Page 128 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

60 USE THE PACKAGING

Packaging is, at its most basic, there to protect its contents from the
environment and vice versa. However, packaging can do so much
more—it can inform customers about the product, advise people
about different possible ways of using the product, promote other
brands in the firm’s portfolio, and so forth.

Most brand managers are familiar with these aspects of packaging,
and so this is all standard stuff—but some firms go further,
and provide customers with some fun or extra utility from the
packaging. For example, in France mustard is commonly packed in
wine glasses, so that the customers can use the pots afterward. In
many developing countries packaging is recycled to make oil lamps
or to decorate houses. In some cases, the packaging can be designed
just for fun.

The idea

French mineral water bottler Evian wanted to package its water in a
plastic bottle that could be easily recycled. Most plastic bottles take
up considerable space in recycling bins, even though the bottles are
mostly empty space—so Evian designed a bottle that crushes down
to a much reduced size.

What the company had not bargained for, though, was that people
actually enjoyed the sensation of crushing the bottles. Finishing a
bottle of mineral water just to enjoy crushing the bottle may seem
a bit bizarre—but in fact the crushable bottle created a small, but
discernible, USP in a crowded market. After all, water is water—
the product relies heavily on other factors to differentiate it from
its competitors.

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