TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Plain packaging halts creative efforts, hurts economy
A drop in brand strength and marketing effectiveness would cost PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and Heineken US$187 billion in total implied loss.
Change Size
Carbonated drinks in plain packaging. (Shutterstock/File)
W
hen brewing company Suntory wanted to launch a new beverage named Good Mood in the Indonesian market, it opted to do so with two mini-movies, playing on the name of the new drink.
The first short film, titled The Bad Choice, shows the male protagonist having a lousy day in reverse chronology. He battles zombies all the way from a convenience store to his office, tries to rescue a chicken, and his shirt catches on fire. This, all because he picked the wrong drink at the convenience store.
A second short film was released shortly after. It shows the same character on the same journey. But this time, the male lead looks dapper, is in better spirits, and has an overall wonderful day. All because he made the right beverage choice earlier at the convenience store when he picked out the Good Mood drink.
Watching the two videos, it is clear that they are no small-scale productions. Suntory worked with creative companies in the region to create an unconventional and ambitious campaign to market the new beverage in Indonesia.
This example gives us a glimpse of the effort companies put in to build brands in their stable. The two short films were a viral hit when they were released; The Bad Choice has been viewed 14 million times on YouTube, while the subsequent short film garnered 5.8 million views.
But developments in the packaging industry are threatening to put a full stop to such marketing efforts. In recent years, plain packaging — essentially standardized packaging that bans brand colors, imagery, corporate logos and trademarks — has made its way into conversations about the alcohol, soft drinks and snacks industry. This comes after countries such as Australia, France, the UK and Ireland banned branding on tobacco products in a bid to lower smoking rates.
Brand Finance recently ran an analysis on the potential impact of a ban on branding on eight major brand-owning companies in the food and beverage sector, including PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and Heineken.
