Over the weekend I went to our local Levi's Store to buy one of my favourite jeans, the Engineered. At home I saw a nice thing on the label.
I think it's a splendid idea to let the product tell consumers something about its history, heritage or philosophy. And I don't mean telling it via a branded paper coming with it as Adidas does it with its Originals Series. It's a new use of that silly leather-badge the other Levi's use to have. Or is there anybody interested in having the size of the jeans written inside and outside at the back for everybody to see it. So - quite clever - the people at Levi's used it to tell consumers something about the product, it's heritage and somehow make this badge a flag of pride for their company. And by the way people staring at your butt on the escalator at least got something interesting to read.
But to make a long way short at the end: Why don't FMCGoodies use their space as well to tell people about the character of their brand or its history? Or even make space for some more personal words than "this hyper-energetic drink fills the calcium and vitamin-c reservoirs of your body and activates your digestion". Nice, words like this really make me feel related to a brand. So why don't they write (consumer) friendlier texts on their labels?
A good example for nice copies that somehow makes a brand a friend is Glaceau and their products, for example Vitaminwater. A small exccerpt:
Energy
Grab an energy with vitamin C and ginseng. It'll get your hands off the snooze bar. We added a different combination of key nutrients to essential, multi-v, and energy that will each get you going and prepare you for the day. To us, it just made more sense than adding cream and sugar.
A nice text. Friendly. And i bet it gives you more information than the text I wrote down above. Just because you understand it. Because the people at Glaceau don't talk like scientists, they talk like buddies.
And that's what brands should feel like.
Labels: Advertising, Brands
