Ever buy a pomegranate?

Just a few days ago my wife and I were at the grocery store. I noticed a new display in the produce section for pomegranates that included a diagram above the bin. It showed how to "prepare" the unique fruit (is it a fruit?), because if you've never eaten one before it's not exactly intuitive. I had never bought, prepared, or eaten one, and as a studying planner, I was struck by how smart it was for them to include the instructions. The obvious barrier to buying a pomegranate (at $1.50 each no less) is not knowing what the hell to do with it when you get home. In case you're wondering, you submerge it under water and then open up the outer casing. Then you dislodge the little red berries and use a strainer to get the remaining fruit.

So at dinner time tonight, my wife took a knife and cut it in half (which is not what the diagram called for). Pomegranate juice squirted all over and she was amazed by how much of a mess that it made. I asked her if she had seen the diagram, but she didn't know what I was talking about. I took over with the pomegranate from there.

So what's the moral? The diagram was brilliant, but what good is it if it goes unnoticed? On the other hand, it went unnoticed but she still bought one! So I don't think I can say there's a moral other than this: When you've got a piece of communication that you think is key to purchase behavior, do your best to make sure the message is heard. Peraps that's obvious, but I thought it was an interesting story. Kudos to whomever designed the diagram for POM.