Walt-Mart Soft Drink Adds Some Needed Pop - Assignment Example

Walt-Mart Soft Drink Adds Some Needed Pop Packaging was first utilizing thousands of years ago by our ancestors when man realized that it needed a way to preserve its food items in order to eliminate the need of hunting and gathering food on a daily basis. The function has evolved over the years becoming a highly complex business function in the 21st century. The United Kingdom has always been at the frontier of packaging and its philosophy is that packaging is a socially sustainable function that can be performed in environmentally friendly ways. In the United Kingdom the residents consumed nearly 18 billion cans of soda last year, but 72.2% of the cans utilized were made out of recycled steel (Scrib). Socially responsibility in the packaging function began to appear about a hundred years ago. The post World War II era brought social and global awareness of the need to protect the natural resources of the planet. In North America an ecological movement in the 1960’s triggered new social responsibility corporate strategies to meet the needs of the customers. The United Kingdom has been in the forefront of eco-design since the 1990’s (Wooton). This report on the packaging industry is divided into five sections which are sustainable packaging, the effects of colors on packaging design, industry cases, packaging content & modeling, and a conclusion. Sustainable Packaging Sustainable packaging is a business practice that creates packaging products with materials that are renewable, utilize renewable energy, and are manufactured in a socially responsible manner to promote environmental health (Sustainable Packaging). Packaging design training initiatives required package designers to work with all types of materials types and structures to gain insight to understand the basic of structural and graphic design for the environment (Packaging Strategies Offers Workshop 4). Walt-Mart applied the utilization of green packaging sustainable solutions as part to measure if the solution can accomplished the company’s long term savings goals. The firm developed a new performance metric to measure the progress towards achieve a 5% saving reduction by the year 2013, while continuing its environmentally friendly sustainable packaging strategy (Orango, 62). The effect of Colors on Packaging Design Data in field of marketing research demonstrates that over 80 per cent of the impact related to attracting the visual senses of a customer is related to color schema (Morton). The design process must consider ethnic factors in the selection of colors for packaging in international markets since colors are interpreted in different matters in different ethnic groups. There are tools and scientific proof of the effect color can have selection process of the customer. Appendix A and B illustrates the colors that are most legible based on age group. The colors that consistently received the highest visibility rate across all age groups are the black and red colors. Visibility is a critical attribute since in stores with large volumes of inventory products visibility and attractive designs allow a certain product to stand out from the other items placed in the shelves of a store. Industry cases Procter & Gamble utilizes a proactive design strategy across its entire product line including its packaging function. The company uses a design tactic of letting designers compile input from different department such as research & development, marketing, engineering and production people. For P&G a design function is only effective when the products are tailored made to meet the needs and expectation of the customer base of a firm (Noreen 14). Packaging serves an image psychological factor to customer of quality perception. P&G recognizes the existence of the emotional and psychological factor of packaging designing and it creates designs layouts to optimize the customer’s visual perception to remind them of the type of functional and quality product that is inside the box of the item. Wal-Mart is a multinational company with operation in over 13 markets outside the United States including the United Kingdom (Wal-Mart). Wal-Mart sells its own branded products of various food items categories including sodas. The packaging of the Wal-Mart soda was poor and looked cheap and generic, thus the customer perceived the product was an inferior product of poor quality instead of a value proposition buy. The name of the brand is called Sam’s Choice. The company redesigned its soda packaging following the marketing preference tendency in design of soda of using red and blue colors and its graphic design had a unique sense of imaging Walt-Mart; the end result was a 10% increase in sales in a 27 week time span (Facenda 10). A larger amount of customers in the 21st century are selecting soft drink brands based on the packaging design of the bottles (Hearne 8). The bottle case is not only Walt-Mart example of innovative packaging and design optimization techniques. As a member of the retail industry Walt-Mart realizes the merchandising of inventory requires cost savings, while at the same time packaging designs that stand out over the hundreds or even thousands of similar items in the marketplace. The company created a packaging products based on sustainable development research called SuSTANDable. The product is a clamped blister card that converts into a standing clamshell package; which also has the attractive characteristics such as shipping flat, serving as a bulk display or self standing package while being a recyclable product (Sustainable packaging: paper over plastic). Packaging modeling & Content Layout Designing for packaging product has to consider the contents the packaging item will hold from the inception of the design process. A sophisticated high tech industry that delivers products with attributes that create design complexity and critical constraints such as the weight resistance requirement of packaging a very heavy and large items is the machinery sector. Characteristic aimed that creating a flexible model in the manufacturing line of packaging solutions are aligned with the utilization of mechatronics in the processes. Mechatronics allow packaging vendors to apply the use of equipment machinery in their production process to add changeover flexibility, wide range of tooling, variation in the materials, and capability of continuous design changes in the product that become finished goods (Spada 10). Conclusion & Recommendations Packaging has become a value added function that can be difference maker for marketing directors since it is an income generating marketing variable. Public companies such as Walt-Mark have applied packaging solution to increase sales of certain products by redesigning the packaging of a product. The United Kingdom enjoys a booming economy with lot of business activity. The consumers of the nation behave under consumerism tendencies and emotional ties can affect the purchasing decision of the customers. The British people is very culturally assimilated with the American customs, thus it is no surprise that the United is one of the biggest trading partners of imports in the United Kingdom. The businesses in this nation can utilize packaging as a strategic growth strategy by design packages that are appealing for its local customers. The company can apply a differentiated product packaging strategies for its exports. Customized labeling is a viable alternative for exporting into markets that represent a significant volume of current of potential future sales for a company. Green packaging solutions are a great alternative since eco-friendliness and recycling are product attributes which are recognized as worldwide tendencies which all international clients consider attractive features. Color schemes are vital to the success of applying a marketing focus to the packaging function of a firm. Product design solution and application are a simple way for a company to optimize its product recognition in the marketplace. Works Cited Bin, L, et. al. “The Effects of Color Contrast on Message Legibility”. Journal of Design Communication 5 (2003). Facenda, V. “Walt-Mart soft drink adds some needed pop.” Brandweek 48.38 (22 October 2007). Hearne, D. “Design Choice: Storkhoek.” Marketing (17 October 2007). Marketing Strategies Offers Workshop.” Official Boards Market 86.43 (27 October 2007). Morton, J.L. 2007. “Who controls Hue?” Color Matters. 18 November 2007 < http://www.colormatters.com/color_trademark.html> Noreen, O. “P&G’s Design Distinction”. Adweek 48.40 (15 November 2007). Orango, J. “Engineering Green Packaging.” Design News 62.14. (8 October 2007). Scrib.org. “A history of sustainable packaging” 17 November 2007. Spada, S. “Packaging Equipment goes Mechatronic.” Machine Design 79.19 (11 October 2007). Sustainablepackaging.org. 2005. “A Vision for Sustainable Packaging.” Greenblue. 16 November 2007. “Sustainable Packaging: Paper over Plastic”. Machine Design 79.19 (11 October 2007). Walt-Mart. 2007. 16 November 2007. Wooton, A. 2006. “Socially Responsible Design.” 17 November 2007. Appendix A Legend Group 1 – 19 to 28 years Group 2 – 29 to 38 years Group 3 - 39 to 48 years Group 4 – 49 to 58 years Group 5 – 59 to 68 years Group 6 – 69 to 78 years (Bin, et. al.) Appendix B (Bin, et al.) Read More