Effective packaging
Takakazu
Ito discusses some innovative packaging forms and products for snack
manufacturers
Japan
has about 40,000 convenience stores that attract 1,050 million customers
each month. The typical Japanese consumer shops at a convenience store
at an average of eight or nine times a month. It is now an essential
part of the Japanese way of life. In fact, it is so important that many
cannot even imagine life without these.
A convenience store is a small retail space (100 sq mtrs), offering
about 3,000 items such as magazines, commodity goods, prepared foods,
snacks and drinks sold only in small quantities and sizes. These stores
enjoy a broad customer base of primarily two-income families, singles
and students. The stores are particularly busy when customers are commuting,
attending school or having lunch. Purchased food items tend to be consumed
immediately at school, work and other places outside of the home. As
a result, convenience stores are seeing an increasing need for snacks
packaged in small bags containing portions suitable for one person.
In order to attract customers and survive in this highly competitive
and growing market, snack manufacturers have recently felt the pressure
to develop products meeting these needs. They are competing on a number
of levels to determine the best way to succeed in these circumstances;
the shape of packaging is one area where this battle is playing out.
Luxury packaging
A snack manufacturer must find ways to attract consumers to its products.
In a convenience store offering items in small portions, a focus on
the elements directly related to the product – taste, mouth, feel
and shape – is lacking. While good flavour is clearly essential,
other forms of added value are now required as well. One such form is
‘luxury’ – a new key to modern product development. The
block bottom gusset is an innovation that lets the customer see the
appealing design of the package front. This form of packaging adds an
element of luxury that is lacking in the conventional vertical pillow
bag. Therefore, it attracts the customer’s attention. Although
the block bottom gusset has the disadvantage of reducing the number
of items that can be displayed in a given space compared with the vertical
pillow bag, potential stockouts can be avoided by means of
the just-in-time distribution system, which is unique to convenience
stores.
Effective use of dead space Another form of packaging that has proven
effective for convenience stores sale is the hanging package, which
effectively uses dead space in a store, including the area around the
checkout counter. Examples are: perforated bags with a header hole punch
and the strip pack. These forms of packaging offer a great advantage
to a convenience store. They use a small bag containing the right amount
for a single portion, and attract the customers’ attention at the
checkout counter. At Ishida, one way to increase sales and profit is
to use a highly competitive form of packaging. In order to contribute
to product development and improved production efficiency of snack manufacturers,
we have developed packaging machines and multi-head weighers. Ishida
is confident that our established packaging techniques can help snack
manufacturers introduce winning products. The author is from Ishida
Co, Ltd, Marketing group
