I get it, trust me I do. You probably looked over many marketing plans, perhaps even had a focus group about what baking soda packaging should look like. And in my naivety about baking soda, I pretty much assumed that something like baking soda was in fact a product I could get away with buying a generic brand. Now I don't do that for everything, but I do believe powder is powder. However, it should be noted that I do not feel the same way about ketchup. I'm just saying.
Granted, my cooking skill set is rather limited, so I do defer to your expertise here. You've probably used baking soda far more often than I. And so when I came across this item on my grocery list (which is on my phone because I'm hip like that) I saw the two boxes side by side in the aisle.
And I chose you, generic baking soda. I chose you indeed, not knowing what was coming in just a few hours.
As I stated, I do not have mad skills in the kitchen. We get by, but I'm not cooking something awesome every day. In fact, this week is the first time I actually made a menu for the week. But I do vaguely recall a cookie recipe or two that calls for baking soda. It stands to reason that you would place a picture of cookies (are those snickerdoodles??) on the box. So see? I get your marketing scheme there.
However, my 3 year old OCD, Autsitic kid...not so much.
She came across the box in the kitchen, snatched it off the counter, bringing it to me to open. I simply told her she couldn't have it and why the heck would she even want baking soda anyway. That started a "game" of my putting the box on one side, and her running to it...then me moving the box to my other hand quickly (I should be a quarterback in the NFL with my accuracy). Back and forth, back and forth playing this game of Keep-away. (Mistake #1, it wasn't a game to her). She was mad, she was frustrated and she was downright pissed that a) I didn't get it and b) I wasn't listening to her non-verbal cues and c) I wouldn't give her the damn box. All the while, I was baffled as to why this box was so intriguing. She finally gave up, marched off and became distracted in something else.
I sat the box on the end table and forgot about it. When she came back 20 minutes later, she spotted it right away and picked it up. "ahh! ha! me! me!" What the heck??..... And then it hit me like a brick wall.
There are no cookies in there.
How am I going to explain your marketing plan to this child? I decided no conversation was really going to work. So I took the box away from her. Mistake #2. I should know my child now. And even if she cannot express herself well, I certainly know words in my vocabulary to help explain this. I"ll save you the details but suffice it to say it was a long discussion (too long, Mistake #3) on her wanting cookies from your pretty box and me telling her no. It finally escalated to the point that she yelled (while slamming her hand to the table)
"Put it DOWN, RIGHT now!!!"
These are not the cherished words from my little cherub I was hoping to hear after a years worth of speech therapy (again, silent applause for a full sentence with passion and meaning and used appropriately).
Our discussion (if we can really call it such a thing) ended with her crying and moving into meltdown mode. Lucky for you (or I would have called my Congressman) we avoided full blown meltdown. It was a matter of me showing her that all was inside was fluffy powder, not cookies.
Do you know how confusing that is to a kid?
So, I'm asking you to reconsider your packaging on this one. Don't make me send my 3 year old over to your office with several boxes of baking soda. It won't be pretty, I promise you that.
Sincerely,
Me
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