I was watching reality TV the other night and this tip was born. The show I watched is called The Profit and Marcus Lemonis comes in to a struggling business to try to get them pointed in a positive direction. Those of you with a small business may be interested in some of the lessons taught to the struggling businesses featured in each episode.

In every episode I’ve seen, the “packaging” used by the company was something that was fixed. In the case of a florist, a big change to the packaging was to apply a new vehicle wrap to their delivery vans. The most recent episode was a company, Eco-Me, that made environmentally friendly cleaning products. Their packaging was panned by Lemonis and misunderstood by potential customers who asked what the names “Bill,” “Kate,” “Emily” and “Suzy” meant on the labels. Examples of a few of the product labels are shown below.

A designer was brought in to change the labels. The names were removed against the wishes of the company owner and the main purpose of each cleaner was made clear. Below are examples of a few products after the re-design. What used to be Suzy is now the Dish Soap with the orange logo. Bill has become the All Purpose Cleaner with the green logo. If these products were side-by-side on a shelf, which one would you buy?

Part of most episodes is the owner pushing back against changes such as the example shown here. As an outsider, it is easy to see the change as a big improvement. Yet an insider is very emotionally connected to the current design and thus resistant to change. Whether you are the designer proposing the changes or the owner resistant to change, try to take a step back and look at the change from the perspective of a potential customer. The right design is the one that increases sales!