Chapman 1 Phillip Chapman Ms. Hinnant English 1101-104 December 3, 2013 Crayola Perfected, Now What?

Nearly everyone in America has been influenced by this text at least once in his or her lifetime and it has become a staple to the development of childhood creativity. The text that will be analyzed is a sixty-four pack of Crayola crayons. At first glance, it is evident that Crayola utilized some very creative marketing techniques to showcase the Crayola brand. There is a warm and friendly feeling created when inspecting this product. It is embellished with bright bold colors, a large smiling cartoonish mouth, and a portrait of a childs smiling face positioned next to a morphed cartoon version of it. The majority of textual information is found on all box faces except the sides. The assumption can be made that Crayola thought consumers would spend most of their time looking at the front, back, and top of the product. This paper will serve as an analytical guide of how and why Crayola designed this product the way they did. The overall shape and design of the container will be examined first. It is a laterally stretched cube that is flat on all surfaces. Generally speaking, flat surfaces allow for easy, non-cumbersome storage on a shelf, in a box, or in a childs backpack. The box of Crayons is constructed of thin yet sturdy cardboard, and stands approximately five inches tall, six inches wide, and two inches deep. The container is designed to neatly organize Crayons in a vertical, cascading fashion. The box, which

Chapman 2 is slightly taller than Crayon length, provides just enough extra height allowing for the placement of a Crayon sharpener and an enclosed compartment for Crayon shavings on the lower rear. The container provides one main re-closable access at the top of the box. Upon opening this flap, one will find simple instructions on how to peel back the top quarter of the box at the provided perforation, allowing the consumer to have easy, open access to all of the Crayons within. The more obvious flap opening is designed for on the go, short duration art sessions. Opening the containers top quarter at the perforation is for longer, more casual sessions. This opening method is beneficial to the child in such that the Crayons are exposed, allowing for easier color selection due to increased tool visibility and easy to reach access to the Crayons inside. The perforated access also promotes keeping the drawing area organized, benefiting the caretaker of the child when tasked with the normally overwhelming job of cleaning up after an art session. The overall color scheme on the front of the box is yellow, overlaid with a green chevron pattern wrapped around the lower half. This color combination is easy on the eyes and inviting, while the chevron pattern has a clean and simple look to it. On the front face, the yellow allows for contrasting items of interest that Crayola wants the consumer to be focused on. The majority of the face is yellow and it is apparent that Crayola wanted to initially catch the consumers eye with the vivid background, but the company also wanted the consumer focused on the vibrant and bold, overlaid graphics. The most eye-popping graphic is the word BONUS!. The word is centered in the middle of the box face and is obviously meant to grab the consumers attention. It is typed in an all capitalized, simplistic font and

Chapman 3 the letters are white, surrounded with a multi-colored outline. Crayola designed this word to not only get the consumers attention but in an effort to showcase that they are offering something of extra value at no extra cost. They also made the outline bright and multicolored to give the consumer the feel that the contents inside the package are just as bright and diverse. Everyone loves a more bang-for-the-buck type of product, and Crayola uses this very well to entice the consumer. Just below the BONUS! graphic is a portrait of a young boy. The picture shows a very happy, smiling blonde-headed boy, in a well-lit library. This image depicts a child that is excited to be in a place of learning. Crayola believes parents will get the feeling that upon purchasing this product, the result will be a very happy child that is excited to learn. The company understands that parents wish for a child that will grow up to be happy and successful. Next to the portrait, there is an illustration that shows the childs face morphed into a cartoon character and just below the face is inscribed details on back. The cartoon looks very similar to the child, yet all of the facial features have obviously been altered to depict the society approved, allAmerican young boy that parents secretly hope and dream for. It is important to note that the term All-American generally correlates with a person that is self sufficient, popular, and successful. What parent wouldnt want a child like this? Obviously, a parent that doesnt buy Crayola products. Looking just below the portrait is a separate graphic that reads 64 CRAYONS. The numbers and letters are in a white, child-like font. They are surrounded by a red, crayon-drawn outline. Pointing to the outline is a picture of the red crayon that was assumingly used to create this graphic. This is Crayolas creative way to show the quantity of Crayons

Chapman 4 inside the box while also offering a sample image of what Crayons (combined with a childs creativity) are capable of producing. There is also small, white non-toxic graphic at bottom-left of the face. By adding this on the box, it conveys that a parents children will be safe from sickness due to the omission of harmful toxins. The use of the color white font also symbolizes a clean and pure product while also resembling a blank canvas that a child will use the product on. Remaining on the face of the box, one will find, drawn at the top, the word Crayola in a large bubbly font. The word is a fading shade of green that is outlined by a very bright yellow. Crayola wants the consumer to recognize this branding immediately due to its simplistic design, and they want to combine that recognition with a graphic of a comforting smile below the word Crayola. Within this large, smooth-edged smile is an arrangement of thirteen Crayons that cleverly depict a row of teeth. The smiling mouth personifies the product and gives the consumer a feeling of happiness. The crayon shaped teeth follows the famous rainbow-colored pattern: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROY G. BIV). A witty consumer may notice this easter-egg and correlate it to their very own childhood when they learned about the colors of a rainbow. In general, adults enjoy reminiscing about enjoyable childhood memories and Crayola hopes that by making the consumer feel happy with a friendly smile and an easter-egg meaning, they will happily purchase the product for their children. A subtle, yet effective marketing technique has been placed upon the box face. A square shaped coupon that reads Hey Mom, dont forget something for you, save $1 instantly on People Magazine. is found outlined in hot pink on a black

Chapman 5 background. The pink on black color scheme is targeting women, specifically mothers. Crayola knows that women best identify with the color pink, and black contrasts it perfectly. The back of this cunning coupon reads People love People. They are telling the consumer that they should think normal, everyday people (just like the consumer) love People magazine. The whole idea behind the coupon is to invite the consumer to subconsciously think, I can get my child a box of Crayons that has a bonus feature making my him into a fun cartoon. I also get a coupon that will save me money on my favorite magazine? Sign me up! Crayola has introduced another heavy-hitting marketing ploy that is sure to hit the ball out of the park with an unsuspecting, child-loving parent. Moving to the back of the box, one will find yet another advertisement of the Story Studio feature. The background is once again bright yellow, enhancing the greatly contrasting green, round-edged square in the center. Within this green square is a simple and easy to follow four-step guide to uploading a childs portrait to the Crayola website. The final step shows the childs face on the body of a rock star at a concert. Obviously, every young boy would love to be a rock star. This image would appeal to nearly every child, who by this point is probably begging his or her mother to purchase this product. Just below the large green box is a very discreetly placed Crayon sharpener. The sharpener is made of plastic allowing it to be child friendly while also having just enough sharpness to whittle the Crayon down to a new point. The embedded hole is surrounded with a purple ribbon and white characters that read Peel back crayon wrapper before sharpening Crayon. Crayola really thought outside of the

Chapman 6 box by offering a clean and simple mechanism, inside of the box. By introducing a simple and effective way to maintain the product in a self-contained system, this teaches the long-lost art of how to maintain a tool to prolong its life. It seems that today, products are designed to be maintenance-free in order to create less hassle and inconvenience for the consumer. The fact of the matter is, everything requires maintenance by the user at some point and the sharpener is a perfect example to teach this seemingly obscure skill. Crayola probably did not intend on a simple Crayon sharpener to teach life skills to a child, but it has the potential to do so rather effectively. Although the Crayon sharpener is a very useful feature, overall the back of the box just looks to be another advertisement of the Story Studio feature. The top flap of the Crayola box is yet again adorned with the same overwhelmingly used picture of the child and the replicated cartoon rock star. The main feature of the flap is large purple arrow that points to the entrance point of the box. Within the purple arrow reads Lift flap for your secret access code! This is the final clue to finding the key to the metaphorical treasure chest. Upon opening the flap, one will discover a discreetly typed, nine character code that when used on Crayolas Story Studio website, will unlock six months of free access. Having a special access code creates a feeling of exclusiveness for the consumer. It is becoming apparent that Crayola is using the Story Studio feature to lure in more consumers. Upon jumping inside the box, it is easy to ascertain that there is a very organized system to the sixty-four individually wrapped Crayons. There are four smaller boxes that hold sixteen Crayons each. The modular design allows yet

Chapman 7 another way of organizing and working with the art supplies. A child could pull out all four boxes and surround their current masterpiece with separate color stations. In reverse, the modular design also allows for a much easier storage of the tools inside the main Crayon box. The modular design is yet another secretly baked in teaching tool for children. It does a fantastic job of teaching organizational skills to a child by requiring the Crayons to be placed in the box a certain way before the box will close properly. Children must be taught the importance of organization in everyday life, and hopefully Crayolas product will be the key to unlock the childs organizational potential. The Crayons are also fashioned writing tip up, leaving the user with no doubt that each Crayon is either sharp or dull. It is safe to say that Crayola has created a very attractive product to put on the shelf. They consistently advertise, in multiple ways, that a consumer will get added value by purchasing this product. Crayola targets mothers with a People magazine coupon, while also targeting children with the Story Studio feature and bright, embellished font and colors. Crayola has implemented a few key features in the design of this product as well. A self-contained sharpener and a unique secondary access enhance the potential to set Crayola apart from other inferior art supplies. Now that the cartoon morphing website has been blatantly exposed, there is still a question that is begging to be answered: How well does the product inside the box actually work? While there is definitely not a shortage of advertisements on the Story Studio feature, there is very little information about the actual product inside the box. It is plausible that Crayola feels that consumers have become so used to this nearly perfected product that they crave more. This is Crayolas attempt to

Chapman 8 answer the consumers appetite for innovation with the compelling Story Studio feature for children, and a tempting side of coupon for mom.