You’re having a “nice little Saturday,” driving down the Vestal parkway, running errands like a good little American (Old School, anyone?).

You get a craving for a little Starbucks coffee.  But you’re driving west on the parkway (a.k.a. on the Staples, Town Square mall side).  You quickly realize that there is no Starbucks on that side of the parkway.  None.  Unless you hop on the parkway from an intersection with a traffic light,  you’re going to have to do a u-turn in order to get that delicious coffee drink you’re craving.

Now if you’re like me, you probably let out a big sigh, complain about it a little bit to the person you’re with, then do the u-turn.  So at the end of the day, Starbucks still gets your money.

However, I have talked to some people who have said that this situation has actually stopped them from getting Starbucks before.  They have opted out of it, just so they don’t have to backtrack or do a u-turn.

This, to me, is clearly an ingress/egress issue.  If you’re not going in the right direction, it’s just too hard to get in or out of there.  Because of the median on the parkway, you can’t just turn left unless there is an intersection going into where you’re going.  So if you want to go somewhere that is on your left, and there isn’t an intersection, you are stuck in the dilemma that I wrote about above.  The other day, I had an interesting thought: I wonder what would happen if they opened up a Starbucks on the westbound side of the Vestal parkway?  The other Starbucks might lose a little bit of business, but as a whole, I think the company would actually make more money, because people would be able to access it easily in spite of the direction they are going.

Ingress/egress is such an important aspect of a successful business.  I can actually think of a few places that I have still never tried, simply because it’s too difficult to get to them (ingress).

And if it’s really hard to get out of a place (egress), it doesn’t give you a positive feeling about going back there again.  On the other side of the coin, if a business is easily accessible, people are much more likely to stop in and give it a try.  Location is extremely important, too, of course.  But if you are looking to open up your business, I would challenge you to think seriously about the ingress/egress issue.  Do your best to make it easy for people to get in and out.  And next time you’re doing that Starbucks u-turn on the parkway, you can think of me.  ;-)

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Well, a few months ago, sometime in the spring I guess it was, there started to be some activity at the old ice cream place.  People were in there cleaning things out, tearing stuff down, painting, putting in new equipment.  Then once the weather started to get nicer, they started working on the outside too!  They painted the outside, and put up a sign that said the name of the new place, and that it was coming soon.  All of the renovations got people to talking–in fact, almost every person I talked to had noticed the work going on.  And now that it’s open (and it’s been open for several weeks already, maybe even a month now), there is almost always a line at the window.

Now here’s the part that I find fascinating about this whole thing.  Some very key aspects of the situation stayed constant–the location (it’s in the same building), the type of product that is offered (still ice cream, although I have heard the brand has changed)–and yet the business is now booming, whereas before it appeared to be struggling.  It just goes to show how important those other aspects of the business are: appearance (how attractive does the business look to people driving by?), service (are the people running the business friendly?), and quality (I’ve heard the new ice cream is delicious compared to the old).  Take those three things out of the equation and a business is going to have a hard time attracting, let alone keeping, customers.

Sometimes all it takes to turn things around is a fresh new look, a renewed sense of pride and enthusiasm on the part of the staff, and improved quality of the product being offered.  Other times businesses need complete overhauls in order to be successful once again.  Either way, the people who own the business need to be ready to step outside and ask themselves some tough questions.  It might require some objective opinions as well in order to make sure everything is being thoroughly covered in the analysis.  Perhaps an effective way to analyze a business would be to look at it from the customer’s perspective in the form of a list (again, an outsider might be much better at this than the people who are actually running the business).

In the case of the ice cream shop, for example, it might look something like this: location, appearance of the building, condition of the parking lot, menu, service, quality of the ice cream, presentation, place to sit and eat the ice cream.  Those would be all of the things to look at and try to improve.  As I said before, sometimes a few little things can be tweaked and can make a huge impact, and other times a business might have to change just about everything.

No matter what kind of business you are, when people see you are making changes and trying to improve, they will almost always be willing to give you a second chance.  That’s why it’s always worth doing.  On a regular basis, try to step outside of the day-to-day and look at your business critically.  I think you’ll definitely see some positive results.

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Turns out, Bush’s has a really interesting story.  Now, I’m paraphrasing here so bear with me, but the gist of the story is that for a little while there, Bush’s tried to get into other products on top of just their beans–I believe it was canning a variety of different foods–and their business was suffering (this was way back in the early 1900’s).  So they hired some very credible business consultants to help them out.  And guess what they told them?  You’re trying to do too much.  You need to go back to your specialty, BEANS, and focus on that.  They did, and their business has thrived as a result.

This story was so interesting to me because it made me realize that so many businesses go through that same scenario.  See, usually a business starts out doing one thing.  That’s what gets them going in the first place–they know how to do one thing really well, or in a different way than other businesses out there, and they do it.  They build a reputation, gain customers, and grow in size.  Then, they reach a point where they think they could try this or that other thing to diversify their business’ offerings.  And what oftentimes happens then?  The quality of their trademark product goes down a bit, because they are no longer focusing all of their energy on it.  This upsets their customers, and the business suffers as a result of trying to do too much.

Now I am not saying that it’s always a bad thing to offer a variety of products or services.  Surely there are plenty of businesses that have found a way to diversify and still be successful.  But I do think that if a business tries to do too much, they will have a hard time.  It seems to me that specialization is a much more reliable route to success.  There are plenty of ways for businesses to expand without losing sight of their specialty.  Like expanding their service into other geographical areas.  Or perhaps a happy medium might be to offer some variety within the specialized area.  Like in the case of Bush’s, they offer several different varieties of beans.  But they’re still specializing in beans, because that is their niche.  As the old saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Sometimes it pays to keep things simple and focused.  Find what it is your business is really good at, and do it.

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Yesterday, the package arrived.  I was thrilled at how fast it had come, and all the way from California at that!  Well, as is often the case with me and shoes, they didn’t fit quite right.  So I dug through the box to find a return shipping label–and there was none to be found.  On the receipt inside the box, however, it stated their return/exchange policy, which read something like (and I’m parahrasing):

“Returns: You can mail your unworn sandals back to the address above.  When we receive the package, we will refund you your money back.  Exchanges: Mail your unworn sandals to the address above, and write the size and color of the sandals you would like in exchange for them on this receipt.  When we receive the package, we will send out your new sandals.  Note: there will be a $4.95 re-shipping fee for all exchanges.”

So let me get this straight.  Not only do I have to go down to the post office and pay to mail the package back to the company (which I’m assuming will cost $6.95 but hey, ya never know–could be more!), but then, just to do the exchange, I have to pay a random $5 fee too?  That means I am now paying $12 more than I originally paid for the sandals.  Suffice it to say, I was not a happy camper at this prospect.

Here’s what I decided to do.  I went on Zappos, and sure enough, although they had not had the size/color that I thought I needed initially, they did have the other size that I realized I needed after trying on the original pair.  And, as I’m sure you know, they have a drastically different approach to shipping, returns, and exchanges.  Also known as…..FREE shipping, FREE returns, FREE exchanges.  I ordered the new pair off of Zappos, and will be returning the sandals that I originally ordered for a refund.  Still going to have to eat that $6.95 or however much it will cost to ship them back to California, but at least I won’t have to deal with a re-shipping fee, or worse, have to go through the whole thing again if the other size doesn’t work either.

Here’s the thing.  If you are an online retailer, you need to have an amazing policy in these areas.  Because really, that is the whole nature of your business.  You don’t have a physical store where people can take multiple sizes into a dressing room with them and pick which one fits the best.  They are sometimes going to have to return the original item to you in order to have you send them a different size (in fact, this will probably happen all the time).  And if you make that process difficult, let alone expensive, for them, they’re not going to be happy–and they probably will never use you again.  Am I overreacting?  Perhaps.  But I guess after dealing with some really amazing companies that really know how to handle these types of things, I have pretty high standards when it comes to customer service.  We all should, because in this day and age, online retailers need to get with the program in order to stay competitive.

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When you are excited about doing something, and you really get “in the zone” doing it, several things tend to happen.  First, you don’t feel like you’re working.  You’re not really “trying,” you’re just kind of doing your thing.  Another thing that happens is that you lose your sense of time.  Oftentimes you’ll notice that the time has gone by really quickly when you actually do check the clock.  Two hours can feel like twenty minutes.  Usually, though, if you’re really excited about what you’re doing, it will take you a much shorter amount of time to finish a task than it would have taken if you were bored by it and were forcing yourself to do it.  Your quality of work is also going to be affected by how passionate you were about it as well.  If you’re bored with what you’re doing, you would probably produce mediocre work, maybe good work (on a really good day).  But you will produce high quality work when you were really into what you were doing.

Something I find really interesting about this principle is that you can’t trick yourself into being passionate about something.  At least I can’t.  If I find something really uninteresting, I can’t all of a sudden pretend that I think it’s interesting in order to get the task done faster.  I can try, but it will still drag on and on.  So my mind naturally goes to this question: how does this apply to managing people?

The role of a manager is to get the people who work under them to do quality work for the business.  And the best way to do that is to get them genuinely passionate about it.  Because people can’t fake being excited about something, you have to get to know each employee, and try to figure out a way to get them interested in what your company is doing on a personal level.  If you can do this successfully, your employees will want to come to work every day, and when they’re there they will be highly productive.

I’m saying all of this like it’s an easy task, but it isn’t by any means.  I think it would be really tough to try to achieve this from a manager’s standpoint.  But in an ideal business, all of the employees would be invested and passionate about the work they’re doing.  That’s definitely something that should be strived for.  When people are doing work that doesn’t feel like work, they are happier and less stressed.  They think positively about the company they’re working for, and feel a strong sense of loyalty to it.  If you’re in a managerial role, I would challenge you to try to get your employees genuinely excited about the work they are doing.  I’d be willing to bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

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simplicity.

The key to a good logo is simplicity, no question.  It can’t be too busy.  A lot of times, companies try to make their logo do too much, as in actually show the service that they provide.  A carpentry company, for example, might choose to have a picture of a guy making a chair with the name of the company weaved in there somewhere, as their logo.  Unless the picture was extremely simple, that logo would probably be too busy.  It might be better if they just go with something extremely simple, like a saw.  Take a second to look at the picture that I’ve attached to this article.  Just let your eye skim over it.  What does your eye naturally go to first?  I would be willing to bet it’s the very simple logos, like Mercedes, IKEA, Mobil, Walmart, and Hanes.

The logo I saw yesterday was almost completely unrelated to the service the company provided.  They were a gas and oil company, and the logo was basically just a lime green oval with the name of the company in the middle.  When there’s too much to look at, a logo quickly becomes confusing.  And when you don’t know what you’re really looking at, you’re not going to remember it later.  A beautiful, simple logo sticks with you for a while.  There’s something about it that you remember. For example, the Target logo.  It doesn’t get much more simple and streamlined than that.  Or another logo that I think really illustrates this well is the H & R Block logo.  So simple, yet so memorable.  The interesting thing is that both of these logos actually tie in with the name of their company.  It’s nice when that happens, but it’s not always necessary.  Simplicity should win out every time, even if that means the logo itself doesn’t explain what your company does.

Let’s get a little bit more visual with the simplicity idea.  Oftentimes the best logos have very clean, bold lines, and simple, geometric shapes that stick with you.  Think about what would catch your eye more if a truck drove by you fairly quickly: a fancy, cursive font, or an all-caps, bold font?  While the fancy cursive might look pretty if you look at it for long enough, that’s not what a logo is about.  You need something that will grab your attention in seconds.  Because sometimes that’s all people have.  I’ll give you another example.  What would be more eye-catching, a detailed picture of a bouquet of flowers or a picture of a single daisy?  Again, while the photo of the flowers may be pretty to look at for a while, the single daisy is much more memorable.  Logos are not a piece of modern art that require interpretation.  They have a simple job to do, and visually, they should reflect that.

I’m not saying that all logos need to look the same.  You want your logo to stand out from the rest, after all.  But I am saying that simple is always better.  If you want to include a picture of some sort in your logo, that’s fine.  But when it comes down to a choice between a detailed picture and a more simple, geometric picture, I would go with the latter.  At the end of the day, you need your logo to catch people’s eye in a quick moment, and you want them to remember it later so they can look up your company.  And in my opinion, it’s the clean, simple logos that do those two jobs best.

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There were several other family members in the room that listened intently to the sponge conversation, because I had gotten them using my mom’s previous kind of sponge as well.  It was in this moment that I realized: I would be willing to bet that people within a family often use a lot of the same brands of products.  This brand loyalty is strong because it is passed on within a family: “this is the kind of _______ that we buy.”

I don’t know about all of you, but when I was living on my own for the first time, I made many a phone call home to my mom while standing in a grocery store aisle, and the conversation usually went something like this:

me: Hey Mom, I’m at the grocery store and I need [fill in the blank].  What kind do you get?

Mom: Oh, I always get [fill in the blank] brand.  I’ve tried some other kinds and I think that one is the best.

me: Okay thanks!

[Proceed to checkout line with item that Mom recommended.]

As pathetic as it might be, I am sure there were times when I made multiple calls like this within one grocery trip.  There were probably several reasons why I wanted to use the same brand as my mom.  First of all, there is a lot of trust there.  I feel like my mom knows what she’s doing when it comes to grocery shopping, so it’s like the hard work has been done for me.  She’s been figuring this stuff out for years, so I might as well tap into that knowledge.  Secondly, having the same brands in my house that my mom has in hers makes it feel more like a home to me–as weird as it might sound, I probably associate those familiar brands with being at home.

This doesn’t just apply to mothers and their children.  Because it can often go out much wider than that, and as the children get older, they can start recommending brands to their moms as well (it can go both ways).  Oftentimes within an extended family, one person will try a new brand of a product, and then they’ll tell someone else in the family, who will tell someone else, until eventually they are all buying the same brand of, say, sponge, like in the above example.  I am fascinated by this.

It just goes to show that word of mouth is oftentimes the absolute best advertisement that there is.  It also proves that brand loyalty can spread down through generations, which is probably pretty intimidating if you’re in the marketing field.  How do you get someone to break the mold and try your product, rather than the one their entire family has been buying for years?  I suppose that’s where packaging and other forms of marketing would have to come into play.

Next time you’re in the store and you go to buy your usual brand of a product, ask yourself if the reason you started buying that brand was because it’s the kind your mom (or other family member) buys.  And if you see someone in the aisle on their cell phone, asking their mom what to buy, you can think of me.  In fact, it might actually be me (yes, after all these years, I still find myself making that call every once in a while).  Because in my book, when it comes to brands, “Mama knows best.”

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• Construction/Renovation–When there is construction going on of any kind, people driving or walking by can’t help but take notice.  It’s exciting to watch it happen bit by bit, and it definitely inspires curiosity.  People want to read the signs to figure out what business is going to be going in there.  And when it finally opens, they are very likely to go in and check it out, because they are excited to see the work that has been done.  This holds true for renovations to old buildings (people like to see that previously vacant spots are being filled up–it makes them think positive things about the business because it shows they are investing in bettering the area), as well as brand new construction.

• Outdoor Seating–This one really only applies to restaurants/cafes/bars.  But when the weather starts getting a little bit nicer, people like to be out in it.  Places that offer outdoor seating areas look all the more inviting for that reason.  When you drive or walk by one of these places, and see the outdoor seating area full of people that appear to be having a good time, it makes you want to join them.  You can’t help but think positive thoughts about that business for giving you a place to sit outside and enjoy yourself.  And if it’s a nice enough day, you’d probably much rather go to one of those places than a place where you have to stay inside.

• Outdoor shopping area–Oftentimes you’ll see this in cities or towns that have rows of shops.  But along the same lines as the outdoor seating area, I think it’s very inviting when stores put some merchandise out onto the sidewalks a little bit.  It makes the line between outside the store and inside the store a bit more blurry, so that entering the store isn’t such a big step.  You feel like you’re already partially in it just by walking by.  And if the items are displayed in an attractive way, you will think good things about the store they’re coming from.

• What’s Going On “Behind the Curtain”–People like to be able to watch what goes on behind the scenes.  It’s why they like going on tours at Hershey Park or The Cider Mill.  Here’s another example of what I’m talking about (and a chance to tell a little story from my youth): I’m thinking back to when I used to go down to the Jersey shore with my family.  There was this place called The Fudge Kitchen that was famous for their delicious fudge, and when you walked by their shop, you could look in and watch them making the fudge.  They actually had a real person standing next to a bronze pot, twisting and twirling long ribbons of melted chocolate high up in the air and then back down into the pot using a big, long spoon.  People walking by would always stop to watch for a couple minutes, and would take a sample from the person standing outside the door holding a little tray.  Both of those things, but especially watching the person making the fudge right in front of you, made you want to go in and buy something.  This concept, though it is easily explained using a food-related business, also holds true for other types of businesses.  People like to be able to walk by, look inside a business, and see what’s going on in there.  It’s interesting, intriguing, and in some ways it makes you trust the business more because you feel like they’re not hiding anything from you.

All of these things get people to think about patronizing a business without coming right out and saying “come patronize our business for reasons x, y, and z.”  Actual advertising is still very important, and it can definitely be effective and necessary.  But I’m just saying that businesses can and should think outside the box a little bit.  They should take a second to ask themselves, “are there little things we could be doing to make our business look more interesting and inviting to people walking/driving by?  Do we appear interesting and approachable?”  It’s these little things, the methods of passive advertising, that plant the seeds in people’s minds, making an impression on them and inspiring curiosity about what a business does.  And once you’ve got people thinking about your business in a positive way, I would say your advertising has accomplished about 3/4 of its purpose.  The other 1/4?  Well, that’s a whole other blog post.  ;-)

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Primary Member/Manager, Rex Design Concepts, LLC
Inventor, Living Ledge – http://www.livingledge.com/

Has a patent on a suction cup surface mounted shelf and planter assembly. Idea came to her in a dream — and she went ahead and built it!

Disadvantages of owning a small business:

• Financial Risk
• Lack of Steady Income
• Time Investment – Long Hours
• Devil’s in the Details
• Unpleasant Tasks

Advantages of owning a small business:

• Independence and Unlimited freedom in business practices
• Broader Role in Business
• Rewards Tied to Performance – Unlimited Income Potential
• Assistance is available for Small Business Owners

Self Assessment

• Are you Motivated? Goal-Oriented/Focused? Confident, Passionate, Budget-Savvy?
• Independent/Self-Reliant
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help
• Continue to educate yourself and try to find mentors

Are you ready for that moment when you have a gap in your paychecks?

Evaluation of your Business goals is the roadmap you will follow as you build your business. Think about things like Staffing, Marketing, Financial, Tech/Equip, Customers, Strategic Positioning, Alliances, Daily Operations.

If someone tells you that you can’t do something, you have to figure out a way. That’s what you do in your own business — figure out a way.

Assessing Financial Needs — examine your market: Is your market on the decline, stable, or growing? What do you need to grow your business?

We don’t have a ton of time on this earth, might as well do something you love and might as well put yourself out there!

Teri Kappler

Busines Solutions Advisor, SEFCU – https://www.sefcu.com/

Will most likely need funding — SEFCU usually likes to see businesses with history and some cash to invest themselves.

Usually at least two years of experience and business history and look for usually 20% of the capital required to be provided by the business owner themselves.

Personal credit really helps, know what your credit looks like and the better credit you have the more favorable you will be for a commercial or business loan.

Be honest with your accountant, be honest with your attorney and be honest with your bank — these are your partners.

Also know what your collateral looks like. Tangible Assets and Intangible Assets both count. Things like Equipment, buildings, inventory, accounts receivable, personal assets, copyrighted ideas, patents, intellectual property.

When you’re going to go for lending, it’s important to know where your credit score is. You can pull it every 3 or 6 months. The more often you request it, the more it will go down.

Look for a bank that is willing to work with you and help you get lending, no doesn’t mean no, it just means not right now. Work with a bank that will help you get things in line so that you can get lending.

Omar Sanders

Financial Analyst, Binghamton Local Development Corporation – http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/

BLDC is a public benefit corp created to support the development of local economic develop in the greater Binghamton, NY area.

Here to promote employment and foster entrepreneurship and innovation. They are putting a lot of their focus on this, including the business plan competition and workshops like this one.

90% of small business failures can be traced to poor management, lack of planning, and inadequate financing – Dun & Bradstreet 2011

Really pushing to think local and buy local and support local. Can really build up the local economy to focus on using local institutions to support local businesses.

Common misconceptions of what you need to start a business:

• You need to have a business background
• There is no job security in owning your own business
• In order to start a business you need to have a lot of money

There are a lot of sustainable education resources such as:

Small Business Development Center – http://www.binghamton.edu/sbdc/

SCORE – http://www.greaterbinghamtonscore.org/

Entrepreneurial Assistance Program – http://www2.binghamton.edu/eap/

On-line Social Media Marketing Campaign – http://binghamtonlinked.blogspot.com/

Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce – http://www.greaterbinghamtonchamber.com/

Sustainable Financial Resources:

SBA Loan Programs (504 loans and 7a loans) – http://www.sba.gov/loanprograms

New York State Directory of Small Business Programs – http://www.esd.ny.gov/SmallBusiness/Data/NYSDirectorySmallBusinessProgram.pdf

Broome County IDA – http://www.bcida.com/

The Greater Binghamton Innovation Center – http://binghamtoninnovation.com/

BLDC & City of Binghamton – http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/

If you’re looking to apply for some sort of financial help through the city of Binghamton, NY, they will need to see:

Business plan, three years financial projections, primary lender commitment, demonstrate equity investment (10% minimum), completed application, and application fee.

Types of loan programs through the BLDC:

Mirco Enterprise Loan: For things like inventory, working capital, renovations and leasehold improvements. Loan amount: $24,000 at 4% rate.

Revolving Fund Loan: For Acquisition, machinery, equip, construction, renovation, etc. Loan amount is 40% of total project costs up to $250k.

Also have commercial fascade and special projects loans available.

Lee Cullen

City Planner, City of Binghamton – http://www.binghamton-ny.gov/

Have to check the zoning and see if you need special use permits or site plan alterations so that you can get started with your business at that location.

CAUD can help you if you are looking at a building that is a local landmark or is in the historical district. They have design experience and help guide you through the process so that project is consistent with city’s guidelines.

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So I got to thinking, why do companies change their branding in the first place?  What about a brand would make it look old and outdated?  And is that such a bad thing?  I think it depends.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s start with the first question.

Why do companies change their branding?

If you look at the shelves in the grocery store, it quickly becomes apparent that the design of packaging must follow certain trends, because aesthetically, the items seem to be following a similar set of rules.  So each company is seemingly trying to stay up-to-date-looking, while at the same time looking unique enough to stand out from the rest.  The really outdated-looking packaging might not appeal to people as much as the newer-looking, on-trend packaging will.  Right now, as I discussed in this article, very minimalistic, simple, homespun-looking packaging appears to be very in.

A quick word about fonts, because I couldn’t contain myself…

Oftentimes the main change that a company will make is the font of their company name.  They might keep just about everything else about their products’ packaging the same, minus a few small layout changes in the design perhaps, but they will change the font.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but right now “sans serif” fonts seem to be very in, and so the “serif” fonts appear more outdated.  Not sure what I mean by sans serif vs. serif?  I just did a Google image search and I liked how these people explained it:

“The small decorative pieces on the ends of each character are called serifs.”  So a font like Times New Roman would be a serif font, whereas Arial would be sans serif.  I would bet that if you start to look at fonts more closely, you would start to notice what I’m talking about.  “Sans” fonts appear more modern, serif fonts appear more classic and old-school.  In some cases, a company might decide to stick with their serif font because they think it goes better with their product or service.  But I’m just saying, those sans fonts seem to be everywhere these days.

Does Old-looking Always Mean Outdated…in a Bad Way?

All of that being said, there are some brands that either never change their look, and just stay the way they’ve always been, and still others that are finding the merit in bringing back their old looks as a sort of throwback to their loyal customers (like the old-school Coca-Cola bottles, which are apparently retired now).  Because sometimes, an “older-looking” brand looks even more appealing than the newer-looking ones.  It says that it has stood the test of time, that within that packaging is a classic product that hasn’t changed in who knows how long, simply because it hasn’t had to.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?

Sometimes when I’m standing in a grocery aisle, looking at all of my choices (usually if I don ‘t already have brand loyalty for that particular item), I’ll go for the newer, cooler-looking product.  But just as often, I find myself gravitating to the old-looking ones.  A perfect example is Bar-B-Que sauce, something that I take very seriously (ask any of my friends and family and they’ll tell you it is one of the joys of my life).  When I’m feeling adventurous, I might want to try a new kind (usually I just stick with Sweet Baby Ray’s, and guess why I tried them in the first place?  Because their packaging was so old-school and classic-looking.).  Usually, the ones that I would rather give a try are the ones that have that older look.  It says that they don’t need to try so hard to look cool, because they’ve been doing it right for so many years.

In Conclusion

I could ramble on and on about packaging all day.  Something about it is just so interesting to me.  Sometimes, a company might find it beneficial to change their look.  Maybe they went with a super-trendy look about ten years ago, and if so, it just doesn’t look cool anymore.  Or perhaps they’re going to try to target a different audience than they have in the past.  I can respect that, and I’m sure it is very effective sometimes, causing people to try a product for the first time, or maybe give it a second chance.  In other cases, though, I think it can be very beneficial for some companies to either stick with their original packaging (especially if it was never overly “trendy-looking” to begin with), or go back to their original.  At the end of the day, the most important thing is to get people to want to try your product in the first place–and then it’s all about making sure it’s a really great product, so they’ll buy it again.  But none of that will happen if they never pick it up off the shelf.

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