Whether you are in marketing, manufacturing, or if you are simply the average consumer in the grocery store, you are sure to notice a severe lack in quantity lately. Not quality, thankfully; but definitely quantity. This is not exactly a welcome advantage.
Earlier this week, I had lunch at my local Red Lobster and I encountered this dilemma first hand. Oddly enough, it related all too directly with the animal we call “marketing.”
I had a mountain of boring research to review and a corner booth (with those addictive biscuits) seemed the perfect setting for the chore. I settled into my seat with my stack of folders to my right and my menu, water, and napkin to my left. Fully armed, I was ready to take in both lunch and labor.
Among my folders’ contents was an issue of Advertising Age magazine, which proved to be a viable procrastination ally to thumb through while I enjoyed my Caesar salad. Then it happened. Serendipitously and rather disappointingly, it happened.
Just as I turned the page, the waitress brought my plate. The plate was broad, white and spacious with a small, yet intruding bit of fish sitting in the center. I ordered the flounder, but this seemed too small to be it. Next to the fish was one dollop of mashed potatoes. I looked closer and realized that this was indeed my meal. Perhaps this was a baby flounder? Nope. Just scaled back…excuse the pun.
I looked on with dismay, unable to eat due to the feeling of being under-whelmed. I glanced back at my newly-turned page to find the lead article that shared my sentiment. “Package goods get bigger again: Marketers that shrank products – though not prices – start to upsize” by Jack Neff. The article quickly calls to light the growing number of shrinking quantity in products (particularly food).
Here I am, sitting in a dimly lit seafood restaurant wondering where the rest of my meal went, while reading an article about how food packaging and price has remained the same, but their contents have shrunk. We’ve all seen the effects: a huge bag of Lay’s potato chips, with a large percentage of air to fill the bag; a bottle of cleaning solution that seems a little lighter than the last one you purchased; a few less “yellows” in the ol’ M&M bag.
In a 2007 episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (New York), guest B.J. Novak of NBC’s The Office brought a similar case study. Novak describes purchasing Cadbury crème chocolate eggs around Easter, as so many of us do. Novak mentioned that he remembered them being larger in size. He consulted the Cadbury website and says that he did not even have to hunt for a rather disconcerting, convenient headline that read, “No, they have not gotten smaller; you’ve gotten bigger.” Too strange of a headline, right? Novak just so happened to have some older Cadbury eggs from previous Easters. He compared them side by side and the size is noticeably different. He showed them on the program and the audience roared.
Along with this Easter delight case study, comes the obvious next question of price. Due to inflation and law of diminishing returns and other variables, prices have increased. But the public is losing out by paying more for less.
More for less. There is a phrase that no one likes to hear, with or without food being the matter. Boss wants his employee to work more for less pay. Employee wants his boss to pay more for less work or responsibility. Both want you to pay more for that box of cereal or that less-than-fulfilling flounder. Should we as consumers accept it and move on, or should we strike somehow?
Neff goes on to say how many new packaging and marketing efforts are including key phrases and stamps like “33% more free!” and that “…it gives the appearance marketers are simply adding back what they took away in the first place.” Consumers are not stupid, and they are not completely oblivious. Just watch Conan O’Brien’s guests for proof.
It is my belief that as proud, strong-willed American consumers, we will rise up and…deal with it. Sadly, I believe it is as cyclical as anything else in marketing. After a while, we will subconsciously justify the amounts of food and product, or lack thereof. We will get excited when we see stickers of “20% More!” on packages that feel the exact same 15 years ago when it felt 80% full. The times will catch up with us, and the depression will soon fade; replaced only with a competitor’s product with new or “standard” packaging and labeling.
If marketers and manufacturers are smart, they’ll get together and create a standard size when launching a new product, slightly smaller than typical. Be it glass cleaner, yellow mustard, or stain remover that gets rid of mustard spills and cleans glass (patent in progress), the products should have a standard size that leaves us all wanting just a little more. Then after the product is established favorably, marketers can let loose and release limited-time large sizes with 25% more or 33% extra or whatever value-add they desire. Knowing that there is a time limit for a truly up-size product will have consumers clamoring to the shelves. Happily. It gives consumers a foundation for the value of the product and it justifies the price from the manufacturer & even retailer. Then it gifts the consumer with the larger value sizes; causing them to experience a tangible value that they know will not last forever.
Disney does it with the release of their movies on DVD. Every few years they have a limited edition for Snow White or The Little Mermaid, and every year parents and grandparents knock each other over to pay pretty prices. If it works for Disney, then it can work for anything else, right? Or does it?
- Lance LaRue, Advertising & Creative Manager at Americom Marketing Ad Agency 2009
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