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. Its 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 Im 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 dont 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 its 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 dont 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.
Im 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 youve 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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