It's not that I hear voices when I rip open a pack of Splenda for my morning coffee. But those bright yellow packets speak. They speak in fortune cookie, childrens' rhyme wisdom and I'm sure I'm not the only one listening.
"Find a packet, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck."
“A car in every garage and a packet in every cup.”
“Every sweet deed you do will be repaid to you tenfold.”
My Splenda packets are inspirational and filled with sweetness. My Splenda packets are in line with that form of marketing that requires consumer attention to be grabbed and stimulated. Momentary amusement has become a product differentiator… Other sweeteners don’t talk to me.
This amusement factor is hardly new. In fact, it’s a line out of Snapple's playbook. Flip-the-cap factoids became such a part of Snapple’s branding and image that the Snapple website includes a section devoted to Real Facts!
It's easy to see how momentary amusement can be a product differentiator in food products--eat the ice cream off the stick and solve the riddle, Splenda packets, Snapple lids, Taco Bell sauce packets... Point being, food doesn't last that long. A momentary differentiator is all you need.But will this form of product differentiation hold out? Or is it another tool in the kit that makes your product seem quirky and playful?
Really--is it just something to amuse the people who design the labels? Be honest!
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