🤑A LOOK AT LUXURY PACKAGING AND THE WAY MARKETING ENTICES YOU TO B...

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You may remember, if you have been following me for a while, that in January I did a short series on unique South African packaging. Click here for a refresher.

I was in Woolworths, which is a more upmarket supermarket (supposedly😉), getting few supplies for Friday Night Pizza Night (a tradition my husband and I have), when I wandered into the tea aisle. If you know anything about me, you will know how much I love tea. I spent a good ten minutes reading all the descriptions of the different variations of flavours, and realised I was more drawn to the boxes with pretty, whimsical illustrations on them.

It got me thinking on how I was more drawn to spend R40 on a box of tea, when the average was R25 or R30. (if i put that in dollars you may scoff at me, but remember that our currency is 13 to the dollar - $3 instead of $1.50). Yes, the packaging was really pretty, but look at those flavours! Chamomile, echinacea, rosemary and peppercorns! I ended up buying this one, the rosemary and peppercorns make for the most incredibly warming, spicy, herbal flavour.

If I think about the effort that goes into a marketing campaign for a product, it boggles my mind! For example, cat food. I always have bought the Whiskers brand, as it promises to be a food my cat would prefer. I always see the bright yellow bags and think instantly, that's the food my kitty loves! I did some research, and it actually turns out that my kitty loves Whiskers more because it has more sodium, making it more addictive! I started to compare ingredients and saw that most cat foods have the same ingredients, but the marketing was what brought in the different price points.

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Packaging is a really important part of marketing, especially for an unknown brand. If the two same coffee beans were packaged in two different tins, at the same price, I would take the prettier tin.

Take the entire Woolworths brand for example. They market themselves as an upmarket, more expensive supermarket that focuses on high quality items. The customer service is impeccable. The pre-packed items are so next level - roasted butternut and beetroot salads with a balsamic dressing. They play Frank Sinatra while you shop, dammit!

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A bag of flour is probably a few rands more expensive than at one of their competitors. Granted, I do think many of their products are far superior than at the main competitor, Pick n Pay, but the added few rands onto each product ends up being far more for a few necessities once you are at the till.

I generally end up spending around R200 ($15) more at Woolworths, because I am tempted to buy items that are not on the list, like these teas for example.

Noone, well not me anyway, is going to buy a few items at Woolworths that are better quality, and then the other items which are cheaper, but similar quality at a seperate supermarket.

I like to think that I am immune to marketing and packaging ploys, but when they've put so much effort into the tea packaging, or perhaps the jelly sweets that my husband dies over, I am definitely coerced into purchasing. They even sell beautiful plants, and I could not walk past a Delicious Monster. So I took it home!