What do you do when you want to redesign the packaging of a brand that dates back 90 years? You tread very carefully. The brand Eight O'Clock Coffee was established in 1919 by A&P (who began selling coffee in 1859) and in the 1920's and 1930's it was the best selling coffee in the world, with a 25% market share in this country. It is still successful today being the 4th largest national coffee brand. So it is no small undertaking to completely overhaul the product packaging.
Rather than thrusting a new package design on their unsuspecting customers they decided to involve their customers in the process. They created a special website called CoffeeMakeover.com with two new package designs and anyone can vote on the one they like best. There are even daily prizes and someone will win $5,000 in free groceries. The polls are open through March 15 with the winning look being unveiled March 16.
Personally, I am not a huge fan of either of these new designs, they both seem to be too big a departure from the old design, which dilutes the brand equity built up over decades. But the smart thing about the contest is that they not only give their loyal customers fair warning, they allow them to help decide the new design.
