The World's Loudest Chips Bag

Saving the planet is a good thing, but sometimes bag design blunders can cost you greatly. SunChips made a completely compostable chip bag. But it was loud...too loud.

You can find the original article the episode inspired here.

Thank you to Artlist for your wide variety of SFX and lovely background music. Thank you also to Sun Chips who made this sound study so interesting.

As promised, here are some links referenced in the episode.

• One pilot states it’s louder than his cockpit.
• The bag was just too darn loud.
• Scientific warning of noise being dangerous.
• Dip in revenue of 11%.
• The fix.

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The Sound In Marketing Podcast is produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by Jeanna Isham. It is available on all the major podcast channels here https://pod.link/1467112373.

Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more on brand.

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing podcast.
The Sound In Marketing Podcast explores
and defines sound on purpose,in marketing and in advertising.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, ownerand founder of Dreamr Productions
and Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate individuals
and brandson the power of sound in marketing.

(00:27):
My goal is to inspire you with unique
and interesting waysto use sound effectively in your business.
If you would like to explore this further,my company, Dreamr Productions,
would love to help out.
Contact infocan be found in the show notes.
Now on to the show.
In this episode,
the focus is on a bag design blunder.

(00:56):
At one point,
Sun Chips bags were too loudbut for a good cause.
Eco friendly intentions are good.
But if the customer isn't happy,then it's back to the drawing board.
Sun Chips set out to save the planet,
but ignored an important partof the customer experience.
The result was deafening.

(01:19):
As a strategist and thoughtleader in the sound marketing space.
This case study has always grabbedmy attention.
It's an unusual cautionary tale,wrapped up with a good sense of humor.
I share this example with clients as proofthat strategic sound truly does matter.
Even in something seemingly innocent,like the crinkle of a bag.

(01:41):
The last thing you want
is to lose revenue and customers
over a distracting sound, right?
Case in point, SunChips.
lost a lot of moneyover a silly bag design flaw.
In 2010.
SunChips created a bagthat was 100% compostable.

(02:02):
They said the bag would biodegrade
within two weeks in a landfill,which is amazing.
However, it was loud.
Too loud, apparently touching, openingand basically manipulating the bag
in any waywas recorded as having 95dB of sound.
to the regular bags 60 to 70dB.

(02:22):
Put that in perspective.
A pilot had saidthe bag was noisier than his cockpit.
Customers started weighing
in on social mediaand it wasn't sounding good.
The now discontinued Facebook page

(02:44):
sorry,but I can't hear you over this SunChips bag
got more than 49,000likes at the height of the story.
The Google search phrase Sun Chips
bag too Loud had 149,000 results.
PepsiCo even poked fun at themselveswhen launching in Canada.
They released ads saying
if the bag is too loud for you,we'd be happy to send you earplugs.

(03:06):
A similar sentiment was sharedon this Reddit strand, and I quote.
“Lawnmowers and orchestras are thingswe expect to be loud.
“‘This is why it is recommendedto wear earmuffs while mowing, and concert
“halls are arranged to spread out the soundso the audience
“is not directly blastedby the sound waves.
“Just as I would not start a lawnmoweror hit a timpani in my home or office,

(03:29):
“I do not want to have to put on protectiveear covering
“or walk into an open theaterfor my afternoon snack.”
Ultimately, SunChips scrapped the bag.
Pun intended, and created a less noisy
but still biodegradablebag for a 2011 launch.

(03:49):
Saving the planet with eco friendlymaterials
created a user experience problem.
Noise pollution.
Sound is our compass in life.
It helps us perceive the world.
It connects us with the subjectof the sound.
This connectionthen determines how we feel about it
and how we should respond.
In the case of food, the sound it makesinterprets what it should taste like.

(04:13):
When the sound doesn't match expectations,it feels wrong
and our brain labels it as bad.
Too much sound can also hurt us.
According to the American Speech LanguageHearing Association.
Excessive noise not only causes hearingloss, but it can also affect our health.
These health effectsrange from elevated blood pressure,

(04:36):
increased heart rate,and an upset tummy, just to name a few.
It can also result in just feelingflat out cranky about the whole situation.
However, since the dawn of the chip,
people have perceivedits freshness by its crunch.
If someone reaches into a bag of chips

(04:57):
and bites down on a soggy or silent chip,
they consider it stale or no good.
So if opening a bag of chipsis part of that crunchy experience,
why wouldn't a loud bangtransmit freshness?
Because it's a balancing act.
Like everything else in this world,

(05:18):
there can be too much of a good thing.
In the case of the SunChip bag,the sound overstimulated.
The user sensesand ruined their experience,
It overpowered everything
and confused the brain's interpretationof what was
correct.

(05:38):
With this idea in mind,think about advertising in general.
The average 30 minute showhas about eight minutes of commercials
in a 30 minute podcast.
There could be around 3to 4 minutes of ads.
These ads are already an interruption tothe user's regularly scheduled programing.
Every brand that advertisesneeds to recognize that its messaging

(05:59):
will initially be received
as a noise nuisance.
It's up to themto find a way to advertise unobtrusively.
If the brand wantsto get the user's attention,
it needs to be alluring, engaging,convincing and memorable.
This is done with thingslike humor or intrigue.
By pulling at the heart stringsor making the user cringe

(06:22):
by using descriptive adjectivesto connect to the senses.
By using descriptive adjectives,an ad cuts through
the noise and gives the usera reason to pay attention.
Touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell
are all core senses that we useto create personality and preference.

(06:42):
Brands can use these core sensesto do the same.
However,too much of anything can be overwhelming.
Using a well-balanced dietof harmonious sensory
marketing makes the brand more human.
It gives the user a reason to feel the waythe brand intends for them to feel.
When done right.
Sound in marketing is a brand's best friend.

(07:06):
When done wrong, it becomes
a brand's worst nightmare.
Perhaps the factory was too loudand drowned out the sound of the bag
during production.
Or maybe they skipped the test groupsbecause they'd hit such
a grand slam with their own expectations.
Whatever the case may have been, onething was clear
the SunChips bag designwasn't harmonious with the experience.

(07:31):
All was not lost for SunChips.
Through the bag debacle,they received a lot of organic publicity.
This publicity was managedwith a good sense of humor
and their willingnessto poke fun at themselves a little bit.
I'll press as good press as they say.
We're all only human.
We all make mistakes at one pointor another.
Sun chips and PepsiCogot a lesson in user experience

(07:52):
that they won't be forgettinganytime soon.
The blunder also provided the baga taste of humanity
by reaching a veryhuman outcome; imperfection.
Sun chips
plan to create a fully biodegradablebag was a great idea.
However, they missed the mark and forgotabout the customer's experience.

(08:15):
The result was a dip in revenue of 11%.
The mistake that SunChips made was to not
experience their productalongside their consumer.
If they had taken the time to actuallyhandle the bag during beta testing,
they would have cometo the same conclusion as everyone else.
They discovered the problem could be fixed
by using a different adhesiveto hold together the different bag layers.

(08:38):
This softened the soundand reinvigorated the sales.
They still saved the planet.
It just took a little longer.
Experience is everything.
And although a loud bag seems silly,it matters.
Sound in marketing and branding matters.
It absolutely must be made onpurpose every single time.

(09:03):
A special thanks to Artlist
who provided my background musicthroughout this episode.
Thank you also to all of the companiesthat have inspired me to think
that this world of marketingis most definitely becoming more
human centric.
Did this
episode get you inspired to startexploring your brand sound?
Dreamr productions would love to help.

(09:25):
We produce branded podcasts, Sonic
logos, and strategize branded sound plans.
Contact informationcan be found in the show notes.
Let's make this world of sound
more intriguing,more unique, and more and more on brand.