Product packaging is one of the non-price competition strategies other than price factors, and its status and role in modern marketing activities are more and more noticeable. The concept of a broad product is a whole consisting of three levels: physical product, formal product, and extended product. The product packaging that we want to analyze belongs to the second level - the scope of the formal product. Formal products mainly in five aspects: quality, characteristics, style, brand and packaging.
In marketing, some scholars refer to the package as the 5th P in parallel with the 4P (Product, Promotion, Price, Place) combination. In the marketing practice, companies use packaging to put thousands into the package. The goods are colorful and seductive.
DuPont's marketing staff, the world's largest chemical company, after thorough market research, discovered the famous DuPont law. That is, 63% of consumers make product decisions based on the packaging and decorating of their products; housewives who buy in supermarkets are often more than 45% of their purchases when they go out due to the attractive packaging and decoration. It can be seen that the packaging is the face and clothing of the commodity. It enters the eyes of consumers as the "first impression" of the commodity and hits the psychological balance of the consumer's purchase. After all, purposeful purchases are rare; in the face of hypermarkets, there are a variety of goods on supermarket shelves, and the degree of homogeneity is gradually increasing. It is not an easy task to make choices quickly, let alone a considerable amount due to advertising budgets. The new products that take the terminal route and struggle with the appearance of the packaging appear to be very important at this time. After all, there are a few companies that can promote themselves.
The role of packaging
Packaging has five main functions:
1. The packaging is a silent salesman (the silent temptation)
Japanese scholar Gana Guang believes that there are three basic conditions for packaging to become a “salesmanâ€: brand (brand), image, and differential. He called it the BID principle.
To make packaging a salesman, you must first highlight the goods on the packaging. Expanding the gap refers to the conscious expansion of the differences in quality between trademarks through the use of trademarks and packaging.
The result of widening the gap is to make consumers form a relatively fixed impression on a certain commodity—a trademark or a packaging impression. The trademark or packaging impression gives the individual character of the product a specific image and the product is more attractive.
2. The packaging is a magnifier with product features.
For many commodities, especially new products, letting people understand their characteristics has become an important issue for companies. The packaging can capture the characteristics of the product through engaging styling, pictures and text printed on the packaging, enabling consumers to have a general understanding of the product they are selling at the moment they come into contact with the product.
3. Packaging can provide convenience
For the same kind of wine, if two or three bottles are bundled together, it is convenient for customers to carry two or three bottles. Therefore, changing the packaging of goods and providing convenience to consumers can promote product sales.
4. Packaging is a microcosm of marketing strategy
A well-designed package embodies a company's marketing strategy and the company's target market in a materialized form. The product price and distribution strategy adopted by the company should be reflected in the packaging. If the company's target market is a lower-income consumer, then the packaging should be simple, otherwise the target customers would not dare to look for it; if the product is to establish a high-quality image, the packaging must first be of high quality.
5. Packaging can bring security
The most primitive and basic function of commodity packaging is to protect the goods and prevent them from being damaged, leaked, decayed, etc. With the development of the economy, changes in the concept of the market, the protection function of the packaging itself has also changed. It promotes consumers by giving them a sense of security. This is especially true for products that are easily damaged, leaky, and easily moldable.
Classic illustration
Coca Cola
Coca-Cola can be said to be a model for product packaging. As a kind of popular beverage, there are not many kinds of Coca-Cola. The reason why people are loved by people at all levels is one of the secrets of success is to use different product packaging for different consumers. Rich and varied packaging forms meet different needs from all aspects, and market share has naturally increased.
2. Shuijingfang
China has done well in packaging is "Shui Jing Fang", known as the miracle in the history of Chinese packaging. From the year before the Guangzhou Garden Hotel Shuijingfang was opened in the previous year, Shuijingfang succeeded in occupying the high-end liquor market in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and landed in the Beijing-Shanghai market. The sales amounted to several hundred million yuan. Throughout the marketing strategy, packaging has contributed. Swellfun took the lead in the use of paper and wood combined packaging, perfectly embodying the combination of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, and rich national traditional culture. The solemn elegance of the company was awarded to the world's top advertising award Mobi packaging design gold award. Shuijingfang's success lies in: First, pay attention to market segmentation, and be good at capturing the flash of opportunities. Second, the target market is locked in and its market positioning and product characteristics are clearly defined. Swellfun is positioning itself as a high-grade wine in China, focusing on Chinese characteristics and high quality. Both of these characteristics are strongly expressed in product packaging, product culture and publicity. Third, it clearly puts forward its corporate strategic objectives, namely changing the situation in China where the premium wine is dominated by wine.
3. China's milk powder market
At present, the domestic milk powder packaging design not only makes the color matching of the front of the packaging bag unreasonable, the pattern is rigid, and the content on the back is very small and very simple. The contents of the back of foreign milk powder packaging are very large, it includes important precautions, feeding tables, milk disinfection and milk regulation methods, nutrition information, nutrient content table. Production date, site and other information. Some may feel useless, but young mothers think it is absolutely useful. The reason why foreign brands of milk powder has succeeded in occupying the high- and mid-range milk powder market in China is relying on these materials and relying on various advice and guidance from nutrition experts.
As long as it is a variety of information about milk-fed infants, it can be found on the packaging of foreign brands of milk powder. In particular, those figures and forms, in the consciousness of the Chinese people, represent the authority and represent a formal, professional, and formal thing. These charts and various materials make the young parents very much trust this. A product, I believe the quality of its products are superior. In the packaging of domestic milk powder, no one has such a comprehensive feeding guide. How can young, non-feeding parents trust their products?
Foreign brands of milk powder are mostly equipped with special measuring spoons. Even if they are not, they will tell consumers exactly how many grams of milk powder they have. However, domestic companies do not have a dedicated measuring spoon. Although there are hints on the packaging, there is still nowhere to check what shape the size is. Therefore, if the domestic milk powder companies consider more packaging factors, learn from the successful experience of foreign countries, and improve the product packaging design, it will definitely improve the status quo.