So you've got your product and are about to the order the packaging supplies, but are you really sure that its the right product packaging? Knowing about packaging supplies is the key.

There are a number of packaging mistakes made by big companies which has cost them dearly in shipping, recalls and getting new packaging supplies. When it comes down to it, there are really only two things you have to be very careful with:

It means what!?

Wow, your product sure does look great written in Spanish, but you don't speak spanish… do you really know what its really saying to native Spanish speakers?

This was the same trap that the Gerber Baby Food Company fell into. When the company launched their line of baby food in French supermarkets, they initially recorded dismal sales. After some closer matrket research, it was pointed out that the word 'Gerber' translated into 'vomiting' in French.

They replaced all the labels with French translations from their packaging suppliers, shipped and stocked them in supermarkets and then the day it all went on sale…

It was later pointed out by a sheepish French person that 'Gerber', the company name appearing on all their packaging,  actually means "Vomiting" in the French language.

Same Word, Different Meaning

This second trap that packaging suppliers can fall into is related to incorrect translation. While having your product becoming a household name is a dream for most retailers, there are instances where it can become a household name for all the wrong reasons.

These were pills that came in a number of flavours and suppressed your apetite. Things were looking good for the company, they had a great design in the 60's from their packaging suppliers, good distribution and had steadily growing sales. This continued into the 70's, however in the early 80's product sales took a nose dive.

Now AYDS wasn't going to take this lying down and tried to advertise and promote their product even harder. However the critial mistake was not changing packaging supplies.

Refusing to change the name of the product, it was eventually discontinued due to lack of sales… or possible too many jokes being made about it.

Idealy to avoid situations like this, you will want to take a good long hard look at your packaging suppies and make sure that your product still says what its meant to say in the country you're about to send it to!

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