Use the Fortune Cookie Effect. Engage your customers with a collection of cute or hidden messages in your packaging. Chocolates, fortune cookies, ketchup and beer are just some of the products that have successfully used this technique for drawing interest to their branding. The idea is to embed a message into your merchandising to inspire interest and conversation around the message—and therefore the product and, finally, the brand.
Story: When my wife was five months pregnant with our first baby, medical experts told her he was measuring small, and that it was possible he had stopped growing, which of course lent itself to scary self-talk about a myriad potential birth defects. During the course of that day, she was given a Dove chocolate, which came wrapped in purple foil and contained a message inside, as they all do. This message said, “There is greatness in smallness.” The timing being perfect, we took it as a sign, and it helped us relax.
Of course, the happy ending is that the next time she went in for an ultrasound, everything measured fine, and we’re pleased to say that our boy is a happy, healthy, and complete individual. The foil wrapper has been glued to a magnet and now resides on our refrigerator. That little piece of marketing by Dove will now be a part of our family story for many years.
This can be the power of the Fortune Cookie Effect.
P.S.- Below is an example of how Dove has infiltrated popular culture using this marketing technique!