Unique story + sexy packaging = user love

Jason over at 37Signals writes a nice summary of a “juicy little article” that was recently featured in Newsweek. As Jason says, the husband and wife team used clever marketing complete with surprising health claims to bump the sales of their POM pomegranate juice up from $12 million in 2003 to $91 million today. What’s interesting is that they have turned other businesses around over the years, and all with the same deft execution. A quick look at their methods reveals a simple equation: unique story + sexy packaging = user love.

Newsweek reports that the couple purchased and reinvigorated both the Franklin Mint and Fiji Water. Their first order of business seems to be to make their products unique. You’ll notice in the comments over at the Signals’ blog, that many people point to the unique packaging of POM as the main reason for its success. Also, most of POM’s competitiors are introducing pomegranate juice as part of a juice mix, rather than being completely pure like POM. And being pure matters because research indicates that pomegranate juice has more antioxidants than even red wine. As we know from the success of specialty grocers like Trader Joes, health food is in. From the unique health story to the packaging, POM is unique and sexy, a killer combo.

Concerning Fiji Water, the couple attributes the surge in sales to their changing the marketing message from “A Taste of Paradise” to “Untouched by Human Hands. Until You Drink It.” Their new tag line plays off the fact that Fuji water is “natural artesian water”, meaning that the water never comes into contact with pollutants in the air. Their site explains:

Thus, FIJI Water is truly natural artesian water. And, of the top ten bottled waters sold in the United States, FIJI Water is the only water originating from an artesian source. All waters are not created equal.

Fiji water already had sexy packaging so the couple merely changed the marketing message to reflect the unique attributes of their water, thus completing their tried and true formula. To me, these examples are inspirational because they show that there are companies besides Apple who can put the unique story + sexy packaging formula together to great effect.