MYMY what a story (MYMY Shower Gel)

Member Name: leenewham

Product:	MYMY Shower Gel
Date:	12/08/04 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks nice 9although I woudl say that)

Disadvantages: Smells horrible

Well, I have a confession here. I designed the packaging and branding for the MYMY range (its been nice to read what other people have said about it, thank you very much).

The brand was all about funky Japan. Tokyo etc rather than the normal zen garden, holistic approach. We produced a few concepts, but one stood out. the MYMY girl. She was fun and funky and because a kind of brand mascot just like Mr Bibendum has for Michelin?although she was rather slimmer!

The language on the packaging was as if it was being spoken by MYMY herself. Instead of saying 'for normal hair' on the shampoo it said 'normal hair, lucky you'. Instead of saying 'directions for use' it said 'use it like this'. The packaging was fun. The products were bright. Boots were so impresses with thepackaging they launched it in over 150 stores, the largest launch of a new product they had ever done. Sales initially were incredibly strong.

We were going to open MYMY stores, expand the range, create a website where anyone can suggest their own products. The future looked rosey.

Then sales faded. A lot.

So why did this happen?

Well, the packaging leaked. Where the packs leaked the contents made the ink run. They were made very cheaply out in the far east and quality control was very very poor. Some products separated, so that you would have a furry looking mess on the top and what lloked like dirty brown oil in the bottom. Labels would fall off as the contents melted the glue. And they smelt horrible! My girlfriend smelt a test sample and said 'I?m not putting that anywhere near me!'.

There is a saying in design...the best advertising (and design) in the world will only make a bad product fail faster.

MYMY is no longer available.

Goodbye MYMY, it was nice knowing you.

One foot note?recently I was at a friends house for the first time and I went into the bathroom. There on a
shelf were 4 bags of MYMY shower gel. ?Where did you get those from? I asked. ?Oh, I kept them because they looked nice. I used one once. They were horrible?

Summary: