October 7, 2002
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Stimulations.
Il y a quelques temps une de mes filles nous rapporta du Royaume Uni une boîte de sablés fabriqués en Ecosse . J ' ai admiré la boîte et je l 'ai photographiée . Ce vieux château d ' Edimbourg et ce tissu écossais traditionnel rappelaient le meilleur de la tradition et suggéraient que les sablés ,pur beurre , avaient été fabriqués à l ' ancienne et donc devaient être excellents . Ils l ' étaient effectivement . Producteurs et fabricants savent utiliser les signaux qui stimulent le désir ou l ' appétit . Et quelquefois cela peut être un leurre .
Quoi qu 'il en soit ces stimulations nous marquent profondément . Je me souviens encore du dessin , un voilier , sur les boîtes de tapioca de marque " le Petit navire " avant la guerre ou encore du dessin d ' un personnage habillé à l ' ancienne inspirant le respect sur les boîtes de flocons d ' avoine de la marque " Quaker oats " . Toutes ces stimulations contribuent à façonner notre personnalité . Mais heureusement il n ' y a pas que cela ., il y a aussi la marque de l ' hérédité , l ' éducation reçue et le cheminement de la pensée . Mais ….
Stimulations .
Sometimes ago one of my daugthers brought us back from United Kingdom a box of shortbreads made in Scotland . I have been admiring the box and took a picture of it . This old Edinburgh castle and this Scottish traditional textile reminded me of the best of the tradition and suggested that the pure butter shortbreads had been made by the ancient way ans so should be excellent .Indeed they were . Producers and makers are able to use the signal ( stimulus ) that whets the desire or the appetite . And sometimes it may be an illusion .
Whatever these stimulations marck us deeply . I still remember the drawing , a sail boat , on the tapioca box of the brand " the little ship " before the war II or again the drawing of respectable man dressed with ancient clothes on the porridge oats box of the brand " Quaker oats " . All of those stimulations participate to build our personality . But , fortunatly they are not alone . There are also the marck of heredity , the education that we received and the growth of our thought . But ...
Comments (73)
very interesting blog, Michel...Stimulus is such a serious thing to humans,that it is even subject at Colleges courses as psychology and business in general... And the idea of what is old is better due to its tradition and experience does exist, but as you said, not always is true. One should de able to distinguish the various stimulations spread in life...
anyway... have a good day!
Yes...those in the advertising industry obviously know it....we judge a book by its cover, we judge people by their appearance, and we judge shortbreads by the tradition and experience claimed on the box.
If only we could judge on merit only, but we have a love of beauty and tradition built into us as well...these are things we value. You really have to applaud the people who came up with the packaging though...it's obviously a great advertising ploy, the attractive box and the illusion of tradition! We get that brand of shortbread over here and I have to admit to having purchased them in the past!!
yes, I would eat those cookies~! the box sold me
but then I would eat ANY cookies~!
These cookies are very good. I've eaten some, not because of the box, but because I love shortbread oh so much. But you are right, we attach to products because of how the package makes us feel. This is a most intersting blog -- I shall ponder this idea.
I LOVE Walker's shortbreads. The box they are sold in here looks a little different. Same red plaid but different picture. It is interesting to stop and think about the associations those marketing images have for us. You make a very good point.
Packaging.
You have brought back memories my friend. Memories of days when the brands of foods and products purchased in the grocery store were real, not over processed, the matriarch who designed the recipe was still alive, and the company was owned by a family not a corporation. The contents of the box were good, not generic or of low quality. I was crestfallen to find out that Betty Crocker wasn't real.
Packaging.
You have brought back memories my friend. Memories of days when the brands of foods and products purchased in the grocery store were real, not over processed, the matriarch who designed the recipe was still alive, and the company was owned by a family not a corporation. The contents of the box were good, not generic or of low quality. I was crestfallen to find out that Betty Crocker wasn't real.
my grandparents used to visit england a lot, and htey always got those cookies. now every year at christmas i make my grandmother shortbread cookies. =)
OH! OH! my goodness how did you know that is my very favorite SHORT BREAD. My Mom was born in Glasgow , Scotland and many times we even made shortbread together. It only really tasted good when my mother made it! I have purchased the very same box of shortbread! What memories! @-}-}- What a very small world !!!!
J'adore comment vous pouvez decrire quelque chose si simple dans une facon si elegant!
I am sure Queen Elizabeth eats the same kind of cookies during her Afternoon Tea. Btw, you know she is in town??? Well,
I
We still have Quaker Oats in fact had some myself only yesterday. Walker is an old Scottish name but not too many shortbread biscuits: Michel there are so very fattening. Regards Ron
advertisers are very powerful people....and they know it......
although, i have to admit, walker's shortbread are awfully good
but a simple image can sometimes be all it takes to make something seem authentic.....
Oui, Michel, Quelquetemps, Les images disent tout.
Je souviens L'Angleterre quand je vois la couvre du boit. c'etaient un des mes biscuits favoris
I know what you mean. There are many old advertisements that evoke such emotions in me. I particularly like the one you have shared with us. Edinburgh castle is, indeed, impressive. I was in Edinburgh in 1987 and remember how dominate the castle was in the cityscape. I must dig out my Edinburgh castle photos now. Great blog!
Since I absolutely love shortbread cookies it wouldn’t take a lot to of selling to get me to buy them but the box is very attractive. Now I am going to be thinking about eating cookies all day!!
I believe that nostalgia for traditions mark people more deeply than most things in life! I will take a cup of tea with my butter Scottish shortbread please!
Je crois cette nostalgie pour les gens de marque de traditions plus profondément que la plupart des choses dans la vie! Je prendrai une tasse de thé avec mon beurre shortbread (boîte de sablés?) écossais s'il vous plaît!
...excellent topic, Michel, one of my favorites! Integrated Marketing being my profession, packaging is no small matter in product or service. Even our self image is conveyed by "packaging". Be it deliberate or not, there are few inferior products that go the cost and thought of good packaging.
MuSe
...good packaging is the reflection of the product within. Doing it well and accurately is an art and science.
I remember the commercials that came on TV when I was a kid. Mostly I remember the jingles instead of the commercials. Why don't commercials have good jingles anymore?
merci beaucoup d avoir pris le temps de lire ma rédaction!
le marketing est très puissant... ( il n empeche que certains produits peuvent avoir un meballage hideux tout en étant délicieux) mais la mémoire visuelle aussi comme vous le dites... ceci m a fait penser à la mémoire olfactive dont parlait proust avec ses fameuses madeleines.... n est elle pas aussi importante?
amitiés
marie
They make some good stuff in england and Scotland too. Whisky.
But
réponse ( answer to à) à marietomb : Tu as entièrement raison à propos de la mémoire olfactive avec un fort bel exemple .
You are right about the olfactory memory and you give a quite good example .
Answer to ; Sagiscoobious ; yes any good jingles remain printed in our memory in association with a product.
Products and packaging have changed over the years, it's not quite what it used to be, but I'm sure they'll be different as the years progress.
When I was very young, my father was the chef in one of the finest resturants in town. The way he placed the food on the plate stimulated the seer's taste buds to start drooling.
He taught me how to do that too.
Ahh! That we have the same sweet image of our favorite morning breakfast food is a great coincidence! The "Quaker Oats" man. Still makes me smile!
I love Scottish shortbread! You've made me hungry!!
I was wondering if you could possibly tell me how to say "they took these ideas one stage further by bringing in..." In French because I think I know one way of saying but it's for my Oxford application essay so I want to sound as French as possible!!!
Thanks in advance!!
Charis
ok there goes my diet, i want shortbread and cheese , cheese oh boy..... 10lbs coming at me. oh well i can exercise it off. lol, fancy
Great Blog Michel , I love shortbread . I know what you mean about images selling , I always remember HP sauce with a pic of Tower Bridge why I do not know it was on the bottle but I always remember it
walkers shortbread is indeed wonderful...
it's amazing what pieces and parts make up the whole. the snippets of memory. the images. the smiles.
I have that same box. I adore the picture on it. Even though I have never been there it makes me smile. And knowing what is in the box makes the smile bigger
Ah, image is everything. I suppose this is the reason why Americans have a problem with being overwieght. Associating the image with a day gone by era~wonder if this is where the term 'comfort food' came from, eh?
yum, shortbreads
Yes, Walker's shortbreads are wonderful!!
J'ai deja vu cette boite et les biscuits sont delicieuses!
I loved having Walkers shortbread on the welcome tray in my room in Scotland. It was so nice to come in out of the cold and rain to fix a hot cup of tea and enjoy it with the shortbread. When we came home my friend Gay bought Campbells shortbread (3 boxes) to take home instead of Walkers, because her last name is Campbell.
You are very correct that memories that involve tradition are very powerful. When I was a girl the shredded wheat came in a box shaped more like a saltine cracker box. It had a picture of Niagra Falls on it. The raisin boxes still have a picture of a young woman with curls and a bonnet holding a tray of fruit. The salt box had a picture of a little girl with an umbrella (it was supposed to assure you that the salt would still pour if the weather was damp). There is still a little girl on the box, but it is not the same one.
nostalgia always has tremendous appeal.
~andro
Yummm I love shortbread... any kind, but the homemade ones are the bestest
Hmm. I'm not a fan of shortbread cookies, but I do see what you mean by image packaging. That's a big part of marketing.
Comme toujours, vous nous avez béni avec un autre merveilleux a pensé.
Derrida and Saussure: the reason why we embrace these products is because the packaging speaks to us on many levels. Deconstruction and signifiers.
Clementine
ps-those buttery cookies are fantastic!
Yum shortbreads!
I love those shortbreads, my aunty used to bring them back for us on her visits. I like how they have managed to keep their style of packaging and still keep selling after all this time
I remember eating shortbread covered in milk chocolate. They came in a pack of 6. They stopped making them but they were so good. Ok, I'm hungry now.
thankyou very much for your help
...but what?
have you ever been to montmartre michel? i want to go there someday. by the way, i would like to thank you for reading what i have to write. seems like only a few people do read what i write and understand the content. thanks.
Answer to stay2nd : Yes crystal I went to Montmartre in the past : I can recognized the stairs on your banner . The Sacré coeur , the place du Tertre and its painters ... Its very romantic and there is an particular ambiance .
Michel
One of my favorite cookies. Now Im off to old forge.
Pretty girls and alcoholic beverages are inseparble in the commercial world. Sometimes I think the girls help sell the beverages--and sometimes it's the other way around.
it's funny how those things become etched into our memories, isn't it
...don't worry, michel, i will be back soon!
They're beautiful pictures, aren't they? I love those paintings that used to be described as "chocolate box-y". I never understood why people thought that was a bad thing.
And mmmm.. shortbread
Apres lire votre blog, je voudrais manger des biscuits... I suppose that just proves your point!
Il est étonnant comment le marketing a formé non seulement la société, mais chaque individu. Bonne pensée.
Mmmmm! Those look yummy!
Amour
Hollie
"A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten.
Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands,
and a good many take their images precooked out of a can
and swallow them down whole,
absent-mindedly and with little relish."
-- W. H. Auden
mmmm.. shortbread
you are very correct about the ideas presented in this writing. thank you for your comment! my feet are in picture #3! : ) so that's where I am.
and, by the way, I love this brand of shortbread!! my Godmother from England sends them to me
They look tasty indeed Michel!
Ah, the Normandy Financieres were very beautiful too. And the Calvados and Pommeau. Tom
I collect cookie tins..... on this, I'd save the box..... cookies would be gone in 1 hour around here.
I could taste the buttery shortbread. I too received the stimuli! So many cans and boxes bring memories and tastes too the mind...some long forgotten only to be rekindled by stimulus of a picture or sound. Some stimulus brings pleasure and others pain..it is all in the learning!
My first thought was remembering how much I love those cookies! Then I had to go back and re-read to get the point you were making!
Salut! Je viens pour visiter!
I've grown because of shortbread, about fifteen pounds.
ah... les memoirs de mon enfance...
Now there is too much sexual implication in much of the advertising. That is a great blog.
Thanks for stopping by!
rr
i love your imaginationa and your creative streak michel. i pictured a similar scenario.
p/s i'll visit montmartre one day.
Sounds wonderful! Funny how things seem to bring back memories when you see or hear a tune. Hope you have a great weekend.
I think you could write about almost anything, and it would be interesting. I like the way that you can take a beautiful picture of something, then write about it in such a way as to make others really think about it. Good blog, Michel! Have a great weekend.
The picture on this package is very effective in my opinion. It brings up memories of buttery cookies that I know came from a place very different from America.
Packaging is surely a science and art.
Quaker Oats est un repas très populaire de petit déjeuner en Amérique.
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