International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

Packaging as a Retail Marketing Tool

Rod Sara
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Rod Sara, (1990),"Packaging as a Retail Marketing Tool", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, Vol. 20 Iss 8 pp. 29 - 30
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C
hief executives and marketing managers
need to get more closely involved in the
packaging scene.
Packaging
as a Retail
Marketing
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF EXETER At 02:52 17 July 2015 (PT)
Tool
Rod Sara
Packaging is a vitally important tool in the marketing mix,
but it is too often disregarded by senior executives and
marketing people. Frequently, they pass on responsibility
for the packaging decision and choice of supplier to
purchasing people, and concentrate their energies on
advertising and promotions.
Chief executives and marketing managers need to
appreciate the importance of the various aspects of
packaging in the company's total business.
To put the packaging decision into the correct perspective,
they should be aware that nearly twice as much is spent
on packaging every year as is spent on above-the-line
advertising and other forms of promotion.
Packaging has two different and equally important functions
in relation to your product. First and most obviously, it
must protect and contain the contents from factory floor
to end user. Whether it is surrounding liquid detergent,
frozen meat, ripe peaches or talcum powder, the packaging
must preserve the contents at top quality until they are
consumed, however long after the original packing that
may be, and whatever handling procedures and shipment
methods or extremes of climate it may pass through on
the way.
PACKAGING AS A RETAIL MARKETING TOOL 29
Second, the packaging must make the product stand out
from the crowd on the supermarket shelf, attract the
consumer's attention, create a positive impression, and
sell that product into the consumer's trolley. Most often,
the product inside the pack is itself concealed from view,
either because it is not visually pleasing in its raw state,
or because preservation demands that it be shielded from
light. In this case, the images printed on the packaging
provide a surrogate inspection of the contents, usually in
their prepared state (selling the benefits to the consumer).
The pack becomes the sole interface between the product
and the consumer.
The pack is also the local representative for the company
distributing this product to the public. Product brand and
therefore company can only be assessed by what the
consumer can see of them — and that is the packaging.
Getting packaging right for the company's image, the
product and the company's customers is so important to
a business and absorbs so much of its money that we
generally recommend that even the chief executive should
take an active interest in the packaging decision.
Research should be done into the profile of consumers
in the target market and what their expectations of
packaging are within this market niche. The retail
environment should also be researched, checking shelf-
filling techniques, shelf or freezer dimensions, and retailer
expectations. In addition, research is advisable into the
external environment such as social change and
technological developments, before making any packaging
decisions.
One technological development which has had an
important effect on packaging, for example, is the
microwave oven. A product packaged in a microwavable
container now has a competitive edge over products in
forms of packaging which necessitate unwrapping the
product, and transferring it into an ovenproof dish or pot
to heat it.
Controlled Atmosphere Packaging is another technological
development, but this time in packaging itself. CAP
controls the gases in the sealed pack to enable a company
to keep meat fresh for weeks instead of days, and to "put
to sleep" fresh fruit and vegetables to prevent them from
ripening further. Apart from the use of CAP on the
domestic market, it has also meant both cost savings and
market niche advantages for exporters who no longer have
to freeze meat for overseas markets, or use air freight
for fruit.
Gas and moisture barrier laminates in cartonboard have
enabled processors to make shelf-stable products without
needing to pack them in cans or bottles, and without
having to freeze them.
 30 PACKAGING - A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE 1990s
A growing international consumer trend is the desire for
"fresh" fruit and produce, and consumers will buy what
they perceive to be freshest, even at a price premium.
Consumers generally choose to buy from the image they
perceive that a product has, and what they perceive is
heavily influenced by the cues given on the product's
packaging: brand name, colour and display.
The marketer wants to create a perception of value in the
consumer's mind, and this translates into developing a
product's image so that consumers are prepared to pay
for just what they see, and showing them what they expect
to gain from buying it. Consumers have a vision of the
good life, and the product must display how it can assist
them towards this goal.
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Research has revealed that the marketer has less than
a second to grab a customer's attention. Consumers act
on impressions, which means that there must be a close
match between an advertising campaign and the packaging
to convert the impulse generated by the advertising into
a sale.
Products are competing for the consumer's dollar so
fiercely that marketers talk about "aisle warfare". With
supermarket chains stocking thousands of product lines
at any one time, and large numbers competing in each
product category, this term is really no exaggeration for
the competition to attract consumer attention.
Let us examine just one aspect of the packaging which
can affect the consumers' perception of what they are
buying — colour. Associations we subconsciously make
between colour and product include taste, healthiness,
weight estimation, temperature, suitability for male or
female, and brand identification.
It has been proved that the wrong selection of colour for
packaging will actually damage sales.
However, the colour also has cultural connotations, and
the rules for one country do not apply all over the world.
Rod Sara is General Manager, Printpac — UEB Carton Group, New Zealand.
Using for example, red in New Zealand to stimulate
appetite would be appropriate, but not necessary
elsewhere, where it could lead exporters into fatal errors.
Whereas green is acceptable in Islamic countries, it
indicates disease in countries with dense jungles. Although
white is the colour associated with purity in the western
world, in Japan it is associated with death, and in Ghana
with joy. Red is the symbol of manliness in the West, but
is blasphemous in some African nations, and stands for
luxury and good luck in China.
It is the consumer's subjective perception of the product
that counts in his or her purchasing decision, not the
product's objective reality, and this fact highlights the
importance of packaging in the marketing mix. Consumers
assess all the benefits of a product or supplier before
making that final choice. The fact is that 95 per cent of
all retail purchases are made at prices higher than the
lowest possible.
Major packaging suppliers understand the physics of the
modern supermarket environment, consumer psychology,
and keep abreast of international consumer trends.
Technological advances worldwide which could help their
customers' products to establish a competitive edge are
also monitored.
With most retail chains demanding reliable just-in-time
supply, improved quality in product and packaging, ease
of handling of both carton and shipper, and tighter supplier
production controls, it is worth while exploring all the
benefits of a packaging supplier, and not just basing the
packaging decision on unit price alone.
Remember that once the product is on the shelf it is on
its own: advertising can no longer help it except to prompt
recognition; a company's packaging decision is all that
stands between its product and withdrawal from circulation
because of a failure to sell.
The pack is the "silent salesman", and it is the final
interface between a company and its consumers.
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