I make this post at the risk that some of you might think I have "gone around the bend." But here goes. A few years ago I went to the nearby grocery store where we mainly shop, and one of the things I needed to get was another bottle of Gulden's spicy brown mustard. I looked carefully, I thought, on every shelf with mustard and couldn't find Gulden's. So I just figured the store was out. I mentioned it to Kathy and she said she would get it at Stop & Shop when she went there. Sure enough, she came home with a bottle of Gulden's but it was in a BLACK bottle! What? When I went back to the original store, sure enough, it was there in a black bottle! Walked right by it. What the heck, Gulden's has been in a clear bottle since I was a kid! Why would they change this? It says on the black bottle "New Look." Yeah, well, I wonder whose genius idea it was to change the bottle color? Probably some young marketing kid who wanted Gulden's to stand out from the others which were all brown in color. Every time I saw the black bottle, I wondered if they were selling more mustard than they used to. I would love to know. So, cut to a few weeks ago, and the black bottle was nearly empty, so I went to our local store looking for another bottle, and, GET THIS, I could not find it! What??? Every single bottle of mustard on the shelf was mustard colored! Where is Gulden's? THEN I saw it! Gulden's in a clear bottle! I must have passed it on the shelf half a dozen times! They are back to the old color! So NOW I want to know the whole story! Did they gain market share in the black bottle, or did they lose market share? I am guessing they sold less of their mustard and so finally switched back to the original bottle. I would LOVE to know the whole story about this. The Harvard Business School from time to time does examinations of business successes and failures and researches the stories in great detail, and then publishes the stories as a lesson for all, so they can learn from mistakes. I doubt they will do a study on this one, but I would love to know all the background on this "New Look" for Gulden's and its change back.
5 comments:
I have always bought Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard because Dad did and we grew up with it. I bought a new bottle for the July 4th picnic same as always. I would imagine they lost a lot of business as people did not notice the new packaging and purchased something else. Don't change it if it isn't broken.
Joan
Repackaging makes me nuts! Tweaking good products makes me nuts (like the Coca-Cola disaster)! I agree that young Harvard and Stamford MBAs think that "change"is the solution to increasing sales. What about the customers who are confused and give up trying to find a familiar product? I would also like to add that I strongly dislike products packaged in plastic squeeze containers such as mustard. I can never seem to get the last of the product out of the container. I am convinced that this type of packaging was designed for soccer moms to speed up the process of preparing kid's sandwiches and for the manufacturers to sell more product because plastic squeeze containers cannot be completely emptied; therefore, requiring more frequent trips to the grocery store. Listen up young and inexperienced Harvard and Stamford Marketing MBAs - leave us alone!
I bet a lot of people couldn’t find the original Gulden’s because of the change in packaging. So they bought another brand. We tend to buy what is familiar, what we grew up with. It’s easy to spot on the shelves. It’s bad enough that manufacturers have decreased the sizes of products, as if we wouldn’t notice…Betsey
It would be interesting to see why they changed it and then changed it back. I agree with Joan, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Trace
I think it was a great idea to change the packaging. It gave competitors time to catch up and get new customers. Especially store brands. I also think it was an effort by the company to be honorable and let other corporations know that everyone should make it an equal playing field. It also gave Gulden's time to save some mustard seeds as their sales went down. I'm 100% sure that extra mustard seeds are a good thing. I read that somewhere or maybe someone told me. And one last thing is that the old unused black squeeze bottles can be saved and sold for a fortune 50 years from now. Yes, I think it was an excellent plan. And I'm so smart at this, that I may consider running for US president.
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