I get frustrated when I meet people who don’t think advertising affects them. Advertising does affect you. And, in fact, I’d argue those who believe they are immune are probably most likely to be influenced.
How powerful are advertising and marketing? In 2007, I shared an excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink in which the author describes how product packaging affects our perceptions.
In front of us was the beverage section. Rhea leaned over and picked up a can of 7-Up. “We tested Seven-Up. We had several versions, and what we found is that if you add fifteen percent more yellow to the green on the package — if you take this green and add more yellow — what people report is that the taste experience has a lot more lime or lemon flavor.”
In other words, a product’s taste isn’t just affected by the ingredients; it’s affected by the packaging too! Advertising and marketing influence us in myriads subtle ways, and in-store marketing can be just as powerful as any other form.
Here’s a recent real-life example of how product packaging has an impact on our buying decisions. Last December, Tropicana introduced a new carton for its “Pure Premium” citrus juices. The old packaging featured a distinctive logo and an iconic “straw stuck in an orange” image. The new packaging was bland and generic.
No other changes were made to the product. The taste was the same and the cost was the same. All that changed was the packaging. If this sort of thing made no difference to sales, if consumers were not influenced by in-store marketing, then this package redesign shouldn’t have mattered.
But we are influenced by in-store marketing, and the package redesign did matter. It mattered a lot. According to last week’s Advertising Age, Tropicana’s sales for “Pure Premium” juices dropped by 20% between January 1st and February 22nd. In the business world, a 20% drop in sales is huge — especially when you consider that Tropicana’s competitors posted double-digit sales increases over the same period.
Tropicana, of course, denies any connection between the package redesign and the decline in market share. All the same, they’re bringing back the old packaging. It sure sounds like there’s a connection to me.
I’m not arguing that you should (or could) avoid advertising and marketing. I’m just asking you to be aware that it’s very real and very powerful, and it affects you — even if you think it doesn’t.
Photo by Justin Lai.
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I would have guessed the new packaging made people think it is “all natural” or even organic and would make people buy more.
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there was a story on NPR about this. people actively noticed and complained that they hated the new packaging, and that they didn’t want to buy Tropicana in the ugly new carton. How funny that people were happy to say, “you’re marketing this to me wrong!”
…it was a stupid move on Tropicana’s part, though. I mean, that package is awful.
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What irritates me is when companies change the packaging and then increase the price. This recently happened with my hair gel. I use a brand specific to my hair salon; they changed the bottle, but nothing else. The size and gel are the exact same.
And, yet, miraculously, it’s now “worth” two dollars more. I’ll be taking my two dollars elsewhere, thank-you.
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PS. It’s not always “subtle” power. Think about the stigma of no-name goods. Most of the time these products are the exact same as name brand, even manufactured in the same factory, but labeled differently. And, yet, so many people have an unwarranted aversion to them…
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Haha. For what it’s worth, I had the same exact reaction discussed.
The first time I saw the new packaging, it was so bland/nondescript that I thought to myself, “Is this a new low-end Tropicana brand?”
I kept buying it anyway, but apparently plenty of people didn’t.
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I wonder how much of that drop was due to people not recognizing the new packaging as the same brand. I know that with things I buy frequently and where I have a brand preference my eye just skips to the familiar package on the shelf. I would probably have skipped right over this package and gone for my second-choice brand of orange juice, since this looks like a store-brand package – plain words, no pictures or distinctive logos.
If they changed Diet Coke cans from silver to purple or the Cheerios box from yellow to green, how many people do you think would walk down the aisle looking for their product and never find it? I don’t know if that’s really “advertising” per se, but packaging is certainly a big part of branding and marketing.
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You’ve proven that the masses are affected by advertising, but not that any given individual is. I bought Tropicana before the redesign. I noticed the package redesign, thought nothing of it, and continued buying Tropicana. It tastes the same. Whatever.
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I don’t know if it just my particular blog-roll but this is the (no exaggeration) 20th post I’ve seen about the Tropicana redesign bungle.
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Speaking of Tropicana, watch out for their 50% less sugar OJ product. They took real 100% OJ, diluted it 50-50 with water, and threw in some natural flavor additive. (Check the ingredient list if you don’t believe me). Half the content of real OJ, but not half the price.
Ingredients: http://tinyurl.com/dh4a3q
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While not exactly packaging and advertising, I saw an episode of Food Detectives (great show if you haven’t seen it) a while back that had a food psychologist do an experiment that showed how packaging or presenting food made identical items taste better.
It was amazing. Large sample size and identical food. One group was fed the food on very plain table settings, no fancy stuff on the table or elegant presentation with the food, and gave the food very plain names.
The second group got the same exact food but on fancier plates, fancy presentation, and gave the food sophisticated names.
The results were pretty amazing. The people with the plain version said the food was terrible and wouldn’t pay more than about 12 dollars for the meal, whereas the fancy group loved it, thought the food was amazing and were willing to shell out over $30 for the meal.
So I’m with you. When people say they aren’t affected by advertising, packaging, or presentation, then they are probably just not aware of it. It happens on such a subconscious level that most people just don’t realize what kind of influence these things can have on their decisions and expectations.
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I noticed that packaging switch! I figured they were either a) following Pepsi’s lead by going for a more simple and modern look or b) trying to be mistaken for a generic so all the newly cost-conscious might accidentally buy it. They were probably originally trying to compete with Simply Orange.
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People think ignorance is bliss.
I prefer knowledge, but some people don’t care.
-Nate
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I seem to be in the minority but I liked the new packaging. I thought it looked fresh and clean. I still buy “simply orange” anyway.
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I’ll go ahead and second David Safar up there. My family shops at Whole Foods and Costco and we don’t have a preference for particular name brands and quite honestly I do consider myself one of the people who have a critical enough mind to recognize when something is being advertised, process it, and then make a rational decision about whether or not to buy the product.
To underscore, I __hated__ the new packaging. I always have liked the Straw-in-orange picture. However, this isn’t from lack of trial. I’ve drank 365 brand orange juice, minute made, Genaurdi’s, Clemens, Giant and inevitably I came down to enjoying the taste of Tropicana (Lot’s of Pulp is my favorite). It’s probably because of the [fake flavoring they use](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/22/qa_with_alissa_hamilton/) (My eyes have so sadly been opened) and the fact that I always found that concentrate has a serious acidic aftertaste.
That being said, I continued to buy Tropicana for all of the above reasons. I find it be a superior product and I try not to let advertisement and packaging influence my decisions like that. The product didn’t taste any different either!
I find the essential skills for living life in our consumer culture is a critical mind that’s aware that you’re always being marketed to. Everything is an advertisement and needs to be evaluated as such. I don’t understand why you’d think that with that in mind you couldn’t possibly critically and rationally evaluate the advertisements that are flooding you at any given time.
Still, I believe the last figure I saw was a 22% percent drop in sales for Tropicana which just made me laugh. It’s as funny as the New Coke campaign.
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Yeah, it’s pretty odd how strongly I disliked the new carton.
But we shouldn’t be surprised that people are attracted to beauty and repulsed by ugly. And the new carton is ugly.
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wow, i totally perceived the new design as being more high-end.
the fonts looked more modern. i wonder how the new pepsi logo is faring.
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Don’t confuse “marketing” with “advertising.” I really think I am unaffected (or at least not positively affected) by marketing, but sure I am affected by marketing.
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It’s like the ad that PizzaHut runs for their pasta… you present it in a fancy format, and people would never think twice that it wasn’t gourmet food. Marketing makes a good product sell, it can’t make up for a bad product however, maybe some, but in the end, if your product isn’t good, no matter how much you throw into marketing, it won’t sell.
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What about the possibility that the packaging is part of the good? Every part of our experience interacting with the good is part of its value, either positively or negatively. Heck, opening your fridge and seeing an eye-pleasing array is a value.
I think it is clumsy to compare two sets of packaging and claim that any valuation difference is arbitrary, and worse, that it shows our lack of ability to sense value. It’s just that our sense of value is larger than the orange juice in the box. Products’
value exists somewhere between their physical reality and our emotive associations. That’s why we taste more lemon/lime. And we actually do taste it. Don’t assume that is a bad thing.
(And thank god for that or else what would we have to spend all this money?)
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Thank you for pointing this out. Direct ads do nothing for me, but I admit when I’m hot and sweaty the first thing I think about is a cold brewed Coor’s Light. Then I realize that tastes awful and get a Miller Lite. They’re a joint venture for so they win!
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I saw the new Tropicana cartons, but at first glance I couldn’t figure out if it was organic or a generic brand.
I think they were trying to look organic and failed–miserably. Don’t care much ’cause I don’t drink the stuff anyway!
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They made tests with chips and to test eaters, they taste different in different forms (same material!). So it’s not just that the industry uses packaging to make us buy; obviously there’s a complex interpretation process behind taste that is more than just molecules on your tongue.
P.S. Milka in Germany once tried to move away from their lilac cow but buyers didn’t allow them *G*
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For even more amazing studies on packaging/advertising and it’s power over us, read “Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink. They discuss suggested serving sizes, serving lemon jello with red food coloring and people believing it’s cherry jello, telling people they’re going to taste-test strawberry pudding in the dark but giving them chocolate pudding with none the wiser. It’s amazing and all based on real studies, not just theories!
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@Janice (#23)
I have a copy of Wansink’s “Mindless Eating” that I plan to read and review at Get Fit Slowly. Someday.
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Hate to say it, but… I’m unaffected by marketing.
If anything, I will tend to avoid a product if they get too in my face trying to advertise to me. For most products, I’m totally oblivious to brand names. On the rare occasions that I’ve seen a commercial that I remembered and wanted to talk to someone about, I’ve found I can’t remember what brand of (orange juice / airline / jeans / soft drink / car) the ad was for.
As far as I’m concerned, brands are mostly interchangeable. There’s a scant handful of brands I do have loyalty to, generally because they’ve impressed me with their quality in the past. But other than that, I’m very critical, I find ads intrusive, and I shop based on the actual features of the product in question (including price). I buy the name-brand whenever I can. In a few cases I tried the name-brand and found it genuinely wasn’t as good (Cheerios come to mind), but for the most part, they are all the same.
There are far too few of us, but we do exist.
(Also, I don’t understand what the big deal is with the OJ packaging. Why do people care so much? The two designs seem basically interchangeable to me, though I guess the “straw in orange” symbol is a powerful one for Tropicana and it’s odd that they would sacrifice it.)
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You’re so right. I actually bought the old-style packaging when given the choice of the two in the grocery store this week! Packaging makes a huge difference! I’m laughing that I was guilty of being influenced by this very example!
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I stopped buying the juice until I looked closely and realized they still offered the same variations in pulp, calcium, etc. that they had before. The difference between cartons was very clear on the old package. The new package labels were in a smaller, softer font that was hard to spot from a couple feet away.
On the plus side, they were giving the stuff away for a few weeks! It was below $2.50 a carton while they were trying to move the new packaging off the shelves.
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Packaging and brand recognition are interesting subjects. When it comes to groceries I buy the lowest priced items on the shelf. My wife doesn’t like to go shopping with me because I don’t buy her favorite brands. She claims there’s a difference, but I guess we’ll never really know if she keeps buying her favorites now will we. C’mon they’re all cans of green beans how different can they be? I’ll be a tightwad to the day I die and that day might just occur in the local grocery store.
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I stopped buying OJ years ago when they started coming out with all these variations on what should be a simple product. No Pulp. Calcium. Some Pulp. Lots of Pulp. Country Style. City Style. Burb style.
Whatever. The moment something simple (it’s just freaking OJ!) becomes the object of market segmentation and thus so complicated is the moment I start feeling manipulated and stop being a customer.
I occasionally treat myself to a fresh-squeezed glass at my favorite breakfast spot…and I buy whole oranges at the grocery store…get more dietary fiber that way, too.
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You and me both Chris. I thought the design was modern, while the old one looked strikingly 90s. Enh, no big deal, I’ll gulp just about any OJ.
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One of my old bosses taught me a trick to see if your design will work in real life. He taught me to turn and walk a few feet away, and then turn back quickly and note what you see first when you look at the design. All too often designers spend so much time staring at the image from such a close proximity, that they don’t get a realistic view of how the design actually reads in a visual sense.
When you use that criteria with the two designs, you can’t dispute that on the old label, the orange and the “Tropicana” logo both jumped out at you, with the flag at the top delineating the type of juice coming in as a close second. The old packaging reads very clearly.
The main “flaw” in the redesign is that no single graphical element jumps out at the shopper. I’m sure it tested wonderfully when placed as a single image in front of consumers, but when placed in the buzz and distraction of an actual grocery store, and grouped together as a “brand statement” it all just washes over into a bland vista where nothing stands out.
I’m not surprised in the least that they are reverting back to the old design.
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Jeremy #10, how funny! Because there is this restaurant we went to during Restaurant Week in San Diego. One of those fancy, and popular ones and they offered a prixe-fixe menu to make them more affordable for us common folks. Everyone lapped it up. My cousin thought it was great. I thought my husband can cook something up with a lot more flavor than what was served. I guess they can get away with it because of their name and the fancy setting.
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That explains it! I actually noticed the new cartons at my grocery store just yesterday. I normally don’t by Tropicana because I prefer Florida’s Natural, but I have been buying Tropicana for the past month because it has been buy one get one free every week at the grocery store. I was beginning to wonder why Tropicana was continuously on sale, but that explains it.
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I had no idea they changed their packaging because I buy the cheapest frozen oj I can find, no matter how many times I see their ads or walk past their new or old packaging in the stores.
“I get frustrated when I meet people who don’t think advertising affects them. Advertising does affect you. And, in fact, I’d argue those who believe they are immune are probably most likely to be influenced.”
This article doesn’t prove anything about the people that believe they are immune to advertising or marketing. It just proves that advertising and marketing work, which everyone knows.
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My husband needs to drink low-acid juice. Tropicana is the only brand I’ve found that doesn’t just water down the juice to reduce the acid.
When Tropicana changed the packaging, it took me several minutes to find the low-acid juice. Maybe in time I would have automatically looked at the right section of the carton, but the change was very irritating and I can see why sales went down.
Those of us who are attached to a certain packaged product don’t just want a consistent taste – we also want our shopping to be quick and easy as we grab the same item every time.
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I noticed the new packaging but still bought the orange juice because I’ve always liked the brand; however, I don’t like the new packaging! Can somebody tell me why they changed the packaging in the first place??
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CV hit the nail on the head, I think — if you don’t recognize your tried and true product, you try the next thing you see. The NYTimes recently did an article on advertising (and where it fails) that offers an interesting counter to this idea that advertising/marketing (good distinction Daniel & Kat) is all powerful and we’re zombie victims. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested: http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/. I think the article helps address why many of us feel that advertising doesn’t affect us — it might make us curious, but we probably do the research & only buy the product for a legitimate reason.
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I think we are affected by subtle advertising, more so than pushy marketing. If we have seen an ad somewhere, especially in reputable media, it helps our purchasing decisions.
In Tropicanna’s case, I feel the new packaging is too bland. The old one has a greater visual impact and that helps when a customer is choosing which products to buy on the supermarket aisle.
However, it is important to note that a fancy ad or packaging may entice buyers, but there is no guarantee of repeat customers or referral business if the quality of the product is poor.
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The new packaging looks a lot like a generic brand so I’m very surprised that Tropicana made the change. I thought there had been enough lessons learned from the past marketing experiments to not change an iconic/very recognizable image.
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I’m like many other readers in that I found it hard to tell the difference between the different types of Tropicana in the new packaging. I don’t usually buy OJ, but my dad was visiting and he loves the one with lots of pulp. I went specifically to the store to buy it and came home with Minute Maid b/c at least I could figure the carton out! I imagine that the lack of distinction between the different types of OJ lead a lot of people to pick up a different brand.
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Of course, packaging & design is just as big a part of the blogging industry as any other, and surely part of objective of the design of any blog is to catch the readers eye, and distinguish from other blogs. That is why no blogger uses the default WordPress theme – or for that matter just raw text which would be a more inexpensive medium to distribute (less bandwidth, less advertising costs, etc). Instead bloggers spend lots of time to spruce up their raw product (the written word) with fancy fonts, pretty pictures, and all sorts of different colors (and dare I mention the animated banner ads?). If you liken it to that, the Tropicana situation is not so bad. It’s just taking pride in your work and giving it a little shine & polish. Is orange juice any different?
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I am very influenced by advertising in that I go out of my way to avoid it. We watch DVDs and avoid cable, listen to mp3s and avoid radio, don’t read newspapers, use Java and script blockers online, etc.
What has become a influence on my buying is product-specific online forums. However, I do know they are littered with false positive reviews (I’ve even done some when freelance jobs were lean, I’m ashamed to admit) so I still consider them advertising.
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@Marie (#42): I totally agree with you, I’m the same way. Just about the only thing that influences me positively is a recommendation from friends or family, or from a blogger I read regularly (and thus have developed some level of trust in). Basically anyone who has some stake in my purchasing something is suspect.
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I’m in marketing, and have marginally been involved in some food brands. A couple of things I remember from meetings:
1) Packaging is the NUMBER ONE priority for liquor and perfume. The content barely matters.
2) I don’t have the figures, but the jump in milk sales from the new packaging of “Dean’s Milk Chug” were FAR greater than any kind of movement from both of the “Got Milk” OR “Milk Mustache” campaigns.
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As JD mentions, our sales dropped by 20% at a time when the economy is incredibly weak and job cuts are the norm. While it is a lesson to be learned, there is also the personal side of it when my coworkers jobs were cut due to the lost revenue made by this decision.
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I had a writer who recently slammed my website because we were using twitter to get out awareness about an upcoming launch. He didn’t do enough research to figure out that we were doing this with about 1 out of every 20 tweets.
He sounded real smart until I pointed out that I counted no less than 16 advertisements on the page where the article was printed.
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Ha! Just this morning I opened my office fridge and saw these two cartons of orange juice… guess which one I picked?!
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I don’t buy premium OJ very often (well, we don’t drink OJ often at all), but was getting a medicine that was best consumed w/ a strong juice, so I went to go buy a kind we’d like. They had some of the old packaging, and Tropicana was on sale, so I set out looking for the type we’d like. I couldn’t find it. It took me several minutes to comprehend that the generic looking cartons were also tropicana. I didn’t even realize it – I thought they were just some random store brand. I knew right then that it wouldn’t work for them.
I used to work at a market research agency we did focus groups when a local (large) dairy goods company wanted to change their packaging. During one of the groups, one woman got up and started shouting about how milk containers just SHOULD be white because milk is white. She was REALLY passionate about it. So funny… people really, really do care.
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Thank you for trying J.D., but there are always a few unassailable minds in the crowd.
I quote Sun Tzu because we consumers are at war with marketers, whether we realize it or not. “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has an excellent program called “The Age of Persuasion.” It discusses topics in advertising and marketing. Definitely worth looking up.
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