Punchbowl Blog

This post written by Jill, MyPunchbowl Marketing & PR Intern

Product differentiation is an essential element for any company to gain a competitive advantage and be successful. It is a way for your company to showcase your individuality and uniqueness in a way that makes consumers want to purchase your product or service over your competitors. But not only should your company distinguish your product from competitors’ products, but also among other products that your company might offer as well. One way to do this is through the packaging of your different products.

Using this knowledge, I was in shock to discover that Miguel’s Stowe Away Tortilla Chips had nearly identical packaging on their white corn and blue corn tortilla chips (see picture below). As an angry consumer, I was encouraged to write a letter to Miguel’s to express my disbelief at their marketing problem. Below is the letter that I wrote to Bruce in their marketing and sales department.

Dear Bruce:

Yesterday, in a haste to complete a large lunch order for my co-workers, I mistakenly picked up a bag of Miguel’s white corn tortilla chips, instead of Miguel’s blue corn tortilla chips. At first glance, the packaging on these two bags of chips look eerily similar. From the color schemes to the fonts to the pictures on the bags, it is easy to see how any customer could mix them up.

As a marketing student, I have always been taught about the importance of product differentiation. It is not only important to distinguish your  product from your competitors’, but among your own products as well. Given this knowledge, it perplexes me as to why any company would choose to make the packaging on two of their different products practically the same. The only thing that distinguishes one bag from the other are the inverted colors. If there is a blue border on the bag of blue tortilla chips, it is counterintuitive to have the same blue border around the bag of white corn tortilla chips.

If you do not want to have more unhappy customers than you have already gotten from the carelessly thought out packaging of these two products, I recommend that Miguel fix it immediately. An inverted color scheme is not enough to distinguish one product from another, there needs to be more distinctions that actually make the packaging look different. By simply putting a white border around the bag of white corn tortilla chips, your packaging issues would be solved and you would have more repeat customers who were pleased with your product.

Sincerely,
Jill

I have not yet heard back from Miguel’s, but I hope that they do take my suggestions into consideration. If a company wants to build brand loyalty around their products it doesn’t help to mislead customers and cause them to make the wrong purchase. And if you don’t distinguish your product, you may just have to hear from an angry intern.