Thanks for all the feedback – this is a great help.
Part of the problem with Alka-Seltzer is that it has great brand recognition and awareness, but no one really knows where it fits. As some of you mentioned, brand perception is a double-edged sword for us – on the one hand, everyone knows about our product; on the other, it has a reputation for being your grandfather’s OTC product (not to mention the taste). Part of our plan is to change the advertising message a bit to highlight A-S as a “lifestyle” product – young or old it fits into your lifestyle by offering quick, effective, and SAFE relief – and as part of this, we want to clean up the packaging so that reflects a more modern outlook on life while still playing off that existing OTC consumer trust and familiarity with the brand…
As far as the packaging, we noticed too that everything is blue. We’re a bit reluctant to do anything too jarring with coloration or total redesign, partly because blue seems to symbolize soothing relief for GI products and partly because we don’t want to alienate existing A-S users. Initially, our plan was to keep it simple – maybe darken the box slightly to make the text pop a bit more while also increasing font size to really highlight the name of the brand. In the end, it’s the name that sells this product, not any of the other extraneous text. I’m not sure it’s possible, but I guess in an ideal world we’d find a way to create a package that appeals to both young and old.
Again – thanks everyone for the feedback. I’m not coming at this from a marketing or design background so I’m not sure how clear I’m being in my explanations, but the comments are really helpful (be thankful that wasn’t me in your 10AM meeting, btw). Thanks!