Editor’s note: Mindy Harris Rudick is owner and president of Rudick Research, Westport, Conn., a qualitative market research and consulting firm. Previously, Rudick was a vice president with the Gene Reilly Group and was the qualitative division manager for Trost Associates. Rudick is a former psychotherapist. Her background in this field adds a dimension to market research which she calls “insight marketing.”

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The saying applies to more than old cars. More and more package marketers come to this conclusion when they research a new look for an already well-established package design.

This was the case recently for marketers at General Foods with its Crystal Light product, a low-calorie powdered soft drink mix. Traditionally, Crystal Light has symbolized softness and femininity. This image has been projected by the product's spokesperson, Linda Evans, a television actress who appears in print and television advertisements for Crystal Light.

To carry the product from the 1980s into the 1990s, however, General Foods' marketers thought the look needed a "facelift." Their question was, how can we maintain its heritage and identity yet contemporize it? What they decided on was a hard-edged, masculine and slicker packaging label.

Maintaining the persona

When that design was explored among Crystal Light users, however, the general consensus was, why change a good thing? The new label had strayed too far from the image of the original and in the consumers' minds, didn't project softness and femininity. As a result, the final packaging design that hit supermarket shelves showed only subtle changes which improved the design yet maintained the look of its heritage.

"This is a perfect example that single-mindedness works," says Mindy Harris Rudick, president of Rudick Research. Rudick, who conducted the research when she was employed at another research firm, explains that single-mindedness means conveying a consistent image to the consumer.

"When you fiddle with it, you run the risk of losing what you've worked so hard to establish," explains Rudick. "You could end up alienating the consumer."

By changing the packaging to a hard edged look, the relevance of the product's tag line, "I believe in me," was also diminished. "This slogan captured the persona of Crystal Light," says Rudick. "But with such an aggressive look linked to the product, Crystal Light was beyond assertive and confident, it was pushy. Losing this feminine yet self-assured persona could have been the kiss of death for the brand being that beverages are extremely image-driven products. Kool Aid, Country Time and Crystal Light are essentially the same General Foods powdered soft drink, but each one of them has developed through marketing their own distinct characteristics."

Sleeker, crisper

The proposed decision to contemporize Crystal Light's packaging came two years ago. The objectives of the research were to find out how the marketers could enhance Crystal Light's imagery and expand it to compete more aggressively within the whole beverage arena. After the marketers came up with their package design which Rudick describes as having a metallic, soda-pop look, they took it to the company's internal research department since they sensed that they must consult the consumer first. They questioned how this bolder, more forceful look would fare with the Crystal Light user, and opted for a "packaging disaster check."

To assess the less conscious motivations of the consumer, in-depth interviews were conducted as opposed to focus groups. The one-on-one method precluded any group interaction which might have biased or influenced participants.

In total, 20 women between the ages of 25-54 were recruited from the northeast after being pre-screened over the telephone. To qualify, participants had to have drunk Crystal Light at least two or three times within the past six months. Interviews were conducted in a focus group facility behind a one-way mirror to allow client observation.

During the first 20 minutes of the interviews, Rudick collected background information from each participant on their general beverage usage and their attitudes and perceptions of different beverages. Participants were asked questions such as: What are your favorite beverages? Where does Crystal Light fit? Why do you choose one brand over another?

Next, participants were invited to "go shopping" in a simulated grocery store beverage aisle designed by the researcher. Again this exercise was conducted singularly to duplicate the solitary food shopping experience.

Approximately two dozen different beverage products were lined up side-by-side on the shelves. Non-distinctly placed among them were Crystal Light products with the proposed metallic packaging. The purpose of this exercise was to elicit an "unaided response" from the women to find out what they thought about the sleek, metallic packaging. In other words, the interviewer did not prompt the shoppers in any way. Surprisingly, none of the women noticed a change despite its new "hi-tech" look.

While this finding was startling to the project team, they believed the participants didn't recognize the new design because enough of the elements on the package were the same as before. The image of the glass filled with Crystal Light and the style of the writing were identical to the unrevised packaging. At this point, Rudick felt it was necessary to employ projective techniques.

Projective techniques

During this half of the interview, Rudick conducted projective exercises. According to Rudick, projective techniques stem from psychology. "There are a variety of techniques. Free association, story telling, and product Personification can all be employed to get at perceptions.

"You access the consumers' unconscious impressions, their thoughts and feelings and project them in a way that's irrational," continues Rudick. "You ask consumers to talk about the package in human terms."

In this case, the women were asked to personify Crystal Light, who she is, what her goals and values are, where she lives, what type of neighborhood she lives in, and the type of car she drives. This was done for both the original and the metallic package designs.

Feminine image

Through this exercise, it became clear to the project team that the metallic packaging lost the soft, feminine image that Crystal Light conveyed to consumers, the image they strove for. "Had we stopped with the grocery shopping exercise, we would have never gotten to the heart of the matter," says Rudick.

"Only by isolating specific elements of the package design and focusing on them were the women's feelings and affinity toward Crystal Light revealed."

Adds Rudick, "After this exercise, General Foods concluded that they didn't want to move to the hard-edged, slick metallic look. It didn’t convey the warmth, grace and positiveness in which Crystal Light has always been positioned, the image that has been so effective in women's minds."

Rudick asserts that this research is indicative of a trend toward femininity. The contemporary woman (in the Crystal Light case, largely conveyed by Linda Evans), is a balance of softness and self confidence, femininity and feminism. The proposed hard, aggressive packaging would have tipped the scale.