Retail Packaging

Today Seth Godin wrote about Packaging for retail noting that a recent purchase of his:

…came in plastic, non-recyclable packaging that weighed twice as much as the remote itself. The plastic was so well sealed and so thick that I actually broke a kitchen knife trying to open it…

He also goes on to note:

This packaging is the result of a paranoid retail buyer (the person who orders in bulk for the store, not the buyer at retail) demanding pilfer-proof packaging combined with a lazy brand manager choosing a lousy solution to the challenge presented by getting it into a retailer. “Make it pilfer-proof or we won’t carry it,” he says. The brand manager doesn’t want to take a risk, so she packages it the way they packaged it when the device cost $1,000. Impregnable.

When you buy it from Amazon, of course, a cardboard sleeve would be sufficient. The manufacturer, though, only wants to have one sku, so Amazon sells the wasteful one as well.

He goes on to make some other very valid points too. However by this stage I’d started to consider retail package design as a business opportunity. It’s got an interesting mix of problems to be solved the packaging needs to:

• present the product in the best possible light;
• not take up too much retail shelf space;
• but still be big enough to attract attention;
• be pilfer proof for retail stores;
• but lightweight for mail order/online retailers;
• environmentally friendly in both material and level of waste;

Some of which will no doubt increase costs; some will decrease costs; some will increase sales; some will reduce theft (but still be easy to open) and other will reduce shipping costs. Several of them seem at first glance to be mutually exclusive. It strikes me there’s a business opportunity here – lightweight, environmentally friendly, theft proof packaging. I wonder if there are any specialists in this market already?

Having a good read of this website should help anyone interested in pursuing the idea.

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• 1

  Hi, there are companies that deal with product packaging design.
  well, I used to work in one. Anyhow, the main problems we always faced were the security (easy to steal or not), the safe keeping (will the product be easily transportable), presentation and how easy is it to open/close.
  as far as i can remember, we also had a little study made and it came out that cardboard packaging is the best. These days cardboard is very easily recyclable, comes in different shapes and sizes and last but not least, there is a plastic coated version available, that is hard to rip into pieces. The idea is that small packaging is meant to be safe and the only way to open it is by using scissors.
  And yes, cardboard has 1 mayor fault, it is not see through but, there are methods of cut-outs and other techniques that help with this issue.

  peace, J

  Jaan on May 15th, 2008
• 2

  Some companies now offer alternatively packaged goods. Before the world went mad you could go down to your local market and you wouldn’t find anything packaged.

  Packaging was introduced because out of town supermarkets needing goods delivering without being damaged. Now packaging is a commercial thing, make the package big to make the goods look more expensive. There are items you can buy where the packaging makes up most of the cost.

  Caroline on May 16th, 2008
• 3

  @Jaan – I know there are already companies that design packaging, what I mean is there may be a business opportunity to be found by in innovating in the area.

  @Caroline – I think packaging as a marketing tool is here to stay – unfortunately.

  John on May 16th, 2008
• 4

  The packaging industry is a really competitive one, You will need to invest silly money to be successful. Being innovative in this area can only mean spending a lot of cash on research.

  But a business opportunity is definitely in the retail packaging security. If you have a single solution to secure every kind of packaging and it must be easily reusable.

  Jaan on May 16th, 2008