Very Clever, But Beware of Sensory Overload
I’ve got nothing against multi-sensory branding. In fact, I’ve blogged about this before, and am a big fan of Martin Lindstrom’s insightful book, Brand Sense. So,yes… I’m all for figuring out how sound/music can be incorporated into a brand (where appropriate), for example, or trying to make shampoo or cleaning products smell better. However, as I learned thanks to a recent Washington Post article, “Appealing to the Senses,” (reg. required) sensory overload appears to be the future.
Egads. Brands are rushing to “differentiate” by adding a noisy store-shelf gizmo, or a freshness detector on the package. Pay no mind to a mom’s annoyance at all the attention-getting ploys along the grocery aisle, aren’t these technological additions and enhancements to packaging so cool? (sigh)
Real improvements that have some meaning or help ease a consumer’s life are exciting (like the ability for Yankee Candle to give a sample of candle scents via ink in their catalogues - as mentioned in the article) . But, nobody other than the package designer gets something out of computer chips embedded into a potato chip bag so as to tell a consumer’s cellphone they’re on sale. Right?
My favorite few paragraphs appear near the end of “Appealing to the Senses:”
“Even with such innovations, though, it can be difficult to get consumers to notice the technological advances in packaging. Bob Groux, managing partner of WP Beverage Partners, which makes Wolfgang Puck self-heating coffee beverages, said marketing is the biggest challenge.
‘The pluses of the product are phenomenal. The challenge of the product is [that] educating the consumer costs lots and lots of money,’ Groux said. He said he’s spent millions of dollars promoting the new line of drinks.
So although mothers may hate the idea of more bells and whistles attracting their kids’ attention to certain products in supermarkets, for a company such as Siemens, consumer resistance is a distant consideration.”
OK - so it is difficult to get consumers to notice technological advances, and you spend lots and lots of money educating them about how great those advances are. Hmmm. I’d be curious to hear if there were any actual customers involved in their pre-innovation research.
Anyway…
Margaret Webb Pressler did a great job researching the piece and, though my personal cynicism colored my reading of it (as it colored this blog post a bit, I admit), she manages to be fair in her reporting. Read the piece, and then beware of any fabulous, exciting, amazing technological packaging or other changes you’ve got in mind to “differentiate” your wares.
Do those things float your own boat more than help your customer? If the answer is yes, run, don’t walk, back to the drawing table.
February 22nd, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Andrea, I agree. I wonder if anyone is doing an ROI on these efforts and if they, are what kind of assumptions they are making. If there is no clear value add to the consumer, they really should be spending their time elsewhere.