Tag: packaging

Packaging Design as Brand Differentiator


A negative aspect associated with product packaging is environmental impact. Landfills receive tons of paper, cardboard, plastic, styrofoam, and other materials discarded after products are opened or used. Consumers are called on to be more environmentally conscious; product makers bear the same responsibility.

Pepsico’s Frito-Lay brand hopefully is an example of a future trend in packaging. Frito-Lay’s SunChips brand will soon roll out a compostable package. The package will be 100% bio-degradeable. Frito-Lay’s choice of SunChips as the brand to debut an environmentally friendly package is appropriate. SunChips is positioned as a healthier alternative to potato chips. Using “healthier” packaging for SunChips is a great fit.

I bought a piece of furniture recently and cringed as I filled my garbage can with sryrofoam and bubble wrap. Kudos to Frito-Lay for taking the initiative to develop packaging that has less of a negative impact on our environment. It is the right thing to do, and environmentally responsible packaging can be leveraged as a point of difference to set you apart from competitors.

Link: Marketing Daily – “Sun Chips Rolling Out Compostable Packaging”

The Changing Role of Packaging

Product packaging has evolved in its role in marketing strategy. For many years, packaging received little, if any consideration as part of the product. It merely provided a storage function. Then, when marketers understood that brand associations related to packaging are held by consumers. Thus, packaging became part of brand building efforts, with notable examples being Coke’s contour bottle and Apple’s all-in-one iMac.

Today, packaging takes on an even more prominent role and can actually be a point of differentiation. Packaging can enable product use in different situations (e.g., Yoplait’s Go-GURT), product easier to use (e.g., Heinz ketchup in bottles designed for refrigerator doors), or shape a brand image that can command a price premium (Apple iPod and iPhone). In the future, product packaging will take on greater significance for what it does not do… waste natural resources. Concern about protecting the environment has spurred a call for coming up with ways to reduce the amount of materials used in product packaging. Wal-Mart has a Packaging Scorecard initiative that assesses its suppliers efforts to reduce packaging waste.

Focusing on packaging can not result in a successful marketing outcome, it is the socially responsible thing to do!

Purifying Bottled Water Marketing

PepsiCo has said it is changing labeling on its Aquafina bottled water brand to include information that the source of the product is tap water. The label refers to the water source as “P.W.S.” (Public Water Source). The move comes in response to pressure from advocacy groups for bottled water marketers to refrain from misleading marketing practices. In the case of Aquafina, package graphics depicting a mountain scene creates an image that the product must come from a mountain spring. While PepsiCo has shown no signs of attempting to manipulate this brand association, it is a pre-emptive strike by consumer advocates to prevent such a tactic from being used.

PepsiCo should be commended for taking this action. It is not a grand act of social responsibility by any means, but acknowledging the source of the water removes any uncertainty in consumers’ minds and removes the possibility of being accused of misleading marketing practices. The market for bottled water is strong enough that PepsiCo or any other company does not have to walk a line between ethical and deceptive marketing practices in order to make the product more appealing to consumers. Link