We are seeing a commoditization of goods and services in our society. My basic premise is that increasingly, the truth behind most of the images we see is the same; hence the appeal to the customers has started to play a deciding role.

With the proliferation of goods and services, companies face a major challenge in communicating the benefits of their products to their customers. Large turnover of the products and shorter lifecycles of the products make the first few instances of the customer contact very important. In those few moments, it is the packaging / the appeal that plays a predominant role in the success of the product. “This is the age of Blip economy “ says the marketing wizard, Seth Godin. Blip economy essentially means customers are exposed to bits and pieces of information relating to a lot of news around them. Hence with so much information competing the mind share, it is but natural that the appeal or packaging of any thing, be it a product, be it a news item, be it an announcement, becomes crucial to the performance of the product.

The emergence of entertainment channels is a case in point to illustrate the importance of creating an appealing image. If one looks at movies, music, entertainment products, the core product is usually the same. But the success of appealing becomes critical. Take the rise of multiplexes in many countries, the core product is the same, i.e the movie, but the ambience, the way it is packaged creates a world of difference. In the entertainment industry , iPod is a great example. Besides its benefits, one reason for its astounding success is its slick imagery. Design and Packaging has thus become an important element in our society. There will be millions of products which have the same functionality as that of iPod but where it beats all of them is its appealing image.

Appeal in classic marketing terminology is called Branding. There are unimaginable number of examples which substantiate the importance of branding in the success of the firm.It even finds its place in the balance sheet of the firm, thus affecting the increasing the company. It is immature to say that all that is needed is to create a brand and not worry about the performance of the product. There cannot be a company or a person who merely lives on the appeal. In our society of demanding customers ,the performance or the truth behind the image is a necessary condition. However it is not a sufficient condition for it to do well. It needs to be clubbed with a good appeal for it to be recognizable in the market. Sometimes, it is seen that people do not emphasize on the product at all and give importance to packaging , which creates false expectations and the result is :” what started as a bang, ends up in a whimper” One of the examples to quote is that of LTCM(Long term Capital Management Fund). It has a great packaging as the people who drove the fund had superb credentials, the fund was packaged as the fund which will change the face of global markets. With so much appeal, it created artificial expectations from a lot of individuals and companies. However, what mattered also was the performance of the fund which took a beating and hence it ended in a great disaster

In the contemporary society characterized by a lot of similar products, appeal thus creates a make or break situation for many. However, the truth behind the image has to be present, otherwise it might have a short term demand for the product but ultimately it will take a beating