Question

Topic: Branding

Using People On Packaging

Posted by Anonymous on 4/5/2006 at 6:10 PM ET 250 Points
We are developing a software box for a driving and auto performance product. The retail environments are electronics retailers and mass retailers. The sales and demographics for this product are probably split 70/30 or 80/20 men to women. We are gearing this to parents of teenagers to train their kids' driving habits and towards people who want to monitor their engine performance.

Some factions in mgmt want to include a photo of a smiling teenage girl holding up keys on the front of the box, but I'm advising against it because I think it might immediately identify the product as a teen girls' product and alienate our main demographic at POP.

I'm not againt putting it on the inside flap or spread, but not the front.

I'd like some feedback please.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by michael on 4/5/2006 at 6:16 PM Accepted
    John,

    Maybe it's a matter of who the parents are watching...girls or boys. In that case, a picture of a girl(or boy) sitting in the driver's seat and seeing their mom/dad in the rear view mirror (smiling of course) would appear to the parent. And that's your target, right?

    Michael
  • Posted on 4/5/2006 at 6:28 PM Author
    While I'm sure the young girl considered for the cover is a very nice person, I think it limits the overall effectiveness of the package for a couple reasons.

    Teenage boys are the main reason for increased auto rates and people who answer our online survey after buying this product from our site say they buy it for being able to monitor performance and pre-empt auto repairs.

    We have gotten unbelievable PR for this product re: the teen driver angle, but from our info, has not resulted in sales because of it, at least from our site. Likewise, we have not seen spikes in sales from this PR from our various resellers either.
  • Posted by NovaHammer on 4/5/2006 at 8:40 PM Accepted
    Cop in back seat smiling, mom and dad in driveway waving 'bon voyage' and smiling as junior (alternate packing after trial then decide) drives away!

    Implies, Relax Mom and Dad, smart driver on board even when you are not!

    Cheers
  • Posted on 4/6/2006 at 2:16 AM Accepted
    Hi,

    I would use a family picture with a set of mom, dad, teen girl, boy and maybe even a baby.

    Regards,

    W
  • Posted on 4/10/2006 at 12:23 PM Author
    The two audiences are parents of teens and performance-aware drivers.

    Showing a pic of a cute teenage girl holding keys definitely appeals to parents of teen drivers, although having been a teen many moons ago, I don't know if parents would buy that their teen would be happy to have this "big brother" in the car with them.

    I've also thought that showing a teen girl might be good for the performance crowd too, which would be predominantly male, as prurient as it might be, showing a cute 17 or 18 yr. old to a product geared toward upper 20s to 50s males.

    Thanks for the comments. I'm closing down this thread.
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