Soft & Beautiful Product Packing

Recently the packaging for Soft & Beautiful changed and so did my desire to purchase it.

I was so put off by the packaging of this product I felt compelled to write the company. I explained that the original packing, which had a peachy color and smell, was indeed "Soft" and "Beautiful".

My discovery came one day while I was in the beauty supply store looking for my Soft & Beautiful products. This was the third store I had been to and was getting totally frustrated not being able to find what I wanted. I had been in this store for 10 minutes when finally I asked the sales person if they had gotten rid of the Soft & Beautiful line. And if so, how could they justify having a distribution center less than 25 miles away!

"No. Here it is. They just changed the packing" she, very helpfully, explained.

As I stood in the isle looking at this packaging nightmare I asked (myself) "What psychotic brain chose these colors?!"

I immediately wrote the company and asked what they were thinking with the new colors. I explained that the new packaging looked as if they got a group of men who formally worked on the Alaskan Pipeline and had no access to women for at least 18 months to sit down and decide what this "Soft" and "Beautiful" product should look like. I'm sure the meeting went something like this:

Man #1: Well, women like pink. So put some of that in there.

Man #2: And maybe some red because red is close to pink so those colors might look good next to each other.

Man #3: And you know women can't make up their minds so put another color in there just to make sure there are enough colors.

Man #1: Which color?

Man #3: Don't know.

Man #2: How bout that one (pointing at a penny sitting in the middle of the table.)

Seriously, the packaging for this product is hideous.

I'm not a product marketer (even though I had to take several product marketing classes and seminars to get my degree in communications). I do not know what a round table discussion would be like for this type of product . But I do know that nothing will lose customers quicker if the consumer cannot identify the product; whether that be sight, smell, taste or touch. Ask the Coca Cola Company!

I'm certain the product itself has not changed. But, and this is just me, I cannot get pass that repulsive packing. The colors are angry which deflects from the beautiful woman on the bottle.

Not that one woman can change the minds of an entire corporation, but . . . this is me trying.

If you need suggestions, here are a few:

- How about just changing the shape of the bottle to something more delicate?
- How about changing to an acrylic, snazzy looking bottle with a clear top or dispenser?
- How about keeping the peachy color and just adding a stream of pearly white as a complement or accent color and keep the picture of the woman?
- How about changing from tubes to a jar for the thicker moisturizers?

Just a few suggestions from one consumer who may never purchase this product again. Because, I just won't use (what I feel are) angry products on my soft and beautiful hair.