Consumers don’t always need a better product. Maybe they just need a reason to take notice.

There used to be a Marks & Spencer store near where I live.

Loved that store, and I was sad to see them leave Canada years ago. Today, if you want M&S products around here, you’re stuck hunting through specialty import shops.

That loss doesn’t make their new food packaging redesign any less interesting to me.

The labels are strikingly simple. Like, strikingly.

Large sans-serif typography, absolute MINIMAL design.

And front and centre, one message:

“Only x Ingredients.”

At first glance, it feels like a clever response to today’s growing interest in cleaner labels and ultra-processed foods.

Photo: M&S

It made me curious, so I compared the usual options.

The irony is that plenty of familiar products have offered relatively short ingredient lists for years.

Heinz ketchup, for example, has only five ingredients in my market (eight in the States, which is equal to M&S).

The product didn’t suddenly become insanely simple.

The market overhauled the signals it was buying on.

Consumers now pay way more attention to ingredient lists than they did a decade ago.

Clean labels have become shorthand for quality, transparency, and healthier choices.

So, M&S recognized that change and gave shoppers a compelling reason to see an existing product through fresh eyes.

That’s excellent product marketing.

In I Need That, I describe how successful products often find growth by aligning with evolving customer needs rather than endlessly chasing new features. A lot of the time, the biggest opportunity is in presenting what you already have in a way that matches what buyers value today.

Like Jarlsberg did recently by turning its Lite version into Protein Cheese, via a packaging change.

Markets evolve all the time.

But products themselves don’t always have to. They do have to mind the signals.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as  product positioning consultants⁠ at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.