Every measurement is prone to error. The error may be sufficiently small so it is meaningless, but it still exists. What if the error is not so much in the measurement but in the labeling choice of the manufacturer?
Take Mary's Dove shampoo. Dove sells a 25.4 ounce bottle of moisturizing shampoo. Doesn't this seem like an odd size? Why not a whole number? A metric conversion seems the culprit, since 25.4 ounces corresponds to approximately 750 ml. Then why does Dove label this shampoo bottle as 751 ml?
(Cheat sheet: 25.4 ounces = 751.168 ml and 750 ml = 25.36 ounces)
If you manufacture one 750 ml bottle in the EU and one 25.4 ounce bottle in the US, is there truly a 1 ml difference? If there isn't or you cannot adequately measure that difference, then why label them differently? Fill them both with 750 ml, or 25.4 ounces, and label accordingly. Does it really help to pander to costumers by labeling (and presumably filling) in both measurement systems?
I cannot imagine anyone looking at a shampoo bottle and thinking that Dove filled this bottle in English units and that is the deciding factor in the buying decision. Who buys something based on the perceived measurement system of the labeled unit?
Update: Dove is owned by Unilever, a Dutch company. I have a 25.4 ounce bottle of Pert Plus. Pert Plus is part of an American company, Proctor and Gamble. The Pert Plus bottle is labeled: 25.4 fl oz (1 pint 9.4 fl oz) (750 ml).
Something is going on here.
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2 comments:
Not sure which is more disturbing, that you calculated the conversions or that you noticed in the first place.
These are marketing people we're talking about. Precision has never a common attribute with that crowd.
Yes, JJJared, I am with Oliver 100% -- to a non precision person like me you get really scary when you start talking like this! I will always love my Dove shampoo, no matter what (and you too!) Love, Bev C
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