Vibrant New Packaging Was Created

Philips felt that this marketing effort gave the company an opportunity to create vibrant new packaging that told a better story to the consumer. It wanted to create packaging that would help sell the product off of the shelf without confusing the consumer. Philips felt that with its old packaging, and with the packaging of GE and Sylvania, the consumer had trouble figuring out which lightbulb was better and why. The company felt that, in addition to advertising, the good, better, best story would have to be told on the packaging.

On the new packaging Philips designed, wattage was the most prominent-number, and how long the lightbulbs would last was the second most prominent number. Philips felt that consumers could not relate to life represented in hours, so it stated the life in years . It also gave the guarantee on the packaging: The lightbulbs were guaranteed for one year, two years, five years, or seven years. Finally, the packaging visually showed the consumer the shape of the lightbulb and where it should go in the home. The idea was to simplify the shopping process.