How To Make Sense With Your Products: The Wonders Of Packaging
Many years ago, a lucky American stumbled upon a formula which when he mixed in water created a drink that was very delightful to the taste and therapeutic to the body. The young man soon made a great venture out of his formula by offering people to drink. As news of this interesting drink grew, his small shop soon grew to a ‘joint’ with people trooping in for their daily shot of the wonder drink.
However when he came upon hard times, he decided to sell off the secret formula at some point in order to raise the cash he needed. He made the transaction, and the rest has become history.
In the past if you wanted to enjoy that drink and say you lived in Africa, it meant that you will have to travel all the way to the United States and to the particular state of the union where the chemist is located to pay for and have a good drink of his magic mixture.
But all that has changed now.
Today enjoying that drink is about the easiest thing to do. For a very affordable price you can enjoy the pleasure of this magic drink anywhere you are in the whole world, and Coke today is worth about 800 billion dollars.
Many people credit the global success of the Coke brand to its great distribution network and this is partly true. However, the accurate truth is that packaging was the real secret responsible for its success. With packaging in place, distribution network was only natural to grow with time.
One man sold the content like palm-wine is sold in joints in Africa, but another man thought of ways he could make the same content available to people irrespective of location.
That question led to the invention of the bottle for packaging, that question led to building a distribution network through which the product is sold throughout the whole world today, that question, has led to the forging of great business partnerships that made coke the greatest brand in the world [until Apple computer knocked it off] and the highest selling soda on the planet today, worth 800 billion dollars- [don’t try converting that].
The power of packaging! The bottle changed coca cola from a local drink to a global drink and a brand.
The packaging did the same for water. Back in the mid and late 90’s when there was no decent option of quenching your thirst if you get thirsty while away from home. Then came sachet water. Water is water, you can even drink from a tap free, but, then you pay for it when packaged in a sachet and when it’s bottled you pay even more.
The difference in price? Packaging. It is what changed water from a common everywhere commodity to a multi-billion naira industry today. The packaging does change a product indeed! And if you can task your brain to think, then you can find a product that needs packaging or re-packaging.
Leave a comment: Why do you prefer to buy packaged products at higher prices, even when sometimes you have access to the non-packaged product at lesser prices?
