Beware Packaging Tweaks, Even with the Best Intentions

Ah, the holiday season. Lights twinkling, shoppers out en masse, and marketing in full swing. Brands are trying to grab our attention anyway possible. Some try new tactics every year and others stick to traditions they’ve used for decades. Unfortunately, even tried and true tactics for marketing can fail as is evidenced by the latest uproar over Coca-Cola’s holiday can.

For those not familiar with the current debacle, Coca-Cola introduced a snow-white holiday can for its classic Coke line (as opposed to its anticipated and traditional red holiday can). Consumer complaints have ranged from confusion with Diet Coke cans (which are silver) and different taste in the white can to plain outrage that Coca-Cola would dare to use something other than their traditional red can.

Coke began its holiday marketing traditional long ago and claims it even helped solidify the image of Santa Claus in his red suit through its marketing and advertising in the 1930s. Since then, the holiday cans have featured scenes including snowflakes and polar bears, just like this year’s can. This year’s can was actually developed in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to help bring awareness to the threat climate change poses to polar bear’s Arctic habitat. Coke is contributing up to $3 million to conservation efforts.

Initially, Coke planned to run their holiday campaign through February but because of the backlash they have faced from consumers they have been forced to develop a new holiday red can and scale back distribution of the snow-white can stating that all white cans will be virtually gone before February rolls around; red will be the dominant can by the holidays.

Overall this is an unfortunate outcome for a large company trying to use their strong holiday marketing presence and tradition to bring awareness to a very real issue with the World Wildlife Fund. However, Coke has learned the hard way how fickle and picky consumers can be when it comes to brand and packaging perception. Deviating from the expectations of your consumers can have very real consequences. Fortunately, Coke has the resources to quickly rectify a negative situation before it affects their brand too much. Smaller companies may not be so lucky, which is why it’s so important to carefully consider any change to your packaging, even if for a brief period such as the holiday season.

Happy Holidays!