to the front of the consum the
refrigerator, so people could drink it.
and that these pack, refrigerated packages
were designed that way.
And that package design single-handedly
increased market
share for the companies that started doing
it.
It was a very successful new product
introduction.
And it didn't have anything to do with the
actual product, but just the packaging.
And similarly, Hunt's came out with a,
a package for getting ketchup out that's
easier.
and so you turn the product upside down.
It's easy to get the, the ketchup out.
And again, that was a successful packaging
innovation.
[MUSIC]