multiple packaging a merchandising tool

7/29/2019 Multiple Packaging a Merchandising Tool

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MULTIPLE PACKAGING:A MERCHANDISING TOOLW ILL IAM L. DEMPSEY, JR .

Multiple-unit packaging, the practice of banding from two to twelve units of a productand selling them as a package, is an increasingly important force in American merchan-dising. Primarily a carrier of beer cans in 1947, this idea has grown enormously in thelast ten years.Although there are problems in supermarket merchandising of canned products thatmultiple packaging will not solve, most of its users have reported success in increasedsales.

M ULTIPLE packaging for cannedgoods is about ten years old. Al-though started before World War II , itspotential was not realized until afterV-J Day. Four brewersSchlitz, Pabst,Budweiser, and Schmidtpioneered themulti-carton. Each used a closed boxwith six cans. The packages were plain,little more than small shipping cases.In 1947 the idea was revived, whenBallantine came out with a three-packdesigned for merchandising. Severalbrewers joined in, and by the next yearthe beer six-pack rea ppe ared . Since the n,the multiple package for beer has beenstandard. Proved in the beverage field,multi-unit cartons have moved intoother mass-distribution consumer areas.Multiple-unit packaging is the cur-rent practice of banding from two tounits of a product, and selling

* Ibout the Author. Market Development Man-^i-'r lor Container Corporation of America's fold-in ; carton division, W illiam L. Dem psey, Jr., is ai^ rchandising co-ordinator of new uses for packag-i i ' : .

T'he author is an authority in his field of special.>z tion, an d has system atized the mu ltiple-packa g->ri , app roach for C onta iner. H e also pub lishe s a111 ise ne w sle tte r. Multiple Packaging News, which

them as a package. Although there areproblems in merchandising of cannedproducts that multiple packaging willnot solve, most of its users have reportedsuccessful results.When asked what they felt was thegreatest value of multiple packaging,203 retail food executives gave these rea-sons first: (1) larger unit sales; (2) in-creased total sales; (3) value, or lowerprice per unit. Other reasons were con-venience to customer, building of habitpurchases, repeat sales, and greater prof-its.

TESTS OF EFFICIENCY OF M ULT IPLEPACKAGING

Several important market-researchtests of the efficiency of multiple packag-ing have been made, and these experi-ments bear out the hypothesis that salesgo up when goods are packaged in mul-t iple units .

One of the earliest tests on multiplepackaging was made on canned com. Inthis experiment, carried on for eightweeks, no price advantages were offered,and there was no consumer publicity oradvertising. It was a pure test of the ef-


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288 THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING January 195at different times, with no loose cansavailable; at other times, the multiplepackages, in each size, were displayedside by side with loose cans. The LatinSquare method of rotation was used.This type of design systematically alter-nates each experimental method withineach store. Experiment requirement Astarts in Store i, and rotates through-out each test storestaying the samelength of time in each store. All otherexperiment requirements are similarlyrotated. A diagram of this method lookssomething like a Latin Squarehence,the name. Purpose of rotation is to ruleout neighborhood preferences, and anyother special circumstance that might bepresent in some stores (or neighbor-hoods) and not in all. With this method,various treatments were systematicallyrotated throughout the various stores:single cans, three-packs alone, three-packs plus singles, etc.

The six-pack plus singles arrangementresulted in an increase of 31 per centover loose-can sales, and the three-packplus singles resulted in an increase of27 per cent over loose-can sales.The Maine Sardine test, latest amongthe experiments on multiple packaging,is in many ways the most conclusivestudy so far. Sardines were considered alikely subject for the test, because in-dustry sales have been practically stand-ard the last few years. The survey wasmade in eight Philadelphia supermar-kets over a period of sixteen weeks; andthree-, four-, and six-can band cartonswere tested alone, and in combinationwith loose cans. Loose cans were alsotested alone, and the results used as the

combination showed a sales gain whecompared with sales of loose cans alonSee Eigure 1. Since no advance promtion was made of the test, and there wno price differential offered, this mabe considered (as was the experiment ocanned corn) a pure test of multippackaging.This finding is significant for cannerUntil recently, multiple packaging wused mainly as a tool to merchandisspecial items, or to offer deals. When new product was being introduced, mutiple packaging was the solution; buindications now are that increased voume in sales alone is equally importanas the end-result.Income level made a significant diffeence in shoppers' multipack purchaseand this represented a valuable dimension in multicarton research. The MainSardine test showed that a three-pacsold best in low-income neighborhoodEvidently lo^v-income shoppers did nowant to tie up too much money in onitem , such as sardines. B ut they d id wanto get at least three cans at once to savrebuying immediately.With higher-income consumers, thsix-pack was often ideal, since the specific amount of money required was noas big a problem. Eor retailers servinhigher income purchasers, a ratio 6per cent three-packs and 40 per censix-packs would probably be best.

SOME CASE HISTORIESIn addition to the ability of multip'packaging to move merchandise, ca

histories show that it has many othuses.


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MULTIPLE PACKAGING: A MERCHANDISING TOOL 2H9

F IG U R E . . Sardinetainerwere designed and manufactured by Con-River Sar'dines in multiple-padkaging test^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ , 1 ^

matic equipment, the unit bid forshoppe r accep tance w ith the offer: Buy Snicker Cat Food changed its flavorone area-took out the fish odor. As l i


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290 THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING January 1959at first, but grew to like it after a fewservings. The problem was clear: getmore than one can in the house to givethe cat time to learn to like the food, sothat the mistress would become a repeatbuyer .The solut ion was to use an introduc-tory three-pack for the new cat food.Three cans were thus put into eachhouse, and by the t ime the mult ipackwas used up, the cat liked the new food.The merchandisers of Kitty Snicker CatFood used multiple packaging, there-fore, to educate two distinct consumersthe housewife and the cat.

3. Com bining harmonious products-One promising mult ipack trend in-volves "convenience" foods. Packagersoffer combinations for barbecue dinners,Mexican or Chinese dinners, picniclunches, and the l ike. Tied together bythe package, the resulting sale is two ormore products instead of one.4. New marketing opportunitiesIngift packaging, the Borden Companytapped the gift market by packaging sixfive-ounce jars of cheese spreads in aHoliday Cheese Snack selection.In seasonal packaging. Life Saverscaptured a share of the December buy-ing wave with its Christmas book of as-sorted flavors; and cigarette manufac-turers have done the same with theirgift cartons.Although shoppers might not think ofgiving a single jar of cheese or a nickelpackage of candy as a gift, attractive lypackaged gift multiples of these itemsare well received; and the recipient ofsuch a gift often becomes a steady userbecause of learning to use the product.5. Prom otion of special price offers

It provides relatively low-cost packagingand makes available a larger-than-usuadisplay surface for the packer.Wilbert Products, Inc., New Yorksells three-can packs of its Dot Cleansewith a price break and a premium offerbut found it necessary to change thepremium offer constantly to generatenew interest. Now Wilbert merely orders a new press run of can bands tochange the premium offer, with newcopy and illustration, and the can itselfremains standard. This solved the prob-lem of constantly changing the premiumoffer copy on successive runs of cans.6. Shopper convenienceGuli Oil in-troduced a new three-pack to merchan-dise its power motor oil and outboardmotor oi l . The company believed thatthe can-band pack would be handy forthe purchaser, and would also help thedealer make an effective display.

7. Selling flexibilityPuTita.n Cord-age Mills, Inc., came out with a break-apart clothes-line carton, which offeredthe customer a choice of either fifty orone hundred feet of rope. The pur-chaser could use either length, becausethe package could be divided into twoparts; and the connecting rope servedas a handle.8. Small tiemsSardines, spices, smallvials of cake decorations, hardware items,etc., often have "tough sledding" because they do not stand out from theiicompetition, and frequently are hard t"find. Multiple packaging is especially e'.fective for such items, which formerl'lost impact because of their size. Thmultipack creates a better display thai

the small product, and stimulates gereral interest.


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MULTIPLE PACKAGING: A MERCHAND ISING TOOL 291store-average operating cost for stock-ing, price marking, fronting, and check-out. Multiple packaging cuts this l percent, because the store handles a multi-ple unit once, instead of a number ofindividual pieces.In addition to this l per cent, pilfer-age costs stores i/^ to l per cent store-average operating cost. Multicartons dis-courage "light fingers," because of thedifficulties of stealing a multi-pack.Einally, the multi-pack facilitates enddisplays and ffoor stocks in retail out-

lets.10. Improvem ent in wholesaler-re-tailer relations VJithout in any way in-volving the consumer, multiple packag-ing can help get a product from manu-facturer to retailer. A CCA shippingsleeve used by Carter Products on itsRise Shaving Cream is a good example.The old system packed each can of Riseseparately in cases, with corrugated di-viders between each can. When re-shipped to stores, these cans had to berepacked. The new CCA carton helpswholesalers to service retailers who donot wa nt an en tire case of Rise, bu t w antonly three or six cans at a time. To serv-ice such an ord er, a distri bu to r merelylifts the six-pack out of the corrugatedcase, and sends it to the druggist or gro-cer. If the retailer wants only three cans,the perforations in the sleeve allow athree-pack to be torn off. As an addedconvenience to the retailer, holes in thesleeve allow rapid price marking of thei dividual cans.

11. Tie-in with advertisingThe. E &:^1 Schaefer B rew ing C om pa ny co-ordi-r. ited its advert ising w ith packa ge de-s;^. Impulse buying accounts for 53F "f cent of all Schaefer sales.

There are twelve varieties of illustra-tions, making six different cartons inall. Identical illustrations appear on carcards, in newspapers, and on TV. Everytime a customer sees the package, he isreminded of the advertising, and viceversa.Tie- in merchandising, dis tr ibution inadditional outlets, and penetration ofspecial markets, such as the "do-it-your-self" and special age groups, also havepotentials for multi-packaging.

PROBLEMS OF MULTIPLE PACKAGINGIt would be a mistake to assume thatall packagers experience success with amultipack. In certain packaging situa-tions, multiple-unit selling has provedunsuccessful.1. Limited use of product li productuse is infrequ ent, or is extend ed throu ghseveral applications, it is best not to

package in multipack. Since a productsuch as mustard is used only occasion-ally, a consumer would not want a three-or six-pack. The number a consumerbuys depends on the frequency of use.2. Too large a multipackA packermust determine the number of units ofhis product that consumers buy at onet ime; one more unit can then be added,

and that is his carton size. A consumerwill not ordinarily move from a three-can regular purchase in singles to a six-pack multi-carton, but he might wellbuy a four-pack.3. Unrelated productsit is not agood idea to band very different prod-ucts together, such as a can of cranberrysauce and a can of beans. This invadesthe buying choice of the consumer, and

she does not like it.4. Variety of flavorsThe consumer


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292 THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING January 19varied baby food might include onethat did not agree with the baby. Result:either a torn package, or no sale at all.

5. Price limitationsFackers find itpsychologically better to have a multi-pack under the $1.00 price level. Multi-ples priced over this have less chance forsuccess.FUTURE OF MULTIPLE PACKAGING

Multiple packaging has a very prom-ising future. It is here to stay, and con-sumers will see it spreading to manynew types of products.1. Trends in various industriesSom epackers of orange juice, dog food, andevaporated milk are adopting six-canpackages as standard merchandisingtools, rather than l imiting multi-cartonsto seasonal or promotional use.Baby-food packers are initiating storetests to determine what items belong inmulti-packs. Baby orange juice may bethe first item, followed by other juices,and possibly applesauce and pears.

2. Trends in types of packaginThere will be increased use of mupacks in aerosol plastic bottles, glass jaand in the automotive parts field. Thewill be used for shipping purposrather than for merchandising.Gravity-fed, self-dispensing soft driracks may be used in retail stores to cilitate six-bottle carry-out sales.Big growth for the multipack lahead. There is a steady progression the use of multipacks for increased salrather than only as a vehicle for givaway items or special promotions. Staing basically as a "carrier of cans," tmultiple-unit package has, during tlast decade, become an effective mchandising tool for the processor, arepresents a convenience to the retaiand to the consumer. The multi-pack now used to introduce new producpromote premiums and special offeact as an advertising medium, anmost importantsell more of a produ


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multiple packaging a merchandising tool

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