Cereal boxes spur consumer frustration - Consumer Corner

Food & Drug Packaging, Sept, 2003 by Mona Doyle

American consumers are criticized for being spoiled, fickle, demanding, unpredictable and insatiable. Sometimes they are criticized for being stupid--other times for being too smart for their own good.

The recent history of packaging has played a major role in shaping their perceptions and behavior. More than any other category, cereal packaging has shaped their distrust, their sense of entitlement and their frustration with this important and highly advertised category's unresponsiveness to their needs.

"With the price of cereal being so high, I would think they could put a little more time and effort into designing a package that is more user friendly. The bags in the cereal boxes are difficult to open and impossible to seal."

"Cereal packages are terrible. You try to open them and they rip crooked. They can't be sealed and get stale fast."

"Cereal packaging has not gotten better over the years. In my book, it has actually gotten worse! I think it may have become necessary to make the inner seals extremely airtight due to them containing more sugar and/or dried fruit. But little provision has been made for easy opening OR resealing."

The perceptions that go into this indictment are:

* Cereal is expensive.

* Cereal is controlled by a few big companies.

* Cereal takes advantage of consumers with deceptively large packaging that contains a lot of air.

* Cereal pricing forces consumers to buy large sizes, which don't stay fresh because they don't reclose.

* Cereal is a wasteful mess to use. While being poured, it gets between the liner and the box. While being stored, its huge size in relation to contents takes up much more room than it should.

* Cereal package graphics make the most sugary cereals impossible for young child ten to resist.

* The serving sizes listed on cereal boxes are unrealistic.

* Cereal packages are especially tough on seniors with weak or arthritic hands.

Packages, and people, that don't change with the times begin to look like anachronisms. Even our conservative Supreme Court is "consolidating cultural developments," recognizing the ways that our society is changing, and translating the changes into laws that make sense for today. It's not too far of a stretch to conclude that cereal packagers might be well advised to do the same thing.

However, for some consumers, cereal boxes aren't all bad. Our research into Who Wants What Package Improvements showed that cereal boxes meet two of today's consumers major criteria for what makes a good package: They look clean and they look economical. Digging just a tiny bit deeper into consumers' perceptions shows that cereal doesn't deliver against these criteria either: By often creating mess, they aren't really clean. By failing to protect freshness, they aren't really economical.

This means that today's cereal boxes are really out of step with today's cultural norms and consumer expectations. We can only guess how much share of breakfast, lunch and the evening snack market being behind the times has cost the category.

The author, Mona Doyle, is the CEO of The Consumer Network Inc., an organization that regularly takes the pulse of consumers on packaging issues. She publishes The Shopper Report newsletter. Contact her at 2401 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 2A4, Philadelphia, PA 19130 Phone: 800-291-0100; E-mail: Mona@ConsumerNetwork.org