Pure (Sweet & Colorful) Marketing Genius

Today I came across something that is PURE MARKETING GENIUS.

On every table of every restuarant, diner and coffee shop across the country sits some container which holds paper packets of different colors.

Each company and brand has staked claim on a specific color. New entrants in the market have to pick a new one.

Pink: Sweet ‘n Low

Blue: NutraSweet or Equal

Yellow: Slenda

White: Plain ol’ Sugar

Brown: Brown Sugar

Green: Truvia

But look at what I saw today:

Incredible.

So many consumers don’t know the difference between the ingredients. And they make their choices by color or some half-educated assumptive position they assembled based on something they’ve heard in the past about each colored product.

So NutraSweet has decided to go after the oldest kid on the block, Sweet ‘n Low by simply putting their product into a pick packet.  

Talk about ability to double your market share without changing your product … all they did was change the packaging.

Wow.

This is a HUGE product decision. I really wonder about the results and if there’s any retaliatory actions from Sweet ‘n Low.

Do you know what I would do if I was NutraSweet?

Start selling boxes of packets in a rainbow of colors.

Or testing out colored packets for seasonal use.

The aim would be to get consumers to move off the color grid system and start reaching for packets based on design — all the while making it ok for them to feature packets with colors of their competitors without being seen as a direct assault on each other like this example is here.

Thoughts?  GENIUS or SUICIDE?