Is there any good reason for a medical supply company or pharmaceutical to change the box or the appearance of their packaging? When it's a prescription item and not something that will sit on a shelf and attract impulse purchases or cause a buyer to choose this product over a competitor, why bother?
This isn't laundry detergent, these are pump supplies I'm talking about. (Ok, so there is a competitive market for test strips so I understand changing the packaging and design for those.)
Case in point - the box for the reservoirs for the Medtronic Paradigm has changed colors and looks at least twice that I can recall. Insulin manufacturers do this constantly, too. Whenever I receive a shipment I have to look closely, tear open the box and compare it to the reservoirs I already have to make sure I didn't somehow order the wrong item and the reservoirs are compatible.
Just this week I received a blue box of 1.8 ml reservoirs. They used to come in purple boxes. I know this is no big deal but it causes me a moment of anxiety each time these companies change something insignificant. Why do they do it? Seems like a waste of money. I bought their pump so I'm their customer, and maybe that's why they figure they can do whatever they want. But why not give me some warning?
Ok, so this is more of a rant and a series of rhetorical questions, but if people have answers I would like to hear them.
sometimes it is for quality control at the lowest common denominator–menaing they can send things like–if you have any purple boxes leftr after x date trash them–instead of peeps actually having to read expiry dates
Sometimes it is a change in who they buy boxes from…so the different manufactuers of different things a readily identiufied–this is done often with non-pharma chemical compents as well
i use a minimed pump, and with my last order of quicksets i noticed that the tubing material changed
the new tubing has a glossy appearance and it sticks together when you first unpack it, whereas the old tubing had a “flat” appearance and didn’t stick to itself
Maybe something got redesigned that did not affect the product and the company does not want to make a big to do about it.
How about for those who have ADD / ADHD to get our interest back. The medical supply company called me twice to make sure that I ordered the correct infusion sets because I did not order all of one kind or of one color. I ordered 5 different boxes of infusions sets and not one single one is the same. All of them were either of different length or different color. I have to color coordinate my infusions sets with the outfits that I am wearing. (Have teenage daughter)
Rotating stock is easier to do if all the boxes do not look alike.
So people will think that it is new and improved and they are more willing to stay with the company.
Funny! I think #4 is the most likely answer. If not all of the above.
“Gosh, the box is new - even though nothing really changed, the fact that they have a blue box means these guys must be on the cutting edge all the time!”
Most of it is a Marketing thing but sometime they switch vendors who will give them the most economic deal. Generic drugs are like this. I have the same Rx and 3 months in a row it was sent looking different. But the pharmacist will usually put a sticker on the bottle stating the drug may look different due to change in manufacturer. Everyone is looking for the best deal.
This was a change from the old! The old quickset tubing was glossy and clear. So its looks like the went flat then back! I thought it was a cost cutting thing when I saw it. Good old Medtronic, making cash off diabetes since 1949.
Now this sounds like a cost-cutting or quality control issue rather than a conscious decision to redesign the packaging and rebrand yourself.
Speaking of QC: Years ago the One Touch test strips changed. Actually, the direction they were packaged in the tubes changed, and I noticed this after pulling out a strip and putting the wrong end into meter. All the strips were facing the other direction, unlike usual. So I immediately wondered if I had defective strips. I know I sounded ridiculous, but I called Lifescan to ask about it and gave them the lot number. The customer service rep had no idea and dismissed my concerns. So I asked why it would have changed, and the rep again had no clue. I mean, it doesn’t just happen.
It took weeks for me to retrain myself to pull out the strip and turn it the right way before putting it in the meter. In a few years it might flip back.
The actual reservoirs inside my new boxes are different than the old reservoirs. They have a white piece at the top of it that was all clear before. I’ve also noticed that locking the quickset on is ‘smoother’ than it was before. Beyond changing packaging when the product changes, there is a lot of competition in the area now – and nobody wants to look lazy and outdated lol!
I’m all in favor of redesigning the packaging, if it reduces waste.
30 years ago Monoject sold a type of plastic syringe, where the syringe itself was encapsulated in a plastic “space capsule”. Each and every syringe was made larger than necessary, by a factor of 5 or so in volume because of this encapsulation.
There are some real solid labeling standards, like “orange = U-100”, that manufacturers seem to have abandoned in some cases. e.g. my humalog and lantus vials have no orange on them anywhere. This was real important 30-35 years ago when U-40 and U-100 were both common.
