Last month, I blogged about a package redesign content for 8 O’Clock Coffee that had this unique twist: the marketers at 8 O’Clock had already developed two strong redesigns, and now they were letting their consumers select the winning packaging as the brand enters its 150th year. In addition to giving its consumers a voice, 8 O’Clock Coffee was also giving away daily prizes and a $5,000 grocery shopping certificate to one grand prize winner.
But the contest came with another twist: When it ended earlier this month, voters overwhelmingly asked the brand to retain its current packaging, citing the chaos of the times and their desire to hold onto a consistent brand image they identify with and trust.
So, despite having two very nice new packaging options from which to choose, 8 O’Clock Coffee says it will stick with its current packaging at the request of the customers who support the brand. And, by the way, it looks like people who like the 8 O’Clock brand are putting their money where their mouth is…. According to a March 25 article at reuters.com, the brand’s market share surged to 5.5% in February, which was a 30% higher share than its average during the last 52 weeks. The Reuters article attributes this to the fact that the 8 O’Clock brand was recently recognized as “a best buy for ground brews,” but I think those of us in marketing would prefer to think this consumer-friendly promotion was at least partially responsible for the uptick in sales.
Even though 8 O’Clock Coffee went to the expense of developing two packaging options and publicizing them through the customer contest, I suspect this promotion paid for itself many times over and achieved exactly what the brand management team wanted to achieve: It reinforced brand preference of the 8 O’Clock Coffee brand in the highly-competitive coffee category, and gave it some new life as it heads into its 150th year.
And of the two new design options, which one was in the lead? You can find out at www.coffeemakeover.com.
Marketing
Sometime last year, I saw a local news story on a start-up company that had created an online marketplace for left-over graphics that were never purchased by the clients they were created for. (If you’ve worked in the design industry, you know how many logos and conceptual graphics you develop in the “creative process” of finding the one solution that the client finally selects.) I thought this was an interesting idea, especially since the available graphics were said to be reasonably priced — and some are even free!
I had never had reason to visit the site until today, and I was pleased with the variety I found at www.graphicleftovers.com. Many of the graphics are stylized versions of generic buttons, icons and signage; others are obviously logos developed for niche services (snowboarding, communications, garden shops or bakeries to name a few), but the majority of logos and graphics are easily adaptable for a variety of businesses. There are even templates for PowerPoint, the Internet and WordPress blogs.
Some of the graphics are truly free, but most others are less than $10. The site operates like IStock Photo (www.istockphoto.com) in that you buy credits upfront, and then use your credits to purchase the graphics. The more credits you buy upfront, the lower the cost per credit. Also like IStock, artists can contribute their work to the site to make it available to the public. (They relinquish all copyrights to the creative, essentially creating a market of royalty-free stock imagery.)
As someone who has sold creative services for over 15 years, I am a huge proponent of the value of original graphics (photos and illustration), and I thoroughly support the idea that photographers and designers should be paid fairly for their work. But as a consumer of creative services who is often constricted by budgets, I welcome these low-cost alternatives that make high-quality creative solutions available to the masses. After all, recycling our best creative resources is better than putting them away in portfolio where they never see the light of day.
Marketing