Advertising today is a strict & insurmountable beast in which one without the necessary tools and guise can and will fail miserably in a futile attempt to beguile the markets with inferior design principles and, all too often, unremembered strategies. I just went to the store to find myself staring down the cookie aisle. One wouldn’t think that such a thing as a cookie aisle could infuse such a response amongst the masses, but it does. Think about it – everyone eats cookies at some point. I noticed something really exquisite while admiring Nabisco’s Nilla® Wafers. The coupons for these cookies were created in such a way that I wanted to buy them without first seeing the box and without second thought (and I’m in the design/advertising business thus, knowing the tricks and marketing ideas). It doesn’t matter. They still market you just the same. You’re just able to empathize with the “behind-the-scenes” people creating the products you want to purchase.

Were they marketed to women, men, kids, boys or girls? You could see a trend of the bright colored boxes and coupons intended for the immediate acquiring of these famous, well-known tongue teasers. They had little recipes on the sides of their packaging undoubtedly intended for the oodles of women coursing through the doors of the local Kroger. Even though the competitors do the same thing, Nabisco has great recipes (at least that’s what I hear my girlfriend say) and are used by women and bachelors alike. That’s another thing – the package designs are suggested for men and women, too. They suggest the buying of other products from Nabisco to aid in the preparation of said recipe. It’s a billion dollar a year business created by adding a few simple words to a box. These marketing strides for goal expansion are the only things separating Nabisco from the myriad other cookie creators of the world, but it’s almost like they have a patent on the sidebar recipes that are unscathed by any attempt by the enemy – companies who are competing in their own markets.

Design-wise, the boxes had the signature Nilla® wafer imaged on the front of the classic, yellow container. The cookies were arranged in such a way that they created a flow on the box in an up, down, up, down pattern. On the edges of each box the wafer’s image was cut in half. When coupled with another twin box to either the left or the right, the pattern continued down the rack to the end of the aisle until the last box was reached by the onlooker’s eyes. Excellent, if only to carry the eye down the aisle to the other cookies Nabisco makes so as to entice your purchase of the mouth-watering ganibganabs of goodness. I want some now.

“You have to have an edge in world of advertising today. This edge has to be continued constantly and cannot falter or it’s your butt and the butts of those around you. Keep your wits about yourself and be bold, daring and often break away from the perspectives you had prior to beginning your next big design.”

Tim Raymer