Opinion Piece - What's In The Box

What's In The Box?

Brad Pitt kept repeating that question in the movie Se7en. What’s in the box? What’s in the boooox? Yep, even in thrillers, packaging gives off that mystique.

Go to any grocery anywhere and the first thing you will notice is packaging. Everything sold is packed in all shapes and sizes with a sizzle of bright colors on the side. How something so simple can be so important in marketing a product?

Let’s take the simplest thing one can buy in a store; water. Water by any other brand is still that, water. It will taste the same. It will look the same. And all of those fulfill the same purpose, rehydrate our bodies.

So, what makes one brand of water different from the other? Packaging.

Packaging of bottled water epitomizes how important this process is. We as a consumer would choose a bottled water product based on how it looks like. Prefer a square bottle? How about one with pink labels and an orange cap? The packaging will dictate our choice and determine the success of the product in the consumer market.

The number one juice drink in the Philippines (Zesto), attributes its success on their foil packaging. When it was introduced in the market, foil packaging was new. People equated the product as an imported juice drink.

Nissins Ramen scored a success in the global market with its cup noodles. Even in Japan, the cup noodle has garnered tremendous acceptance despite the initial perception that it would fail miserably. What’s not to like about a cup noodle. Open top, add hot water, close top. Wait 3 minutes and enjoy.

Opinion: Samsung Flew Mob!lers Bloggers To Germany and Threatened To Leave Them There

The trend these days for most companies is to get bloggers to blog about their product or event. Influential bloggers are given perks such as trips, products, etc. in exchange for an article or write-up which is mostly positive.

TNW recently broke a story about how Samsung invited two bloggers, Clinton Jeff of Unleash the Phones and another unnamed blogger, to Germany to cover the IFA conference in Berlin. When it turned out that Samsung were forcing the bloggers to operate as Samsung representatives against their will, the participants declined.

Samsung then threatened to cancel their hotel bookings and flight ticket. With the threat of being stranded in Germany, they were forced to follow what Samsung wanted them to do, act as company representatives.

After, they were hastily told to leave the country immediately. In short, they were not even allowed to cover the whole event.

It's a good thing that Nokia heard about their plight and picked up their tab so the two can cover the event in its entirety.