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Thinking Ahead About Packaging Can Help You Take Advantage of an Opportunity.

by Jeffri L. Epps

Published on this site: April 28th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Thinking ahead about packaging can save you time, make you money and relieve frustration in getting your product to market.

You have this great idea or invention you have spent time developing. You are confident it will be successful because you have determined that there is a real need for the product in the market place. You may even have had success in securing a patent or trademark to protect your idea as it truly is unique and different. It’s time to start moving ahead. That much a waited meeting with the retailer is scheduled. The buyer is very interested about moving ahead in putting your products on the shelf however, he/she will not be redoing the plan-o-grams for another 6-9 months. Do you just wait? Will you have missed a key selling season? Will the buyer still be interested, or even still around. The key is to be able to strike while the iron is hot. What if you had already given consideration to various packaging and merchandising options prior? How could you have foreseen this situation?

If you can imagine where your product could be sold, you can imagine and learn how those retailers sell products. In addition to a regular shelf set what other opportunities are there? Do they do truck load sales? What would a pallet display look like for your product? Do they do weekly or quarterly ad features...those products are often be found on end aisle merchandisers and floor displays around the store and may be in-and-out items. Does the retailer feature group or theme promotions like Back to School or Dollar Days? What will you need to do to have your product fit in?

What I’m also talking about is being able to provide alternative configurations of units or price points for your products. Take the time to walk the various types of stores and imagine where your product should be in the store and how it should be packaged to optimally present itself. What other products are around it and how are these items priced? If you don’t initially imagine a configuration that seems to fit try walking a round a store in a different industry to help you brainstorm and borrow ideas...

Remember the buyer previously told us he was interested, but the shelf set would not change for 6 – 9 more months. Large retailers work towards schedules and it’s not practical for them to change their shelf-sets for every new opportunity they see, even yours. Are you prepared to recommend a small display unit that could be placed at the register or a counter until there is an opening? This is great and actually provides greater visibility for your product. Are you prepared to recommend a display shipper that could be placed on the floor or in another promotional area, until there is room in the shelf set? You already have an idea of quantity and costs because you did your homework. What you don’t want to do is brainstorm the idea or the spot to again be disappointed because you are starting from scratch and it would take to longer then the 6 – 9 month wait to produce the new option.

I’m not suggesting that you fully invest in the development and production of these ideas and materials upfront without a strong commitment. I am suggesting you invest in the learning and in the thinking. For that register display for what would it take to have a rough idea if that would take 2 weeks, 6 weeks or 12 weeks to produce? How great you will feel when you already know who you will call when you leave the meeting to tighten up the estimate and you know you can confirm an answer with the buyer by the end of the week.

No doubt the buyer will be impressed to know you have even thought about it. Retailers want to work with vendors who are thoughtful, reliable and thinking ahead about how to sell more products. Help make their job easy. Oh yeah, there is the added the benefit of the extra sales and profit you’ve earned because you were thinking ahead.

Jeffri L. Epps is the chief visionary behind FourEyes, LLC, a firm specializing in consulting and coaching for business performance and leadership. She brings to each client a wealth of experience and insight drawn from nearly two decades in business. Jeffri has formerly held leadership positions with several major companies. Her thought leadership and passion for developing high performance teams has led to the enhancement, creation and launch of winning products and business initiatives. http://www.foureyesinsights.com/

 
 
     

 
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