Posted 02.19.2010 at 11:24 am
4 Comments
Andy Would Not Be Happy
Robert Couse-Baker, via Flickr.com
For over a hundred years, Campbell's Soup cans have sported the iconic label inspired by Cornell's football uniform and made famous by Andy Warhol. Now, thanks to market research that measured customers' involuntary physiological responses, Campbell's will introduce the most radical can design change in decades.
The self-reporting associated with market research is notoriously flawed, and in 2005 Campbell's acknowledged the weak correlation between highly rated advertising and actual buying habits. To suss out people's actual intentions, Campbell's utilized experts in the growing field of neuromarketing. In neuromarketing, specialists monitor involuntary biometric changes in subjects as they view different images. Since the subjects can't control these changes, neuromarketers believe they reveal the real feelings of consumers.
Over the course of two years, Campbell's videotaped 40 random customers in their homes and while shopping for soup. Then, they showed the subjects video of themselves shopping, all the while measuring the moisture of their skin, their heart rate, pupil dilation, posture, breathing pace, and a range of other involuntary body functions. Using the results of this research, Campbell's believes they've designed a can label that will cut straight to the consumer's lizard brain.
Some of the changes they implemented include removing the spoon from the image, adding a layer of steam above the soup, and using a more modern design for the bowl. Most shockingly, though, Campbell's is moving their iconic red stripe from the top to the bottom of the can. Apparently, consumers had a hard time differentiating between the different styles of soup when they all have the same red top.
Obviously, those philistines don't realize it is that very uniformity that makes the can label a stirring piece of pop art, and an important Marxist critique of the influence of consumerism on modern culture.
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I always find it hilarious that so much money is pissed away on psychological studies that produce the same results as any designer hired for much less could have done.
New bowl? Remove the spoon? THAT'S WELL.... IT'S JUST...GENIUS!!!!!! [/dry oh so very dry sarcasm]
Next time just have a design contest Campbell's.
What are you guys at Popsci doing?
You are talking about a change in Campbell's soup design as an innovation. It is called marketing and you are selling soup.
How about some more inspirational "articles" that your sponsors want you to push, like your mega-turd "Best of What's New - Year's 100 greatest Innovations". How much kick back did you get for your innovation selections?
Maybe you should fill up your web site and magazine with in depth anaylisis of Cambell's soup. It seems to be where you are headed, just a fancy catalog.
Well to the market money wasters at campbells I say try making a soup that tastes good and doesn't make you cough when you are done.
"Then, they showed the subjects video of themselves shopping, all the while measuring the moisture of their skin, their heart rate, pupil dilation, posture, breathing pace, and a range of other involuntary body functions."
Read that part? That's not wasting money. That's just being thorough in your marketing and research. Makes sense to me. You just don't want to admit that someone is controlling your brain and there is nothing you can do about it. Happens a lot more often than you knoooow.
Ca-reep-ay.