Using the Marketing Mix to Optimise your Product Placement for Packaging
Have you ever asked yourself, How do I market my products and achieve optimal sales tanks to correct packaging? How do I get them to market and differentiate my products and packaging to that of my competitors and the market place?
The answer will be revealed and it’s not that difficult and it will require being able to forecast and read the wants and expectations of your customer base and having an innovative packaging supplier who can also read the market and keep abreast of new product ranges, environmental issues and social developments.
Lets now introduce and discuss the four basic segments of the marketing mix.
* Price
* Promotion
* Place
* Product
Price is a major determining factor of the mix – but should not be viewed in isolation. The price of the packaging should reflect and take into account all the above segments. This should relate to the quality of the product, the organic marketing of the product due to good packaging and the savings on promotion because of the appeal of the product.
With regard to promotion, ask yourself what can you say about your product’s packaging to enhance the positioning of it. For example, you could market perishable foods that are on open display as being tamper proof and that the packaging could be made from recyclable materials, thus enhancing the clients requirement and enhancing the positioning of the product.
Place- where are the products sold or consumed? On the premises or have they been sold on and the importance of correct, apt packaging becomes apparent. If you are thinking of differentiating and increasing sales externally – then viewing packaging in relation to the products life cycle and mixing price, promotion, place and the information on the product is paramount.
The Product has been left to last to reiterate its importance. Investigate with your packaging supplier what products he has to offer in different categories and line them up against each other and evaluate their appeal, durability and marketability. For example, a Coffee Barista can choose between, foam, paper and plastics for serving take away coffee. Or a Baker could wrap and store bread in paper, poly prop bags and so on
The price of the product is important but using this as a determinant for product packaging in isolation could prove to be a costly decision.