Sun Chips Bags Sustainable Packaging

Back in June, I wrote about Sun Chips’ new 100% compostable packaging. You can read the full post here.

At first I was a little annoyed with the new compostable packaging because it is super noisy. But after taking a closer look at why Sun Chips did what they did, I appreciated the commitment it made to our environment and became alittle more tolerable of the packaging.

Apparently other consumers weren’t willing to accept the noisy bags. In fact, there was even a Facebook Group started called SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIP BAG that has almost 48,000 members.

Just this week Sun Chips announced it would no longer use this noisy packaging on 5 of its flavors. It will immediately start using its original packaging material while it looks for another alternative.  However, it is keeping the compostable packing on its top selling original flavor to continue to show its commitment to the environment until it finds another solution.

It wasn’t just the consumers’ verbal complaints that made Frito-Lay pull the packaging. According to SymphonyIRI Group, SunChips sales have declined more than 11% over the past 52 weeks (excluding Wal-Mart, which doesn’t share its data).

This is a great lesson that Frito-Lay taught marketers. Even if you have a good product, incorporating green benefits isn’t going to increase sales, especially if the green benefit is a distraction.