The Hindu Business Line : Packaging unveiled

Protection, longer shelf life and security are the functional features of packaging. But there's more to it, notes Sangita Joshi in the first of her two-part article.

SO did anybody see a recent article about this new packaging developed in Bangalore, which will keep the famous Tirupati laddoos fresh for as long as six months. Coming fairly close on the heels of the infamous `germs in chocolate' case, which had heavyweight organisations admitting to negligence in areas of packaging, and subsequent upgradations, it really set the tone for a discussion on packaging — which some people call the `fifth P'! While that may be a bit of an exaggeration (it usually suffices to treat it as another, though very important, element of the `product'), there is no doubt that packaging has changed vastly from the drab brown/white uninteresting stuff of even my childhood.

Kotler defines packaging as "all the activities of designing and producing the container for a product." Packaging can be important to both sellers and consumers; sometimes, a package can make the important difference to a marketing strategy by meeting customers' needs better. It can make a product more convenient to use or store, easier to identify or promote or to send out a message. In fact, categories such as perfumes and other fragrance products spend far more on their packaging than on the product.

The big reasons why packaging is now such an important marketing tool lie in certain demographic, behavioural and technological trends. Increasing income and paucity of time means that consumers are now willing to pay more for packaging which provides `convenience' value to products; an increase in self-service supermarkets and related impulse buying means that packages must be distinctive and eye-catching as well as scream their brands; and improvements and innovations in technology have come as a boon for industries such as food, especially `ready to eat,' which have really come into their own now.

So if we were to break down the functionality of packaging into its three core elements, they would be:

Protection: "In safe hands"

This could be: Damage control during transportation and storing. This really is the primary, most fundamental function of packaging — typically, to keep products in mint condition after miles and miles of travel from factory to shop floor or consumer's home. One might see up to three layers: the primary package which has direct contact with the product, sometimes includes inners or stiffers to keep the product in place and fill in loose gaps; a cardboard box (outer or secondary package) and a corrugated box (shipper) which would contain `x' number of outers. Material like thermocol, styrofoam, bubble wrap (which has the added attraction of being great to burst because of the lovely `pop' it makes), blister packs for medicine and the nets you see around fruits and vegetables nowadays all keep products safe. So also pizza cartons, with their holes and their plastic `tables,' which keep the product from getting soggy and sticking to the carton.

Some ideas on protective packaging which I have always admired, though they seem simple enough now, are the neat little trays which come inside sliced cake packs (say Britannia), which save the slices from getting mangled into crumbs. Similarly, I think its really creditable how you get your chips and crisps in these poly-packages nowadays with negligible damage to the contents; but the manufacturers should do something at the retailer end of affairs as I think the main `crush factor' operates there! Toys, CDs and crockery are categories which obviously need to be packed with enough stuffing to resist movement and we see some really innovative packaging here. Similarly durables such as TVs and PCs need scientific packing. In fact, all of us save our bulky white goods' cartons only to re-use them in case of a transfer.

My worst nightmare of having neglected packaging was when we got this really innovative merchandising-cum-dispensing device designed for a new fairly premium personal care appliance — an electric shaver. The strategy for the launch of this product actually hinged on selling in to trade the launch quantities in the display box. The containers were fairly multipurpose (and expensive!), allowing retailers to display the products, as well as informing them about the features and benefits of the product, and were pilfer-proof, but they were made of acrylic! So we were all set for big bang market launches all over India — and bang! we received news that the display devices arrived in all locations with 75 per cent breakages! Negligence in packing the fragile stuff on the part of the supplier resulted in a very watered down launch for the company, and a huge lesson on the importance of packaging for me!

Longer shelf life: protection from spoilage

The Tirupati laddoo packaging, that for MTR and ITC `ready to eat' bisibele bath and dal makhani respectively, containers for tea (vacuum-packed in cardboard or plastic boxes with foil), chocolate wrappers so that no germs get inside, can all be categorised here. Tetra Pak, the Swedish company, really made all this possible with its revolutionary `aseptic' package, which allowed storage of perishables without refrigeration, thus saving huge monies on storage all along the supply chain. Apparently, Tetra Pak's motto is `the package should save more than its cost'.

Zip locks, cling film and aluminium foil are further examples of material and packaging developed which has made consumer life really easy. The importance of packaging guarding against shop soiling can always be gauged by the reaction of consumers to being sold a `demonstration' piece in a shop — they always want to buy the `fresh' piece — intact in its package!

Security: Pilfer-proofing

Again, this is a fairly important requirement across the supply chain. Printed BOPP tape wrapped around cartons, additional transparent lid-like seal on lipsticks and Bisleri bottles are all evidence of attempts to tamper-proof products. This is increasingly one of the biggest requirements of large mass retailers. Did you know that `shrinkage' or losses can account for as much as 3 to 4 per cent of a supermarket's losses? In an industry where margins are wafer-thin, no wonder lots of mega retailers are investing large amounts in systems which will reduce these losses.

Promotion: "Judging a book by its cover"

Here again, the usage could be split into two — the `communication' angle and the `differentiation' angle.

Communication

In today's world of integrated marketing communication, packaging plays a key role. It emphasises branding (especially important for `supermarket — self service' kind of products as the consumer has to find her favourite brand amongst a plethora of others), provides visual links with promotion or imagery established through other media (the evolution of Cadbury's `Fruit and Nut' or `Rum and Raisin' brands is a good example of packaging evolving along with changing brand imagery; similarly, toothbrushes rely only on packaging to promote consumer promotions such as freebies or `bogos'), and gives information — whether legal mandatories or related consumer value-adds (nutrition facts or recipes for food products; dosage and side effects for drugs and pharma products; lyrics and music trivia for CDs). Colour coding of outer packs is an extremely convenient way of giving clues to the product inside without opening the boxes, as in shoes, apparel.

Differentiation

We know that impulse buying constitutes up to 60 per cent of supermarket sales nowadays. In this scenario, it makes sense to make packaging as distinctive and attractive as possible. Packaging is very often the best display device that a company has — Barbie's `Wall of Pink,' Razor and Blade HBDC (Hanging Blade Display card) are examples. After all, just as hats can make a fashion statement at Ascot, and clothes maketh a man, packaging sometimes maketh a product. So perfume bottles, the distinctive trademarked bottle shape of Coke, the much talked about `Betsy' bottle of a now almost forgotten brand, Crush, from Schweppes — all contribute to making products distinctive and well recognised. Similarly, the lami-tubes of toothpaste, which are now transparent and so much more attractive (though that's no longer a differentiating feature).

With increasing sophistication in packaging and printing, packs are really getting attractive. I remember the quantum leap we made in our printing of toy packaging (understandably an important category, as packaging is the primary hook for the primary target audience — children) when we discovered `Light-Weight Coated' duplex paper, which was cheap yet gave very good reproduction.

The concluding part of this article will be featured next week.

(The author is a Bangalore-based marketing professional.)

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