Tuesday, July 16, 2013

#410 labeling

As I was sitting at the dinner table, I noticed that the just-finished mustard bottle had a different design than the new one (sorry, marketing geek habit!).  Both had the French's flag that has been flying since 1904, but the new bottle had two elements that caught my eye:

> The new one had a font that was designed to look hand-drawn.  I am sure that when printing and graphic design first became accessible, everyone was excited to have labeling on products that was not hand-drawn.  But now that there are fonts-a-plenty, apparently trying not to look like a professional font is more appealing, or at least seen as more eye-catching.

> The front of the bottle reads: "No calories, fat or gluten."  I doubt that mustard has contained any of those elements since its inception over a century ago, but it is a sign of the times that the product manager felt compelled to list them explicitly for consumers to see.

Does your organization have features that are akin to "no gluten" -- things that have been part of your makeup and offerings since you began -- but now may need to be highlighted for others?  Is there something that you just assume that people know when maybe they don't?  [We had an example of that yesterday when we realized our STEM workshop flyer failed to mention that it is, was, and always has been free registration.]

Pretend that you are designing a new label for your organization and take the opportunity to question whether it needs to have some updated content.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com


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