Ugly Packaging or Weird Product? I'm not going to buy either.

In Kenna’s Dilemma: The Right – and Wrong – Way to Ask People What They Want, the author explores and explains several principles of how we ask the wrong questions or perform the wrong marketing research tests and wonder how we can get more accurate results. It seems that most of the time, the problem is realizing how people behave. It isn’t necessarily a bad test or a poor product, just the underlying way that people tend to react. The lessons in the chapter should be applied to how we do our market research because the human behavior factor is a huge influence on our results.

One of the lessons that resonated with me was the sensation transference concept. The chapter states, “they [customers] transfer sensations or impressions that they have about the packaging of the product to the product itself…most of us don’t make a distinction – on an unconscious level – between the package and the product” (160). In a way this human behavior is slightly disturbing because it doesn’t make any rational sense, and I think we would like to see ourselves as being rational. However, when I examine my own behavior, I notice that often times I buy the packaging more than the product. It goes along with the saying that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. We still do and buy the book with a cover that suits us. For marketers, they need to be aware of this and package their product to match the product, as well as fit their target audience. I believe green household products have done a good job at this, because they always have simple lettering, white or clear bottles, that signify the environmentally-friendly aspect of the product. I think this concept can be applied also to blogs. The design and layout of the blog is crucial to whether or not a visitor will see it as credible and relevant enough to read. If you compare corporate blogs to personal blogs (especially the typical teenager), you’ll see a huge difference in what it says about the blogger (more or less the product in this situation) and the target audience. Marketers should also be careful when it comes to changing the packaging. Pepsi recently changed their can to be a different font, and although I’m not a Pepsi fan, I perceive this “new” Pepsi to be the basic cola…all based on the font.

Another lesson that I saw relevant to marketers, as well as very pervasive in my own experience was the problem of weird/different/new products being classified as bad. The chapter puts it this way, “people reporting their first impressions misinterpreted their own feelings. They said they hate it. But what they really meant was that the chair was so new and unusual that they weren’t used to it” (173). In order to get over this problem, marketers need to allow people to experience those “weird” products twice, not just once. They should put out coupons and provide money-back guarantees, in order to get people to buy the full-sized product. I also think that they need to make the product cool and acceptable before it reaches the market. Celebrity endorsement is perfect for this situation or hiring influencers to hype the product up. Influencers can blog about how the product may be new and different, but is still good, which can warn people what to expect. My first thought on such a weird product is the introduction of gaucho pants. It has been quite a while, but when they first came out, it was strange and unusual-looking. No such fad had ever come out before. However, as more people started wearing them (particularly my older sister), I started getting warmed up to the idea of wearing them. I bought my first pair and was amazed at how comfortable they were. No wonder so many people opted to buy them, even though they were weird at first.

The lessons learned in this chapter can pertain to so many products but it is really up to marketers to understand their market and how they are prone to react. Realizing that consumers often view packaging and product as one and tend to shy away from “different” products, marketers can address these problems better.