Label design

[clanless]

Am I the only one who chooses one product over another because "the bottle looks better"?
I wonder if anyone else takes label and product design into consideration when looking for an oil, shampoo, conditioner.

[rtree721]

This is an interesting question. Products are designed a certain way exactly for this reason, to catch your eye. I will say that when I am looking at an entire shelf of product, I will gravitate first towards the cooler looking ones. But I am very specific about what I use, silicone and sulfate free, I also prefer vegan and paraben free. So even if the bottle looks intriguing, it isn't usually enough for me. I have looked at bottles that I have purchased and thought that they were ugly or unattractive, but that doesn't stop me.

[neko_kawaii]

Beautiful labels are the only way I shop for wine. But then I don't drink it and only buy it as gifts for friends who enjoy trying something they may not have had before.

I remember standing in an Andronicos (think Whole Foods but swanky) with a friend as a teen. We were in front of the olive oil display and we noticed that the most eye catching labels were right at eye level. Then we started to look at the prices and sure enough, the higher prices were also right at eye level. The cheapest items were on the very top and very bottom shelves.

The marketing of an item does not stop with the label design and traditional advertising. Companies pay for prime shelf space in grocery stores too.

[melusine963]

This used to be the case for me, but now I pick my products exclusively based off their ingredients and price. If I were faced with two equally good options I would go for the one in the most convenient size.

[Vrindi]

Marketing also takes into account the subconscious effect that certain colors have on your mood. Some colors can make you feel hungrier, some make you feel more relaxed, etc. Same for music. Ever notice the sad, sappy music in the grocery stores and wonder why it's always the same? Ever wonder why grocery shopping can make you feel so grouchy? Because the people who buy the most amount of groceries are housewives and stay-at-home moms. The music is chosen specifically for that demographic to make them feel lonely and depressed. It's a slow tempo so you don't realize it, but you actually spend lots more time in the store than you need to, and buy things you don't want or need. The goal is to get people to feel slightly depressed and seek comfort, and here you are surrounded by food, so go ahead and buy that box of cookies you didn't really want! It's so manipulative and sneaky.

Try listening to your own music on an ipod when you shop. You'll notice a HUGE difference in what you buy and your mood. This will make you very aware of other subtle marketing tricks, like fancy bottles to disguise bad ingredients. Now I only shop by ingredients.

[hafattack]

Vrindi very interesting!! Didnt know marketers were soo sneaky haha

[torrilin]

People who do product development test everything they can think of beforehand :). Even crazy seeming stuff like how big to make a "fat free" or "paraben free" label, or what font to use on it. And it's not just one set of tests either. There's in house testing, testing on family members, and several sorts of focus group testing before a product ever reaches the test marketing stage. Kentucky Fried Chicken did rounds and rounds of test marketing their popcorn chicken before it finally became a regular menu item... I first ran into it being test marketed in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and it didn't become a year round regular menu item for years and years after. I think it was easily a decade transitioning from test marketing to seasonal item to regular menu item.

I'm used to looking at things with product development trained eyeballs, so I tend to look at packaging a bit weirdly. I do tend to find packaging quite important, but things like clear printing, easily found ingredients lists, and very function driven packaging are extra appealing. One of the fragrance free shampoos I've used drove me bats because the formula was pretty thin and runny while the package was one of those stand on the cap tubes, so I'd get gushes and gushes of shampoo every time, to the tune of 3-4x as much as I needed. Yet the exact same type of tube is on my love forever list for my favorite conditioner, because the conditioner is thicker and I can easily dispense anything from a pea sized drop to a giant palmful. And yes, things like the thickness or thinness of the actual product can count as part of the packaging, and they'll be considered closely in the design phase. Even stuff like whether there's mica mixed in for sparkle will get considered.

[akilina]

I definitely fall for the label marketing they do sometimes!
Its the reason why I bought Herbal Essences "long term relationship" a few years ago.

Now though, not so much. I give everything a chance if it reads like I might like it. I will still go to the store though and buy something because of how it looks at times if I want to try something new. I tried out Rusk because it was in shimmery metallic purpley bottles and said "repair" and sulfate free and I actually bought it without even reading the back labels. I like it well enough.

I always wonder what people think when they see me reading the backs of bottles and rolling my eyes gawking and putting it back on the shelf when I run across an ingredient I don't like :p

[lapushka]

I have someone else do my shopping for me, so I can't say I am attracted by packaging, as most times I don't even know what something looks like until it's been bought. So no, I'm not drawn (in) by cute packaging. Only the price of something counts as far as I'm concerned. :)