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. With Pleasing Snickers wrapper
Posted by Rob Walker on July 24, 2008
Posted Under: The Designed Life
Posted Under: The Designed Life
From The Dieline:
My son recently alerted me to a stark new wrapper for Snickers that he found at a Wal-Mart in Tulsa. Not a full-fledged Snicker redesign, I don’t think. Apparently this version of Snickers is a Wal-Mart exclusive. Strikes a lot of people as sort of Soviet-looking.
A comment to the Dieline post suggests its part of a nostalgia promotion. Whatever the explanation, I like it. I also like the concept of a “Wal-Mart exclusive.”
Further diversion may be found at MKTG Tumblr, and the Consumed Facebook page.
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Reader Comments
I also like the concept of a “Wal-Mart exclusive.”
what this tends to mean is actually “lower-quality product the manufacturer won’t sell anywhere else,” a category of product created by brands’ desire to get on Wal-Mart shelves but inability to make a profit with their normal products given Wal-Mart’s, er, “hard-bargaining” tactics with regard to its suppliers.
Bottom line: this Snickers bar probably differs from a normal Snickers bar in two ways:
i) novel packaging
ii) inferior ingredients
re: jkd’s comments … Seems like changing the Snickers mix to include inferior ingredients would be more trouble (i.e., more expensive) than it’s worth. Has Snickers had any trouble finding space on Wal-Mart’s shelves? I happen to live in Tulsa (where Rob’s son spotted the retro-snack package). While I haven’t noticed the promotional packaging we are discussing, I can assure you that Snickers and all the other sugary candies and treats are well-represented in the racks at the checkout line.
My theory (as told from Snickers’ perspective) … Hey, let’s change the wrapper on one giant batch of Snickers–yeah, the exact same Snickers bar we’ve been churning out for 200 years (give or take)–and ship ’em out to every Wal-Mart. Snickers will stand out on the candy racks, and we’ll sell more candy bars.
One quick note of clarity: That bit about “my son” in Tulsa is a quote from The Dieline. I don’t have kids, in Tulsa or anywhere else.
I also tend to doubt that the ingredients are different, for what it’s worth. It’s surely a pure packaging stunt.
For what it’s worth, I was in a Wal*Mart over the 4th of July when I saw the new Snickers package. I thought it was really cool looking. I bought and took it home and froze it. Ate it yesterday on the way to work. It was awesome.
Yeah, thinking about it more, it seems less likely that Snickers would put bad peanuts into their Wal-Mart brand. But, notwithstanding, that is definitely the case with, e.g. Levi’s.
i like it
i think it’s a reproduction of the old original packaging.
I found one of these snickers here in Lewiston, ID. It was stuck in a box of regularly wrapped snickers, but it could have just been dumped in there when they switched out a new box. Regardless, it tasted just as good as any other snickers I’ve had and as a marketing tactic it sure did the trick when I was deciding which candy to buy.
Iluuvv Snickers