Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

How is Your Package Like a Lawyer and the Consumer Like the Jury?

It has been my position that your package is the presentation of your brand to the consumer at the point of purchase.  Your package should function much like a chef's masterpiece or a jeweler's display of diamonds.  As my favorite chef, my son-in-law, says, "all good chefs know that people eat with their eyes first."  I believe people in the same way shop with their eyes.  Your package should display your brand in an attractive and intrusive manner.  The package should be appealing and yet reach out to the customer.  The package should give the consumer a reason to select your brand over all competition.  There are many ways to achieve this, many are covered in my presentation of "The Ten Personalities of a Package," but the most common are through verbal and visual presentations.

Eric Schulz, author of a new book, The Marketing Game, has a unique analogy.  He compares the package with a trial lawyer and the consumer with a jury.  As he points out, a jury will listen to weeks of facts about a case and in the final days the lawyers will address the jury with their summations.  The summation is a distillation of the facts meant to persuade the jury to cast their vote for the lawyer's client.  By the same token, the consumer is inundated with advertising about all kinds of brands and their benefits.  According to Eric, the package should be the lawyer's summation.  The package should be a distillation of facts presented in your brand's interest aimed at convincing the consumer to purchase your brand.

When you walk down the store aisle, how many brands do you see that will verbally give you a reason to select them rather than some other brand?  There are not many and among those, many are Procter & Gamble brands.  many brands, especially in the food category will show a picture to stimulate purchase but that is much like telling the consumer what the product is rather than why they should purchase it.  One of my early mentor's favorite saying was, "People don't buy products, they buy promises and expectations."  They buy what it will do for them and not the product itself.  If you want to see the selling of what it is as opposed to what it does for the consumer, look at the cereal aisle.  They will tell you if it is corn, rice, wheat or oats.  They will tell you if it contains honey or raisins, if it is frosted, or mini, or shredded, or puffed.  They tell you everything but why you should purchase it.

On the other hand, move to the soap and detergent aisle and look at the Procter & Gamble brands.  Cascade will tell you it has improved cleaning, will leave items virtually spotless and it contains sheeting action (reason to believe).  Dawn will tell you it powers through grease easier, and it tackles tough foods while the antibacterial version will kill germs on the hands.  Joy will tell you it is concentrated and a spoonful cleans a sink full.  Ivory will promote its lasting suds.  Tide tells you it has deep cleaning with hydrogen peroxide while its bleach version kills 99.9% of bacteria.  Era calls itself the Power Tool for Stains and it works like a magnet for stains.  it goes on and on where they give the consumer a reason to purchase their brand.

Could this be one of the reasons that P&G brands are usually the number one brand in the category?

 Are their packages really good lawyers?


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