Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Packaging, Your Billboard at the Point of Purchase

The above was the concept of my very first Views From the Hills of Kentucky. That Views was written in January of 1993 and based on research conducted in the late 1970's. You can imagine my surprise at the American Marketing Association Special Report distributed this month dealing with "Trends and forces Shaping the future of marketing." The narrative research was conducted among five key decision makers in the market research industry.

The report stated that, "One of the great challenges for marketing is to start putting a lot more scholarship around the effectiveness of different media and delivery channels." The report went on to further state that, "One of the real issues is to figure out how to reach the consumers."

One of the five key points listed was the emergence of packaging as a sales tool. As stated in the report, "We treated packaging like it was a cost-of-sale element, a cost of the product, not like it was a communication element." The same person went on to say, "We actually can build a much more compelling image for our brand in-store than out-of-store . . . We hadn't thought of those things as marketing investments in the past." Another person stated, "You will get more impressions any time with your packaging than with anything else you do."

Almost a half century ago, it was beat into my mind that "People do not buy products, they buy promises." The statement can be modified with the replacement of the word, Promises, with words such as solutions, desires, or expectations. However, the bottom line remains the same, it is the End Result, not the Product that the consumer is purchasing. What better place to communicate the benefits of the product than on the package and on the store shelf in the stores where the purchase decisions are exercised.

While I applaud the AMA for their efforts, I must add what I believe to be two important points to their report. First, the communication potential is only one of ten packaging attributes, or as I have called them in the past, personalities, where the package can become a "Tie Breaker" in the purchase decision.

The second point comes about through the selection of the most effective package option. That is, how do you do your research to choose the best communication alternative and to determine the "Investment vs. Return" of the packaging option? It has been my experience that there are few companies with the ability, experience and resources to conduct the appropriate research. From my perspective, the most important element in the assessment of most packaging change is the environment under which the research is conducted. I am a firm believer in "Assessment in Context," and that means in many cases that the research should be conducted at the point-of-sale. In other words, in the supermarket, on the shelves where it will be sold and is evaluated among the competition. 


[Back][Index][Forward]