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June 17, 2008
Things Change
Sometimes change is good and I can understand the reasoning why a company makes certain changes. However, there are those times when I wonder what are they thinking?
As a consumer, I am attracted to bright, flashy labels. I have heard that certain colors make a person want to buy a particular product over others. So, I wonder why a company would take a perfectly good-looking label like this one:
And turn it into this:
Without that flash of yellow, I believe this new label is plain and not appealing.
I thought the store had stopped selling this mayonnaise because the label had changed. This, to me, is another reason to keep things the same; consumers may buy something else because their eye doesn’t zoom in on the new, boring, label.
This was the old oatmeal box:
It was baby blue, the flavor was in a brown box and easy to read.
This is what I have to look for now:
This is a very basic box and the flavor is not near as visible and easy to spot on the shelf when it is among the other boxes which look the same. In other words, I actually have to take the time and read the boxes to make sure I am getting what I want. Before, it was much easier.
As I said earlier, there are some changes which are good. For instance, this is the old Fried Ice Cream box:
It was a good box, but this is a better one:
It’s bright, flashy green and you can’t miss it. I don’t have to take time to read labels with this new box because no other flavor is this shade of green. (In Winchester, I have only seen this particular flavor in Kroger.)
This last change is okay, but I hate to see something I grew up with completely change.
This was the old Friday’s restaurant:
It was blue and very easy to identify. If you drove past a blue restaurant, you knew it was a Friday’s. Now it looks this way:
It’s nice. It really is, but it tends to blend into all the other buildings which surround it. I won’t say it was a bad change, but I will miss the blue.
Posted by tami at June 17, 2008 5:23 PM
Comments
It sounds like you like change about as much as I do! LOL! I think the reasoning behind the mayo change is that label #2 has an organic kind of earthy feel that can be construed as more healthy. Mayo is not so good for you, so I think they are trying to change the image with packaging. If you ever shop at "health food stores" like Earth Fare, Green Life or the Fresh Market, you will notice that all of those organic products have a very neat, subdued label like the new mayo label you are seeing. Kraft is trying to play off that image, I think.
Posted by: Tammy at June 18, 2008 3:04 PM
I do a lot of market research surveys and the ones about packaging and label preferences are very interesting. I think Tammy's on the right track about the mayo. I think it's boring, too - that yellow set it apart. The new one almost looks like a generic version. I think the new TGI Fridays design makes it look like a KFC!
Posted by: GW at June 22, 2008 11:25 PM