Brand Packaging and Responsibility

Recently, I came across an article on Forbes about deceptive packaging. In the article was a picture of Fabuloso. If you take a look at the picture you may have a hard time determining whether or not the company is selling juice, soda or household cleaner. At first glance, I thought the product was a new soda. I had no idea that Fabuloso is actually a cleaner.

The concerns raised in the article about the product packaging were some of the concerns that I had when reading the article. What happens if a child were to get a hold of this particular bottle of cleaning product? Children do happen to be adventurous and curious by nature. 

The author got in touch with a man by the name of David Brier. Brier is a brand and packaging expert and he has participated in creating some of the largest brands in the world today. Brier actually believes that Fabuloso took a very unusual avenue to try and market the product as a cleaner because even he thought it looked like it could be a packaging design for soda. His best conclusion as to why the packaging looks the way it does is based on two characteristics. Firstly, he thought the large soda bottle appearance would appeal to the supersizing of America and that the colorful design would be most appealing to a younger more youthful demographic. One thing that Brier makes a point of is that he does not fully get the packaging, but he does agree that the product makes a point of standing out. 

After reading the article in its entirety, the question I posed in my mind was does it really matter if a company uses deceptive packaging for their products? Is it wrong? I find myself sitting on the fence for this. On one hand, the cleaner packaging may be misleading in the fact that the bottle looks like a soda, but as long as cleaners have the necessary danger labels on them I think it is okay for the company to use. On the other hand, whether they have the danger labels on the product or not it is still misleading and dangerous. 

I suppose companies are just trying to gain an edge on the competition by being noticed. 

Should companies and brands have to take responsibility when it comes to product packaging? Brier believes that there should be a barometer of some sort that the customer can use to identify what category of product they are looking at. He believes that if the consumer is unaware, they may lose trust in the brand. However, at the end of the day the goal is to drive sales and increase product awareness or is it?

 

Sarah Crooks - Thursday Seminar - 12pm to 2pm 

References: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/11/09/do-brands-have-a-responsibility-when-it-comes-to-packaging/2/