Good products feel great when they bring a smile to our face.
Another tasty snack - that’s all it was. Maybe healthy, as
lately every packaging finds a way to brag about protein content. It’s only a
matter of time before luggage companies brag about calories burned during their
use. Back to the topic of the tasty, healthy snack, the bag of roasted beans on
the kitchen-counter in a packaging didn’t catch my attention, until it fell
over. At the bottom of the pack were the words ‘Why don’t beans ever get
lonely’, and my instant reaction was similar to the copywriting on a bag of
chips I vaguely recall reading somewhere to the effect that you can never stop
at one. I assumed the beans company was trying to say, “you can’t stop at
eating just one bean”. Until I saw the answer in fine print, but upside down: “Because
they stay in pods”.
The thinking that must have gone behind writing a playful
question in just a few words, deciding that they will find a place on packaging
with very little space, and to place it where it’s not obvious, followed by a
clever upside-down answer in fine-print that makes one smile – that’s marketing
magic. Of course, it would not work if the product isn’t wholesome.
What makes a company sign off on a marketing tool which, on
the wrong product, in the wrong placement, can be considered a childish gimmick
that diminishes the product’s perceived value?
When a company is proud of its work, knows in its heart that
its customers will love the product inside the packaging, that is when it dares
to go into the territory of humor. It takes serious self-confidence for a brand
to start thinking of making a customer smile. A standup comedian knows the
courage it takes to put oneself out there publicly and feel the weight of a
punchline that nobody in the audience gets. The glare of the spotlight only
makes it worse.
The boldness of Ramp’s association with ‘The Kumar Method’
comes to mind.
There’s also mystique to the understated bottom-of-the-package
placement of the copy leading to the delight of discovery. Kids wait to open
chocolate wrappers of a brand like Dove to read the sayings printed inside the
wrapper. The fortune cookie industry has grown around that simple concept of
making a customer feel good, optimistic, delighted or to make them just smile
after they have consumed the product.
Why only Chinese restaurants offer fortune cookies, I do not
know. However, there are lessons to be learned from such simple ways to delight
a customer which can be applied to any product or even to services.
The only caveat is to make sure that a product or service stays worthy by bringing a smile of satisfaction to give the company the cognitive clearance and the confidence that does not border on swagger to pack some humor along. Making customers smile implies serious preparation.
