YOUR MOTHER TOLD YOU, “It’s what’s inside that counts.” Sorry, Mom.
Now more than ever it’s appearances that seems to matter most. We’re not endorsing this, mind you, just stating a fact.
Whether it’s looking for Mr./Ms. Right or choosing toothpaste off the shelf, looks count.
“It’s what’s outside . . . that is going to sell what is inside,” says JoAnn Hines, an expert on how to get your product noticed.
Shown here are two very different examples of the importance of packaging.
Both are bottles that just recently have started appearing on already-jammed liquor store shelves. They’re vying to become the new “it” drink in trendy clubs and chic homes.
Booze bottles don’t have much time to make a good impression. Hines points out that shoppers spend an average of 2.6 seconds looking at the store shelf before making a choice. “Packaging sells products,” she says.
The packagers behind St. Germain, a French liqueur made from elderflowers, selected an Art Deco bottle resembling a classic perfume.
That label near the base is designed to enhance the romantic elan by adding an individual number for each bottle.
If, after your 2.6 seconds of staring at the Binny’s shelf, you reach for the St. Germain you’ll find dangling around the bottle neck a little storybook that describes the process of craggy Frenchmen “gently ushering the wild blooms into sacks” then carrying “the umbels of starry white flowers to the local market.” All that for only $29.99.
Fast forward a century or so and you’re looking at the sleek and sexy cylinder filled with Agua Luca, marketed as “ultra-premium” Brazilian sugar cane rum or cachaca (ka-SHA-sah) that will set you back $26.99.
The striking blue-fades-to-clear bottle is meant to stand out from all the others on the shelf and somehow suggest the Samba, oiled bodies on a beach, the thong.
Quaint French bicyclists or bikinied beauties lounging languorously? Your pick. Bottoms up.
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Read Ellen’s shopping adviser column every Thursday in the Tribune’s At Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellen. shopellen@tribune.com
