What makes shoppers pick one product over another when they’re staring at shelves full of choices in a store? Assuming they don’t have exclusive loyalty to one brand or that one doesn’t have a big price advantage, the packaging often plays a huge role.
As you know if you sell a product, it’s not always easy to figure out what to put on the box, bag or wrapper. When private equity firm Brynwood Partners bought the Balance Bar company from Kraft in November 2009, it brought in CEO Michael Sands, who had been chief marketing officer of both Snapple and Ben & Jerry’s, to turn around the brand, now based in Valhalla, New York. A big part of his job is improving the nutrition bars’ packaging—from the foil wrappers to the cardboard boxes for multi-packs.
Similar to redesigning a website, this has been a gradual process. Balance Bar has made a series of small changes, then taken stock of the results to see if they are helping the company to get its message across to consumers. “You don’t always get it on your first effort,” Sands says. “You’re always looking to improve.” It looks like Balance Bar’s efforts are starting to work. After declining for six straight years, according to Sands, the 14-employee company, which has close to $100 million in sales, experienced flat sales in the first year under its new ownership.
You may not have the resources of Balance Bar to invest in your own packaging, but you can learn from its strategies. Here are some that you can try, even on a tight budget:
Continues at: From a Snapple Marketing Veteran: How to Tap the Power of Packaging : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum.
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