2011商务英语中级口语精讲班讲义第一讲14

会计考友

Marketing: the importance of packaging products appropriately
       In recent years, numerous factors have made packaging an important marketing tool.
. @. h" e" D8 O% J7 Z     Increased competition and clutter on retail store shelves means that packages now must perform many sales tasks -- from attracting attention, to describing the product, to making the sale. Among these, the first one is undoubtedly the most crucial function.  Companies are realizing the power of good packaging to create instant consumer recognition of the company or brand. Nowadays, in an average supermarket, which stocks 15,000 to 17,000 items, the typical shopper passes by some 300 items per minute, and 53 percent of all purchases are made on impulse. In this highly competitive environment, the package may be the seller’s last chance to influence buyers. It becomes a “five-second commercial”. The renowned Campbell Soup Company, say, estimates that the average shopper sees its familiar red and white can 76 times a year, creating the equivalent of $26 million worth of advertising. However, everyone’s favorite success story on packaging involves the ubiquitous red Coke can.  Marketers everywhere have emulated but rarely equaled the marketing power of its simple design.  More recently, the picture of a smiling Tiger Woods, the golf guru, appears on the boxes of a certain brand of cereals, apparently to convey an image of fitness, energy, and vitality. The effort has not been wasted – its sales tripled in one year.
       In brief, while good packaging can serve many practical purposes, it is with its utility in effective product promotion that marketers are primarily concerned.