Month: February 2011

In the world of beauty and make up products, packaging plays a very important role to consumers. Whenever I see make up products that have beautiful or innovative packaging, I’m instantly drawn to it and want to find out more. Since these are make up products, it makes sense to make their packaging appealing too because the users will use it to beautify themselves. Even though most people do not need a myriad of products, they may be lured into purchasing things that they may not need just because of the aesthetic appearance of it. For example, I found the Urban Decay lipsticks very appealing because of the shiny purple tubes and the miniature silver sword stuck in the end of the tube (not removable unfortunately). Sometimes items with nice or interesting looking packages can jump off the shelves at us when we’re shopping to stand out which is why packaging is important. Besides being able to contain whatever product it is, it should also be appealing to customers in terms of appearance and practicality in shape and size. However, this would probably not work if you had no interest in the product in the first place and you were price sensitive because pretty packaging may be more costly.

Some packaging appeals to other consumers not just because of their appearances, but because of how environmentally sustainable it is. There is a growing social trend towards environmental sustainability and many manufacturers are working towards making their packaging recyclable. For example, the make up company Tarte has a customer recycling incentive program where certain product containers can be sent back to the company to be recycled and the customer’s incentive for doing so is a small discount on future purchases of similar products. They also include symbols on their products to indicate what type of materials/ingredients in the product may be recycled. For example, some of their products may employ the use of soy ink which “is more easily stripped from paper during the de-inking and recycling process.” Therefore customers may find that their eco-friendliness adds value to their products and may be more inclined to buy their products versus similar products. I definitely think that having eco-friendly packaging adds value to their brand.

http://tartecosmetics.com/reduce-reuse-recycle.php?rrr_id=15

Yesterday my friend Bernice told me that McDonald’s was offering free food! It was their new “fresh baked buttermilk biscuit sandwich” and they were giving each customer one for free and the promotion was for two days during their breakfast hours. This was their first new breakfast launch since the launch of McGriddles in 2003. Of course I felt enticed to go but sadly it would be inconvenient for me to stop by a McDonald’s on my way to school. I think that by offering samples to customers it would be a great way for them to taste test new products and spread the word to other people and use word of mouth marketing as well. Also, it may improve the consumer’s view of McDonald’s if they feel that they are being very generous in giving out these free sandwiches for two days. I’m sure most customers don’t mind picking up some free food once in a while! This may even attract customers that do not usually frequent McDonald’s to stop by and hopefully regain their business. Even though McDonald’s is already a very successful international restaurant chain, they still need to extend their breakfast line and create some new products once in a while in order to remain competitive. I did some research and found that McDonald’s gives away $2 billion a year in free food!

Another website I know of that gives away free samples is www.brandsampler.ca. If you sign up for an account, you can answer a very short questionnaire about your product usage/preferences and then it enables you to choose a few product samples that they will send to your home free of charge. I have collected quite a few of these samples now and they include things like shampoos, mouthwash, a teeth whitener strip and even a small sample of Pringle Stix once. The site is sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. I think that by doing the questionnaires, P&G can learn about the products that consumers are currently using and collect useful data on consumer consumption. Although a downfall of this is that consumers may never end up buying the products they have sampled, they may choose to do so one day or spread the word about it if they think it’s good or bad and thus giving the product some free advertising. It’s always nice to get free stuff so if you want a few extra shampoo samples for the next time you run out I encourage you to sign up!

Nutella 2010 ad

Today I came across this article as I was surfing the net for marketing news knowing that yet another marketing blog post was due. Right away I found an article about a lawsuit against Nutella for false advertising. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/nutella-faces-lawsuit-over-healthy-claims/article1893240/ This intrigued me because I am a recently converted fan of Nutella having discovered its existence not too long ago.  For those of you that don’t know what Nutella is, it’s a chocolate hazelnut based spread used for bread or as a topping for other products and tastes just like Ferrero Rocher chocolates! In short, the article states that they were being sued by a mother who said she was misled by the ads that claimed Nutella was “nutritious” and “part of a healthy breakfast”. The article states that Ms. Hohenberg says she was “shocked to learn” from friends “that Nutella was in fact not a ‘healthy,’ ‘nutritious’ food but was instead the next best thing to a candy bar.” Frankly, I don’t think this lawsuit is going anywhere not that I know anything about law in the first place though. First they will have to find the definitions of nutritious and in small amounts Nutella does contain nutrients that we need in our everyday diet. Furthermore, the ads just say that it’s PART of a healthy breakfast so it doesn’t mean that eating it will make you healthy right? Also, if you read the nutrition label carefully, you can make a judgment yourself on just how healthy the product really is. http://www.nutellausa.com/nutrition-facts.htm The fat content is pretty high I’ll admit! Of course, everything should be consumed in moderation and it doesn’t seem that Ms. Hohenberg really suffered any losses or damages. Out of curiosity I also YouTubed one of their ads. It contained a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad that detailed what the balanced breakfast was based on. I’m not sure if this can count as marketing towards children though because their target market seems to be mom’s because they are the ones that usually prepare breakfast in households so they are not violating any child marketing laws in that case. Watch some ads and judge for yourself! Image from http://www.solonews.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/nutella.jpg.