Marketing management: The role of packaging and labeling in product promotion and sales marketing and sales of a product
Editor’s note: With effect from this issue the Stabroek Business will be publishing occasional features that have a direct bearing on the marketing of goods and services produced by local small businesses. The features will be based on our own research and on relevant information contributed in pieces sent to us by contributors. The pieces will only be used if we are satisfied that they seek genuinely to contribute to the furtherance of the growth of the small business sector.
The information contained in this article is based on an edited version of an article titled `The role of packaging in marketing and sales of a product’ published by marketing professional Hitesh Bhasin in February 2018.
One of the most important elements in the Marketing mix is Promotions. And lately, packaging has become a strong element of the Marketing mix. Some say it should fall under Promotions because it helps in attracting attention for the product. Others say, it serves a much higher purpose than only promotions and hence the argument is that packaging can become the 5th P of the marketing mix. Nonetheless, we feel the role of packaging is very important in Marketing and sales.
Here are a set of crucial roles that packaging plays in an organization or for the product.
Information and self- service for the customer
One of the first roles that packaging plays, especially in new products launches, is the information provided on the packaging. This information can tell the consumer how to cook the food product, how to use a technology product or it can lay out procedures and precautions necessary during the use of the product. The role of packaging is to convey the information to the customer.
Packaging Information
Packaging information can also be used as a means of safeguarding the company. In case someone sues the company for information not provided, and that information is already printed on the packet, then the company can raise its hands and say that the information was already provided.
Innovation
The role of packaging in increasing sales is evident. Innovation in packaging can lead to more sales because more and more customers prefer (easy to open; easy to close) packaging. The sachets (for example) used for small packaging of oil, shampoo or any other small items have increased the sales of these items. They are easy to carry, easy to be sold and can also be used as samples for the product.
Utility
Besides being attractive and promoting the product, another purpose that packaging serves is in safeguarding the product. Protection of the product, carrying it safely, not allowing damage of the product, transportation of the product are all examples of the utility and the role that packaging plays. Grocery items, for example (eg. salt and sugar) come suitably packaged to prevent pest invasion. The utility of the product can also be increased by changes in packaging design.
Precedent set in other oil-producing developing countries compel Guyana to contemplate the likely impact of the advent of oil as a factor that could exacerbate the country’s crime situation, President of the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) Shyam Nokta has said.
Addressing last Tuesday’s GMSA business luncheon at the Pegasus Hotel, Nokta suggested that there was precedent to suggest that shifts in economic focus occasioned by the emergence of an oil economy could bring about societal changes that could impact on the local crime situation. “Experience from other developing, oilproducing countries, including our neighbours, has shown that shrinkage of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors resulting in loss of jobs and economic opportunities in these sectors impose hardships on large numbers of people, often the poorest members of society…As Guyana moves into this new phase of development it is imperative that we learn from both the good and bad lessons,” Nokta said.
According to Nokta, threats to local and regional national security, not least the security of the business community could also be posed by the impact of ramped-up anti-drugs law enforcement actions targeting cartels in the wider hemisphere. This is forcing some of the big players in the illegal trade to examine ‘softer’ operating locations in the Caribbean, Nokta said.
“There is the view that intra-regional drug trafficking is a main force behind the upsurge in violent crimes in the region. More recently, there have been indications that crackdowns in parts of Central and South America have displaced cartels who are now intentionally moving into the Caribbean”, Nokta told the forum at the Pegasus Hotel.
“This is not good news. Considering where we are geographically, between suppliers and markets, coupled with the inadequate patrols of our expansive coastline and territorial waters, the Caribbean appears to be swimming against the tide,” Nokta said, adding that the magnitude of the potential challenge meant that “addressing drug-trafficking and the concomitant violent crimes that accompany it cannot be done by any single country or region.”
In a presentation that focused on the nexus between crime and economic development in the region Nokta asserted that crime levels were a key factor in determining the business climate. Contextually, he singled out “small countries”, which he said suffer disproportionately “both from crime which originates within our society and from crime driven by actions many miles from our shores.” At the same time Nokta asserted that while in such an environment “all citizens and businesses are vulnerable ………… small businesses are particularly vulnerable as often they do not have the safeguards in place to prevent or detect criminal activity.”
Crime in the region and the ability of the state to provide adequate security for the business sector has been a recurring theme in contemporary public/private sector discourses in the region and on Tuesday Nokta alluded to what he said was the disproportionate suffering being endured by small countries in the region “both from crime which originates within our society and from crime driven by actions many miles from our shores.” The challenge, according to Nokta, was a region-wide one since he contended that while the Caribbean was “still a relatively peaceful region,” it had, “in the last decade or so, seen increasing levels of crime – from murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, organized crime, narco-trafficking and trafficking in persons and in recent times, cyber-crimes.”
And according to Nokta even in the absence of empirical data to show the impact of crime on the local business environment, the issue had “influenced private sector activity, affected livelihoods, families and individuals.” He contended that the issue of the “direct and indirect impacts” of crime on the country’s overall economic development was reflected in the “increasingly larger (budgetary) allocations…being made……..to implement several initiatives,” including, most recently, “the expansion of prisons and modernization of the police force.” Additionally, he asserted that security sector reform had been “a key issue for several years now.”