How packaging can have an effect on your product marketing
Product packaging is always known to play a very important in the marketing mix. It acts as an important medium in the marketing mix in various aspects like promotion campaigns, establishing brand identity, reflecting the impact of all other product groups, defining its character and a lot more. Packaging is often the last impression that the consumer has on your products and as a result you need to ensure that it is done in the best possible way so that you can secure sales with the creation of brand values, imagery, innovation and product functionality. There are in fact many ways in which you can use packaging to add value.
In present times, packaging has evolved to great heights and has developed way beyond its original function which is a means of product protection. With the role of packaging in the marketing mix gaining momentum, research in this area becomes extremely important. The importance of packaging can be judged in the way it has been defined from time to time from being functionally focused to having a holistic and more extensive role in defining its own nature in the marketing of the product.
According to Olson and Jacoby (1972), packaging is an extrinsic element of the product and it is an attribute well related to the product but is not a part of the physical product itself.
Most textbooks on marketing consider marketing to be an inseparable part of the product and a part of the 4 P’s of marketing which are product, price, place and promotion. Some also opine that packaging serves as an important promotional tool. Keller, in 1998, considered that packaging is an attribute that is not related to the product in a tangible way. To him, it is the five elements of the brand apart from the name, symbol, logo or graphics, the slogans and the personality.
While the typical use of packaging can be considered to be protection of the products inside, if we think from the perspective of the consumer, packaging serves an important role both as a cue and a source of information.
It is said that more than 70 percent of the purchase decisions are made on the shelf and as a result if you are a marketer, you need to make the packaging of your product support your brand positioning and build a competitive advantage. Let us take a quick look at some of the important business benefits that packaging offers:
- A substantial representation of your brand and company values
- An increased impact on the point of purchase
- Opportunities for new channels of distribution
- A comparable enhancement of product delivery and experience
As a marketer you must always remember that packaging of a product is the first thing that your consumer notices and therefore it plays a vital role in differentiating your brand from the competition. You need to go lengths to create a packaging that will not just draw new customers but will convince them to buy your products as well.
Recent research into packaging has found out that packaging cues has a great impact on the way in which a product is perceived. With consumers becoming more demanding and with its functionality to communicate with consumers, the increasingly important role of packaging as a strategic tool to attract the attention of the 21st century consumers cannot be denied.
