In all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of flavored drinks. If someone asked me what my favorite beverage is, my honest answer is "ice water." However, Nugget's selection is too tempting to pass up - not for the drinks themselves, but because of their variety of bottles and cans. Don't believe me?It can be quite overwhelming, especially when trying to decide on ONE drink. I always, without fail, just pick my favorite bottle. Some are hilarious (Leninade? Classic.) and others are just pretty. Ultimately, it comes down to the design that does the best job at getting its taste across. How else am I going to know what I'm getting myself into? Red Bull? What does that mean to me? The label does not give me any indication of taste, which is probably their goal since, from experience, it is horrible. No, I'm more attracted to bottles that reflect the drink either in color, graphics, or photographs. I especially like when fruity drinks are accompanied by cartoons or stylized drawings of orange slices or a bunch of grapes. Tonight, however, I fell for the classy stylings of "Gus: Grown-Up Soda." Not only is that title adorable, but they conveyed the flavor (with photographs) and, perhaps more importantly, an attitude. The bottle says to me "this is a drink for adults who like to pretend to be sophisticated, but in the end, they are still drinking soda." My kind of outlook in life, my kind of drink. Well, the soda itself turned out to be mediocre, but look at the bottle? Worth it.
I can't be the only one who makes decisions based on packaging. Otherwise there wouldn't be a need for marketing in the first place. This experience goes to show how important design is to everyday situations, like trying to get a caffeine fix before diving into hours of reading. Design is everywhere and affects every consumer decision, appealing to the attitudes as well as the aesthetics of customers. You can't avoid it, so you might as well embrace it and enjoy judging the bottles against each other.
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