Importance of Packaging in International Marketing

Packaging is basically the wrapping around the consumer items to contain, protecting, displaying, promoting and otherwise making the product marketable and keeping it clean.

How is Packaging Related to Marketing?

The generic use of packaging is marketing the product. The packaging and the labels on it can be used by the marketers to encourage potential buyers to buy the products. The graphics and physical designs on the packs have been important and are continuously evolving phenomenon for several decades. The graphics and marketing communications are displayed on the surface and in a lot of cases the point of sales display examples of which are a convenience, barrier protection, and security.

From the perspective of marketing, the packaging strategies can have an influence on the brand awareness, recognition of the brand, expectations management and also as a channel of information between the firm and the customer. Branding, marketing, and packaging must align with messaging, communication and value proposition to accomplish brand recognition, brand awareness, expectations, co-branding, and symbols and icons.

Importance of Product Packaging:

In the present age of globalization where there are a large number of brands of various products present to the customer to choose and select from, product branding and packaging decisions a very important. It is clear that not all of the brands are liked by the customers, and they select their brand after doing a careful analysis of a number of factors that are not only associated with the product but the manufacturer, the brand name, the packaging, the price and the contents as well.

Most of the books on marketing consider marketing to be an inseparable part of the product and a part of four Ps of marketing that is a product, price, place, and promotion. Some people are also of the view that packaging serves as a promotional tool. While the typical purpose of packaging can be considered to be the protection of the products inside, but if we think from the customer’s perspective, packaging serves both as a cue and as a source of information.

Research shows that more than 70% of the purchase decisions are made on the shelves of the stores, and as a result, if you are a marketer, you need to make the packaging of the product support your brand’s position and build a competitive advantage.

Packaging Offers the Following Advantages to the Businesses

• An increased impact on the point of purchase
• A comparable enhancement in the delivery of the product and its experience
• Significant representation of your brand and company values
• Opportunities for new channels of distribution

A recent study has found out that packaging cues have a great influence on the way in which the product is perceived by the buyers. With the consumers becoming more demanding and with its functionality to communicate with consumers the increasing role of packaging strategic tool to attract the attention of the 21st-century customers cannot be denied.

If your product sits on the shelf with several other competing products or in an aisle with hundreds of products, changing the color, size, shape or other features of its packaging can make it stand out for your ideal customers. Its design is going to decide whether the customers will pick up your product or will they move on and look for something else. In short, packaging has the ability to make or break your firms’ item.

While most of the people might not judge the book by its cover, but every consumer makes a snap judgment about the product based on the design of the products pack. People also like to order custom printed boxes that have a creative design on them, when they shop online.

So it can be concluded that the design of the packaging as a role in the promotion of the brand's name.