Thinking Around the Box

Over the last year you may have spent enormous hours including nights and weekends creating a new product. The name, the look and the feel of the product is complete and now you want to share this creation with the world. How do you take this new, unknown product that has become your baby into the hands of your target market? Thinking out of the box is important, but what about on the box thinking?

Packaging and presenting your product to the market has many variables to being successful. You need to ask yourself a few questions to assure you have covered all the bases. Is your package appealing or does it just blend in with the rest of the products on the shelf? Does it scream TRY ME? You’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and money for your product to reach the shelf. Is that the products final destination? No way! Your product needs to pass through the scanner at the check-out register! Unfortunately, unless the company you are representing is a large one resembling a Proctor & Gamble, your product will be residing at the bottom of the shelf looking at all those shoe laces walking by.

Packaging and displaying a product is a real art and takes expert thought. Consider this: one way to get your product off the shelf and into the hands of your target audience is through the use of a display. A retailer may not want to offer space, but by giving you temporary floor space for a display, he frees up additional space on the shelf and allows customers to see your product in a temporary display. At that point, your product display has about 15 seconds to captivate and sell the consumer passing by. How many times have you been walking down an aisle and find yourself picking a product off of a stand that you really don’t need? 3000 impressions are visual to us everyday and we still reach out for that impulse buy. Why is that? The display is the tool for your product to separate itself from the clutter of your competition. Let’s have some fun. The next time you are in a store, take the product awareness test. Stand in front of a shelf. Close your eyes and then open them.

What brand do you see first? What colors pop out at you? How about the size? Does it take up too much space or does it get lost in the sea of products? Does the package tell the story about the uses of your invention? The benefits? Why should an educated consumer buy your manufactured goods over your competition? Your product needs to stand on its own. If you are challenged selling your merchandise in a sea of competition, consider a product display. The consumer is already in a shopping mode and within several minutes will be checking-out at a register where they are in the decision-making mode. Sales happen! According to the Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute, “Serving as the last three feet of the marketing plan, P-O-P advertising is the only mass medium executed at the critical point where products, consumers and the money to purchase the product all meet at the same time. It is no coincidence that with 74 percent of all purchase decisions in mass merchandisers made in store, an increasing number of brand marketers and retailers invest in this medium.” The percentage of decisions that are made in the store has increased over the years. This can be attributed to buying patterns that have changed over time due to the internet as well as a change in socio-economic conditions.

Package design and displays are imperative to grabbing the attention of your target market. Consider calling upon an expert to assist you in thinking more “on-the-box or around-the-box.” A few resources for you include:

• POPAI – www.popai.com
• POP Times publication – www.hoytpub.com/poptimes
• Creative Magazine - www.creativemag.com/homepage

 

Randi Aileen Press
President and CEO
External CMO

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