Don't Go Back Sacless

Don't Go Back Sacless
2009's Back To School Poster

Dads and Grads Get Inked

Dads and Grads Get Inked
This poster was designed to promote our tattooed Sac.

Probably my favorite poster we have created to date. This very simple idea really had the response we were looking for during Father's Day. We took this tattoo design and stitched it on a Sac cover. The tattoo was designed by Shawn's cousin, Alex Hinton, a tattoo artist in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Check out Shawn's Blog for comments and feedback.

Moms LoveSac Too

Moms LoveSac Too
The Mother's Day 2009 window poster.

For Mother's Day 2009 we offered the Mom's Blanket, pictured above. This blanket is custom designed for LoveSac by our product developer Spencer Pearson. My objective was to create a stereotypical "mom" environment that showed our product being great for pregnant moms, too. This was a tough campaign to create. I am a fan of tight shots that capture tons of detail. In order to show the mom enjoying the product meant I had to give up my tight shot. After having several ideas shot down by my Creative Director, I finally came up with this one. It's nothing terribly special but it shows the mom enjoying a nap while the entire kitchen is on fire from the dinner she is cooking for the family. 

Shawn started posting the window posters on his blog to get your feedback. He has really established a standard that gives us outstanding feedback from you. According to your opinion, this image is extremely sexist. Our goal was not to be sexist, but to catch your attention. I think we were successful. To read all the opinions of the LoveSacer's check out Shawn's Blog.

LoveSac Shirts Are Here!

The New LoveSac Swag Site
The new site is up and running with 10 new LoveSac shirts to choose from.


My new shirt designs have been printed and we designed a new site just for them. Check out http://www.lovesac.com/tshirt.asp to see all the new designs. Use code LoveShirt to get an additional $2 off for a limited time. Let me know which ones you like the best or if you have ideas for future shirts.

March Madness

March Madness
Click the ad to increase the size. This theme was designed by Mary Doherty.


LoveSac is hosting a March Madness challenge to win one of two Sacs or one of our newly designed t-shirts. The top three scores on LoveSac's Tournament Challenge win prizes. It is free to enter! Check out:
http://www.lovesac.com/march_madness.asp. Invite your friends, it should be a lot of fun! You just need to enter the group LoveSac with the password LOVESAC (case sensitive).

Tropicana Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging

I pulled this article from the New York Times.

Published: February 22, 2009

IT took 24 years, but PepsiCo now has its own version of New Coke.

The PepsiCo Americas Beverages division of PepsiCo is bowing to public demand and scrapping the changes made to a flagship product, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. Redesigned packaging that was introduced in early January is being discontinued, executives plan to announce on Monday, and the previous version will be brought back in the next month.

Also returning will be the longtime Tropicana brand symbol, an orange from which a straw protrudes. The symbol, meant to evoke fresh taste, had been supplanted on the new packages by a glass of orange juice.

The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

That ability to share brickbats or bouquets with other consumers is important because it facilitates the formation of ad hoc groups, more likely to be listened to than individuals.

“There will always be people complaining, and always be people complaining about the complainers,” said Peter Shankman, a public relations executive who specializes in social media. “But this makes it easier to put us together.”

The phenomenon was on display last week when users of Facebook complained about changes to the Web site’s terms of service using methods that included, yes, groups on facebook.com. Facebook yielded to the protests and reverted to its original contract with users.

And in November, many consumers who used Twitter to criticize an ad for Motrin pain reliever received responses within 48 hours from the brand’s maker, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, which apologized for the ad and told them it had been withdrawn.

“Twitter is the ultimate focus group,” Mr. Shankman said. “I can post something and in a minute get feedback from 700 people around the world, giving me their real opinions.”

Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, acknowledged that consumers can communicate with marketers “more readily and more quickly” than ever. “For companies that put consumers at the center of what they do,” he said, “it’s a good thing.”

It was not the volume of the outcries that led to the corporate change of heart, Mr. Campbell said, because “it was a fraction of a percent of the people who buy the product.”

Rather, the criticism is being heeded because it came, Mr. Campbell said in a telephone interview on Friday, from some of “our most loyal consumers.”

“We underestimated the deep emotional bond” they had with the original packaging, he added. “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”

Among those who underestimated that bond was Mr. Campbell himself. In an interview last month to discuss the new packaging, he said, “The straw and orange have been there for a long time, but people have not necessarily had a huge connection to them.”

Reminded of that on Friday, Mr. Campbell said: “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”

That echoed an explanation offered in 1985 by executives of the Coca-Cola Company in response to the avalanche of complaints when they replaced the original version of Coca-Cola with New Coke: Consumers in focus groups liked the taste of New Coke, but were not told old Coke would disappear. The original version was hastily brought back as Coca-Cola Classic and New Coke eventually fizzed out. (There are, it should be noted, significant differences between the two corporate flip-flops. For instance, the Tropicana changes involved only packaging, not the formula for or taste of the beverage.)

An ad campaign for Tropicana that helped herald the redesigned cartons, also introduced last month, will continue to run, Mr. Campbell said. Print and outdoor ads that have already appeared will not be changed, he added, but future elements of the campaign — like commercials, due in March — would be updated.

Unlike the packaging, the campaign has drawn praise, particularly for including in its family imagery several photographs of fathers and children hugging. Such dad-centric images are rare in food ads.

The campaign, which carries the theme “Squeeze it’s a natural,” was created by Arnell in New York, part of the Omnicom Group. Arnell also created the new version of the Tropicana packaging.

“Tropicana is doing exactly what they should be doing,” Peter Arnell, chairman and chief creative officer at Arnell, said in a separate telephone interview on Friday.

“I’m incredibly surprised by the reaction,” he added, referring to the complaints about his agency’s design work, but “I’m glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention.”

In fact, Tropicana plans to contact “everyone who called or wrote us” to express opinions, Mr. Campbell said, “and explain to them we’re making the change.”

Tropicana is among several PepsiCo brands whose packaging and logos have been recently redesigned by Arnell. The new logo the agency produced for Pepsi-Cola has been the subject of comments by ad bloggers who perceive a resemblance to the logo for the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

The bloggers have also buzzed about a document outlining the creation of the Pepsi-Cola logo, which appears to have been written by Arnell for PepsiCo executives; Mr. Arnell has declined to comment on the authenticity of the document, which is titled “Breathtaking Design Strategy” and is written in grandiose language.

One aspect of the new Tropicana packaging is being salvaged: plastic caps for the cartons, also designed by Arnell, that are shaped and colored like oranges.

Those caps will be used, Mr. Campbell said, for cartons of Trop 50, a variety of Tropicana with less sugar and calories that is to be introduced soon.

During the interview last month, Mr. Campbell said that Tropicana would spend more than $35 million on the “Squeeze” campaign. Although he declined on Friday to discuss how much it would cost to scrap the new packaging and bring back the previous design, he said the amount “isn’t significant.”

Asked if he was chagrined that consumers rejected the changes he believed they wanted, Mr. Campbell replied: “I feel it’s the right thing to do, to innovate as a company. I wouldn’t want to stop innovating as a result of this. At the same time, if consumers are speaking, you have to listen.”

Easter Promotional, Part III

Made With Real Easter Bunny Phur

Here it is! The Easter promotional poster is finished. This poster will sit in the window of all 25 LoveSac stores located in malls across the United States. Look for it starting February 15th. Thank you to everyone that helped me pull this together. Hopefully this will get people into our stores. The rest is up to our sales team.