What's Your Pick-Big or Small?

Packaging not just protects your product but helps sell it too. All, effective product packaging, takes is a good analysis of the market along with perceiving what your customers want. What would a customer choose - a big pack or a small pack? It is the prime concern for the retailers when devising packaging strategies in a country like India, where customers have varied preferences. Retailer probes the industry to find out which pack-size is the best-seller.

Products across categories need packaging, which has been practiced for ages and modified with time, technology and likings of consumers. Today, FMCG packaging has so many sizes namely, small, medium and big, to sate the desires and needs of the consumers that it is difficult to figure out which one does a customer prefer.

The size does matter to the consumers

Both the small and the big packs are usually profitable to the retailers. However, if the packaging is made too small, then the cost behind it increases, while the quantity of the product decreases. Customers end up paying more price than the product’s worth, by buying a small pack, which may not be the case with a big pack.

According to Dr Anil Jindal, Chairman, SRS Parivar, “A retailer needs to consider the usage of a product before going for small packaging. If a product is meant to be used while travelling, for example, biscuit and toothpaste, then small packs are suitable.” Mr Mohit Khattar, MD at Natures Basket Ltd, says, “Products that are consumed daily or by a larger percentage of the family members, typically, do better with large sizes, whereas products consumed infrequently or by some members of the family do well with smaller sizes.” Perishable products like butter, jam and ghee work well in small packs both for retailers and customers.

As per Dr Jindal, retailers save the packaging cost for the extra quantity, added to make the chief pack bigger, when offering discount. It also attracts customers to buy the bigger packs. However, small packs enable a retailer to fit in as much items on the hired-shelf space as possible.

Packaging: a marketing tool

Ideally, packaging plays the role of a salesperson as it communicates the brand message to its consumers. “Retailers should consider a wrapper as a medium to enhance the recall value of the brand. Ideal way to package is to provide the information about the product, ingredients, its advantages, and restrictions (if any) on the pack. Packs should be made in such a way as to make the opening and disposal convenient. Big and heavy packs should be designed such that they are convenient to carry; it enhances the selling probability,” says Dr Jindal. A pack’s design should speak volumes about the USP of the product and drive the repeat sale, so that the buyers get emotionally attached to it.

Choices vary with location

People in interiors do not prefer big packs as their income is less. Also, rural people get their income on weekly basis and prefer shopping every week, therefore, retailers design smaller packs for them. However, big packs are in demand in these areas for commodities like rice, dal, and wheat.

Medium-sized packs are popular in tier-II and tier-III cities, as people prefer buying twice a month, depending on the category of the products. “The selection of big and small packs is entirely dependent on the category. Generally, in the gourmet stores like Natures Basket, the consumers prefer medium-sized pack. In certain categories, they prefer larger pack,” opines Mr Mohit Khattar.

Mr Vinod Jain, Head-Operation & Marketing at J K Masale, believes “Small packs better serve the purpose when they are used as samples/testers, to help the customers understand the product well. Later, they switch over to the bigger packs. Considering the size of the family and the wastage, the small packaged products create more penetrations, but looking at the value and price factor large packs sell better in metros.” “We introduce large packaged products in smaller cities by offering them at best prices,” he adds.

Highlighting the customer’s purchasing behaviour regarding the big and small packs, Mr N V Sivakumar, Leader (Retail Practice), PricewaterhouseCoopers, says, “Choosing a big or a small pack depends on the consumer’s mindset. A consumer who wants to try out a new product will think that he/she will obtain better value for money and utility with a small pack. On the other hand, a consumer who is buying a ‘tried and tested’ product (such as detergent, tile cleaner or even tissue paper) may prefer to leverage the monetary benefit associated with buying a larger pack.”

Many customers prefer lesser-priced brands over their favourite brands, but maintained their loyalty towards the pack sizes intact even during the recession.

Packaging and promotions during festivals

To increase the sales in the festive seasons, retailers come up with innovations in packaging; they change the design formats, add a dash of style, increase the product quantity, or tie-up with other brands, and the information regarding the free products are printed on the packaging. “These kinds of activities even tempt the customers to opt for the bigger packs. Thus, the festive period is very important to us and the retailers, as it brings the major chunk of revenue”, says Mr Apurva Shah, Product In-charge (Head), Kalindi Extrusions, which is a Pune-based FMCG packaging firm.

Big and small stay side-by-side

Retailers should display the various sizes of a category of merchandise at one shelf. Customers have the tendency to compare the alternatives before deciding.   “We usually have separate shelves for the big, medium and small packs according to the product categories to draw maximum attention of the customers,” shares Mr Anees Khan, Business Head at Store 99.

Environment-friendly packaging             

With the rise in the raw materials, energy, manufacturing and transportation costs, coupled with the meteoric rise in the environmental awareness, consumer product manufacturers have been consistently cutting down on packaging. Due to the rapid increase in the un-cleared packaging remains, the manufacturers and retailers are pressurised by the government to go for environment-friendly biodegradable packaging. However, they do not want to try any alternative as they believe that eco-labelled packaging may, negatively, affect the buying habits of the customers.

Wal-Mart International promised to become “packaging neutral” by 2025. No small feat. It does signify Wal-Mart’s commitment to virtually having all the packaging that flows through its distribution chain recyclable, reusable and compostable by 2025.