As I looked at the new packaging for Southern Bar-B-Que basting sprays. I nearly fell off my overpriced Aeron chair.

At first, I thought it was an homage to the famous Saturday Night Live “it’s a floor wax and a desert topping” skit. But no, this was a food product in the same bottle that we all have seen lining the shelves filled with industrial cleaners and household cleaning chemicals.

Now I love it when new packaging can be presented using familiar objects. We can see this in such products as Coppola’s champagne in a can or even Southern’s own barbecue sauce in traditional canning jars. That makes sense. However, in the case of the spray bottle, isn’t the creative team forgetting some basic cues that designers have used not only to educate but also to guide consumers so they don’t confuse gravy with motor oil?

Package designers are required to address many complicated criteria, such as fabrication costs, structural integrity, shelf standout, and eye appeal. Essentially, it is about creating distinction, which often leads to purchase.

Innovation in packaging shape and format is often one of the major factors in distinguishing products, as it tends to improve usability and consumption. Liquid soap in pump bottles has, for the most part, replaced the gooey bars of soap on our sinks. Seafood, such as tuna and salmon, in pouches has not only lightened my grocery bag, but also made making tuna fish sandwiches less messy. Tide to Go stain remover pens and Listerine PocketPaks have made my shirts cleaner and my breath fresher when I’m on the go. In all of these cases, the packaging shape and format were both truly innovative and intuitively made sense not only for the product, but for the consumer as well.

The manufacturer markets Southern Bar-B-Que’s basting spray packaging as “innovative.” I suppose this is true if we think of innovative as merely new and different. However, this is the kind of packaging innovation we should think twice about, as it’s an extremely misguided innovation. Innovation is about making or doing something in a new way. Southern’s basting spray may be innovative, but merely pouring it into another container is not. In fact, I would argue it is inappropriate.

Designers have done a pretty good job of educating consumers (or perhaps it’s the other way around) about packaging. We all know that for the mustard to pour, we have to pull off the seal under the lid. We know that to get the Parmesan cheese to come out, we have to turn the little dial on top. And to get at those tasty biscuits, we have to whack the package on the side of the counter. We don’t package mustard in a roll-on package like underarm deodorant. We don’t put shredded cheese in a can. And we don’t put those tasty biscuits in pickle jars.

We do not mix and match these generally understood ideas about packaging, especially when mixing packaging forms associated with food with those associated with non-food items. Perhaps this is another indication of how far our economy and even design thinking has fallen. It seems more like the company flipped through the industrial supply catalog and said “hey, how ‘bout we put it in this?”

A colleague recently asked me, “How do you know if you've selected the wrong package?” Well, I suppose two indications are when your product is not selling or you are getting calls from personal injury lawyers.

Here are a few key points to keep in mind when thinking about design and innovation:

• Understand the context. Think of consumers as travelers. They are traveling from one aisle to another, carrying with them their “baggage” or associations they have with each aisle. They have specific expectations and understandings about them and are looking at the products through those filters. Products that fit or align with them get engaged and hopefully purchased. Products that confuse them, especially newer or innovative ones, require additional information and education.

After all, it took me a while to trust tuna in a pouch and potato chips in a tube. I still can’t get used to “Silk” soy milk on the shelf as well as in the dairy section. Despite my initial shelf anxiety, they have done a good job at positioning and packaging it in a format that is different from those we normally associate with dairy products.

So, in which aisle does the basting spray package belong? Does it go next to the barbecue sauce or next to the scrubbing bubbles? Should it be stored under the sink or on the pantry shelf? And doesn’t this bottle need a Mr. Yuk sticker?

• Understand the associations. I’ve seen a lot of products packaged in those old-fashioned canning jars that my grandma used to put jelly in. I’ve seen barbecue sauces, soup mixes, and, of course, moonshine in these ubiquitous jars. We have nostalgic and sentimental associations of home cooking, authenticity, and grandma with those packages. It makes sense to find sauces and soups in them, even though we don’t believe they are home-cooked just like grandma used to make. They just look tasty.

I just cleaned the shower, shined my car rims, and removed a stain from my carpet. I don’t want to confuse my cleaning experience with my cooking experience. It’s just not that appetizing, and I’d hate to spray my chicken with Mr. Clean because I forgot which bottle was which. In fact, there’s probably a reason why Tide has focused on giving us a better stain remover rather than better condiments.

Finally, if we are going to characterize products as truly innovative, let’s get back to the true meaning of what it means to be innovative. If it is a new product, tell its story in a way that connects and engages us rather than forcing us to figure out why we should purchase it. If the package makes the product easier to use, do it in a way that makes sense to us. But in either case, let’s create more “aha” in the packaging, rather than “oh-no.”

-By David Kendall

The author, David Kendall, is Principal and Creative Director at Kendall Ross Brand Development + Design. Contact him at david@kendallross.com.