Runsmall

How do you like your tea?

I'd like you to try an experiment. Click on the thumbnail of the box below and look at the larger image for no more than two seconds. Count one, two, then immediately close the image, and think about all the things you could tell me about the product in the box before reading any further.

A product's package has many jobs, but one of the most important is to give potential customers the information they need to make a buying decision. This doesn't mean that the package should provide a complete competitive analysis, but it does mean that the package should communicate vital information clearly and unequivocally.

Did you notice that the tea is decaffeinated? I didn't when I opened the box to make a cup, and Julie didn't when she picked it off the shelf at our local bodega. It didn't help that it was the only box of English Breakfast tea in the store at the time.

The words "naturally decaffeinated" on this package are hidden in plain sight, in white text on a bit of scrollwork with a low-contrast background that grades to an even lower contrast at the center. Advertising giant David Ogilvy abhorred reversed text as unreadable. He's not alone and there is plenty of research to back him up. Here the reversed text is not only hard to read; it's hard to notice.

To make things worse, package designers often use scrollwork for meaningless claims and buzzwords; I find that my eyes are inclined to pass over such features without focusing while I'm looking for important information.

In this case, a $3.50 box of teabags is no big deal. But this sort of visual miscue could be disastrous in other contexts. Don't let visual design obstruct communication in your packaging, your website, or anything else that represents you and your business.

Are we both blind as bats? Did you see that the tea was decaffeinated? Give me some feedback in comments. What do you think?

Using Web 2.0 to promote a small business

When we went to Kenya and southern Ethiopia for three weeks, we boarded our office dog at San Francisco's Pet Camp.

Pet Camp is a decidedly traditional small business - it's a boarding kennel for dogs and cats. But Pet Camp knows how to use Web 2.0 services to promote better customer communications while reinforcing their primary message.

Pet Camp's web site sports a clean, friendly design. Whimsical menu links remind us of Pet Camp's main value proposition: your pet will have fun at Pet Camp. The pages are clear, well written, and thorough without being overwhelming. They are illustrated with high-quality photographs. The overall mood suggests love of animals and enjoyment of their happiness - just the things to appeal to a guilty owner sending her pet to a boarding kennel.

This alone would be excellent marketing, but it's just the beginning. Through adroit use of digital cameras and free Web 2.0 services Pet Camp provides ongoing, individualized, targeted proof to pet owners that their pets do have fun.

Camper Cameos is Pet Camp's blog on Blogger.com. Pet camp employees post to this blog several times every week. The posts are all the same - a picture of a happy-looking pet and one sentence including the word "fun". Blogger allows limited photo storage, so the word "fun" links to a Flickr album of up to three hundred pictures of cats and dogs. The dogs are photographed during outdoor playtimes, so the animals are invariably upbeat and excited.

This is brilliant marketing and customer relations. The key unspoken fear of the pet owner - my pet will be neglected or mistreated while I'm away - is entirely refuted by a picture of her own animal in a happy situation, overflowing with excitement and enjoyment. And it's all done using mature, well-designed services that are simple to use and free - no special expertise needed.

Could Web 2.0 services help your business communicate better with your customers? You have to balance the benefits against the investment in time and any possible drawbacks. My own business is so fundamentally associated with the confidentiality of my clients' information I cannot conceive of communicating with them in a public or semi-public way. But for most businesses, these services could be dynamite as a way to stand out against competition that is often stuck in old ways of doing things.