Recognition factor

Food, drink makers are increasingly shelving familiar packaging in favor of attention-grabbing design, style

One of the most comforting things about a trip to the grocery or convenience store is the perennial sameness of it all. Bananas go there; root beer goes here; and groceries look pretty much the way they have for years.

To spark more attention for some of the nation's most popular condiments, drinks, and foods, a bevy of well-known food manufacturers now are shaking up their shelf presence, tweaking familiar designs, adding new elements to labels, and rolling out dynamic new containers. It's all part of an ongoing drive to get consumers to notice a product they might consider an old standby, and give them new reasons to make a purchase.

H.J. Heinz Co. said in January it was replacing the gherkin pickle that has adorned its labels since the 1890s with a vine-ripened tomato and words that emphasize that the company grows tomatoes from seeds. PepsiCo has in recent weeks unveiled redesigns of its famous red-and-blue Pepsi logo and Gatorade packaging. Coca-Cola recently said it intended to gradually remove the word "Classic" from cans of its flagship cola (the word isn't present on packages sold overseas). General Mills in February and March allowed "retro" boxes of its cereal - outfitted in old designs - to be sold at Target stores. And Dr Pepper Snapple Group said it would refresh its Snapple iced teas by using "packaging that promotes the blend of healthy green and tasty black tea leaves" instead of previous labels that emphasized the tea was "made from the best stuff on earth."

Putting a new promotional design or some new information on a package can be a far-reaching move since the consumer looks at the container regularly and puts it in front of family. A package ends up "at every critical point the consumer touches," said Gary Stibel, chief executive of the New England Consulting Group, a marketing and management consultant based in Westport, Conn. "It's in the store. It's in the home. It's in the hands."

Any king of the supermarket understands refreshing a product to keep it relevant is necessary from time to time. But in recessionary periods, every sale counts, and executives say packaging changes are more important at a time when no one can afford not to draw a shopper's attention.

"We really think it's critical to stand out on shelves in stores, whether it's a grocery store or a convenience store, it doesn't matter," said Dave Burwick, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo North America Beverages. "People more and more are making decisions at the point of purchase, and you want to grab people while they're walking down the aisles."

Economics play a role, too, suggested Stibel. Commodities are volatile, and in tough economic times food companies and packaged-goods concerns often have to increase prices. He said to raise prices and do nothing else represents a "grave risk."

"One way you can avoid that is to change your package, and that takes a little bit of bite out of a price increase," he said.

Many of the packaging changes seek to impart something new about the product; the hope is that surprising information can help influence a purchase. At Heinz, for instance, the shift to tomato from pickle on the label is aimed at helping consumers "understand more about the high quality ingredients" in the company's ketchup, said Noel Geoffroy, director of Heinz Ketchup. The company believes Heinz's finesse with raising tomatoes is "new news" to customers, he said.

Other companies are tailoring packaging to the venue in which the product is sold. Coca-Cola has introduced a 2-liter version of its iconic "contour" bottle in recent months, and also is selling Coke in high-end aluminum bottles at concert venues and upscale restaurants. The beverage giant wants to make sure it lines up the "right package, right place, right occasion," said Coca-Cola spokesman Scott Williamson, so consumers are more interested in buying its wares.

While corporations spend months researching even the minutest shift to longstanding designs, the moves can sometimes backfire. PepsiCo's Tropicana recently decided to abandon the popular orange-with-a-straw-in-it design that decorated its juice boxes for years. Consumers rejected the new package, which some complained made Tropicana boxes resemble generic OJ cartons.

PepsiCo is reverting to the tried-and-true images. The change was part of "an overall effort to rejuvenate the category and interest in Tropicana," said Tropicana spokeswoman Jamie Stein. Consumers "told us they missed the look" of the original package.

It's clear that companies will continue to do things that disrupt our patterns, particularly when every dollar is harder to win. "It's something that's always going on," said Lynn Dornblaser, a senior analyst at Mintel, a market research firm that specializes in consumer behavior and product innovation. "It's just perhaps more essential right now - anything you can do to get someone to pick your product over your competitor's."

Brian Steinberg is the television editor of Advertising Age.