packaging

Packaging

by Bob on January 19, 2008

Packaging is a very important problem to solve.

A bag packer in a grocery store in a supermarket needs to know how to efficiently group items in the paper bag so the grocer doesn't run out of paper bags. And he can't put the eggs with the metal cans because of the eggs breaking. So it requires some thought.

These days it might not matter since the ubiquitous thin plastic bag is used for most groceries in a supermarket with little attention to packing efficiently.

Package Engineering is an interesting field of study. How to make workable, durable, efficient packaging and then, in the consumer area, an attractive package for the product. It's harder than one would imagine. When astronauts are sent to the moon what they carry becomes very critical. And it has to be efficient in size and definitely durable and lightweight. Of course until gravity comes out of the equation like when they get into orbit.

One must also consider in this thought, a kind of sinister and clever kind of packaging for consumers.

For example, a newly shaped bottle which is cute and fancy but has less product in it, perhaps unbeknownst to the consumer.

Or even packaging of items for sale. They package bars of soap in packages of three bars so we have to buy three bars of soap even if we only needed one or wanted one.

So consumers are a bit manipulated by packaging in many ways.

It seems the smaller the package one buys, the more expensive it is paradoxically since it costs more per unit weight or measure. Of course, manufacturers want consumers to but a ten pound barrel of pretzels and not a little bag of them. But both exist. Then it depends on where in the store they are placed and how visible the small bag is in relation to the barrel. But we digress.

The bottom line is that, due to packaging, you might not be able to buy one bar of soap anymore. You might have to buy three whether you like it or not. You get to store the soap in your home that you aren't using.

Conspicuous consumption is always around, and the psychology of packaging is just a part of the whole model of fashioning and molding the psychology of consumer behaviour.

You might be out of luck if you wanted just one bar of soap.