Pay-for-performance packaging?

You heard it here first. It's a marriage of something that's already happening in advertising and could soon be happening in packaging. It's about the perception of convenience and ease-of-use--a perception that changes over time. Time does change everything! The fact that Ivory Soap floats was meaningful when everyone took baths and finding the slippery soap in cloudy water was a widespread problem. It is not a problem when almost everyone showers. So it's not surprising that Procter & Gamble is rumored to be selling off its once flagship brand.

I observed and talked with consumers in preparation for a presentation at a Universal Design conference at Michigan State's School of Packaging. Universal design is gaining some momentum in the marketplace of ideas but it still feels like a dream. "Inclusive design" sounds more doable and suggests a win/win for business and consumers. Business wins by selling more to more consumers. Consumers win because more of them find "it" easier to use, or even possible to use. Universal Product Code (UPC) was introduced with percentage goals that packagers agreed to reach within a fixed time period. Universal Design doesn't have a retail component that packagers can use to measure progress.

While I like calling it inclusive design, the consumers I talk with call it friendly design, better design, or personal design. My mother called it intelligent design versus unintelligent design (nothing to do with the creationist controversy). My mother was 5'2" at her tallest and didn't drive but did have final approval rights on the cars my father purchased. Her approval was based on just three considerations:

1. A glove compartment she could open with her small hands and fingers

2. A passenger door she could open with the same small hands

3. A passenger seat that could be elevated enough to let her see out the front window

Over the years, I heard several car salespeople tell my mother that her criteria were inappropriate or silly when, in fact, they and their producers were the ones who just didn't get it and didn't even want to get it.

"Why baby boomers need foreign aides" was the subhead of a NY Times op-ed piece on immigration. "NO MAS IMMIGRANTS, NO MORE CARE," says the headline. "You can't count on your friends or family for little things like opening a tube of toothpaste."

Old marketing wisdom said that the best ways to expand sales were to expand distribution or use occasions. New marketing wisdom may come to see that the best way to expand sales is to include more demographics in the design of products, packages, and marketing programs.

Mark Twain said, "Age is a thing of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Each time a boomer or a boomer's parent can't open or read a package, it does matter, and the package's obsolescence is reinforced along with theirs. One of our consumers who is still young enough to use a knife as an opening tool writes: "Novartis is the manufacturer of Slow Fe (slow dissolving iron) tablets. I use a kitchen knife to stab through the back of the foil for each individual tablet and then push through from the front to cut the foil back. Net/net: I've increased my iron level but lost some blood."

We live in a self-service world. Having to get help with packages is time-consuming, embarrassing, annoying, and sometimes diminishing. The lost stature and market share of major brands is partly a result of their failure to maintain consumers' trust and stay relevant to changing lifestyles and concerns. The growth of store brands is partly the result of national brands' failure to deliver greater value or keep up with "what works for me" criteria.

Packaging that is inclusive and works-for-me synthesizes legibility and comprehension with ease of reaching, finding, carrying storing, opening, using, and disposing. It's about:

* Caps that are easier to grip and turn

* Seals that are easier to break

* Tabs that are easier to grasp

* Print that's easier to read throughout cycle

* Package markings that are easier to see

* Handles that help users carry & pour

* Use-coaching that is available as needed

* Retail placement and signage that work at the point of sale

Retailing and merchandising play major roles in how consumers recognize and understand products. Some retailers make products much more accessible than others. Short shoppers have trouble seeing what's on high shelves and reaching what they want. Tall shoppers have bottom-shopping blues. Format blurring adds to the problem that shoppers have in recognizing and comprehending the utility products. Format blurring means that everything is everywhere, which makes it harder for shoppers to know what to find where. The growth of store brands and corporate-brand designs means more blurring--store brand buyers lose the brand shortcuts that have told past generations what to expect.

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