| Nov. 11, 2007 | Posted by: Sheri |
Building a Better Tampon Package
Can someone please hire MSLK to redesign tampon packaging? These days, everyone wants products which create an emotional connection with the consumer. Rather than create new creams, potions, and serums to deliver this connection, why not start by changing our relationship to things we need and use every day? I’m talking toilet paper, deodorant, fabric softener, and yes, even the lowly tampon. Rather than just a “need,” why not make my purchase a “want”?
Unless you are offering unbleached or organic cotton, tampon purchases are not really based on the features… please spare me new developments in the rope…. I’d rather have a cute package with polka dots.
Now there are a few brands out there making strides in this department, most notably Moxie. However, having your tampons shipped in from Australia is not a practical solution for the everyday consumer. And that is what I am talking about—changing the everyday, at everyday prices. All it takes is some better graphics and the same 4-c0lor printing/production techniques companies are already using.
I also stumbled upon these free samples from Tampax at my doctor’s office. This isn’t a bad start either. However, when boxed, the exterior packaging loses all of the interior wrappers’ emotional appeal. Although blue might be a color the Tampax brand can “own” at the retail level, this specific shade and the amount used on the packaging is very cold and corporate. I could easily imagine office supplies inside this same box instead of a personal care product.
Why not demand great packaging and personal connections with the staple products that we use everyday? We’ve lost that in our race to build bigger corporations that can always deliver something new, but what happened to “we care”? As we start to think about things such as the environment, and buying goods made in America, perhaps of that local, personal connection will return.
That’s what MSLK is hoping will happen with your relationship to socks. As MSLK wraps up our year-long redesign with Wigwam socks, we hope you will see that even the seemingly mundane task of buying socks can be transformed into feeling good about where your socks came from, the people who made them, and your purchase overall—without having to spend a penny more.
Yes, please someone pull some strings to make this happen.
I completly agree with you, Sheri. This problem applies to another thing we use and need everyday: Facial tissues (e.g. Kleenex). Whenever I stand in front of the shelf, I can hardly believe how horrible the packagings look. Who really ENJOYS looking at these icky colors and patterns in his bathroom..?!
This is an excellent point. The buying and selling of tampons(or any femine hygiene product for that matter) used to be an embarassing covert never discussed thing. The packaging was discreet. Now it’s no big deal. We talk about anything in commericals. Wings, leak proof, etc. And can the design be femine with out being insipid? Please? The only thing I like about Playtex design is that scented and unscented are completely different colors so there is no mix up. User friendly design is a good thing.
There seems to be a glass ceiling reached in designing feminine sanitary products that are visually user friendly.
Look at where manufacturers are at when they look at the top of a woman’s anatomy–haircare or beauty products– bright stimulating eye-catching.
Anything below the belt is relegated to WW1 looking army hospital bandage kit issue. Some still resemble the strange ugly blue box that I observed as a small boy in back of a closet shelf in my parent’s house long ago.
And what’s with the same weird blue color liquid shown in sanitary product demos ads on TV in the 21st century. We all know what color they mean at this point
It gives one the blues just looking at it
It’s time for MSLK to contact and pitch the P&G’s of the world with some of their Fashion & Beauty expertise and lift the “curse” a little every month.
Herb
Sheri,
I agree, the packaging for below-the-belt women’s products could certainly use an upgrade. But I sense some cognitive dissonance within the details of your essay.
“We’ve lost that in our race to build bigger corporations that can always deliver something new, but what happened to “we care.”" I don’t think changing the packaging without changing the product says “we care.” It simply says “we know how to market
something better to make it more of an emotional purchase.” It seems you simply want to improve the aesthetics, which really just provides the illusion of caring. If you want to “start to think about things such as the environment” perhaps a good place to start is in your design ideas (e.g. soy ink, recycled paper, etc.). As a consumer, I’d love if packaging and design were integrated with
the products themselves, rather than simply putting a new paint job on the same old car.
Yes, I actually couldn’t agree with you more, sorry if I didn’t address this more clearly. MSLK specifies soy ink and recycled paper whenever possible, so to us those things are a given.
Beyond the packaging, if we had any control over the products themselves, the first suggestion I’d make is for unbleached cotton. I have no idea why we are obsessed with stark white products. Bleach is horrible for the environment and for you…it gives the illusion of “clean” and sterile, while a beige product could be just as clean.
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