Case in point: a display pallet for a hard goods brand at a home center store. The display pallet featured well-thought-out corrugated display shippers. Die cuts in the shippers showcased the product inside. Shippers were arranged on the pallet in a way that let shoppers see them from all four sides of the pallet. They presented the product in the best light. Good work by the developers.
However, corner posts and shrink wrap went around pallets to get them through distribution. The assumption was that store personnel would remove them so the packaging could sell the brand.
Wrong. Store personnel at some outlets never removed the shrink wrap. They got some poster board, wrote a sell message on it in felt-tip pen, and taped it to the still-shrink-wrapped pallet. Shoppers had to roll down the shrink wrap and wrest packages from the pallet, damaging some primary packages in the process. Such is reality.
What about alternatives? One approach might have been to put clear instructions on the pallet to tell store personnel, even though one would assume that opening a shrink-wrapped pallet should be intuitive. Apparently, for some time-pressed store personnel, it wasn’t. Strapping or an adhesive stabilization system might be approaches worth investigating. Even some kind of tear-tape to create an easy-open shrink wrap might be an answer.
The lesson is this: We need to know what goes on in the store environment. We need to see just how store personnel handle display pallets, and we need to see how they wind up in store. It’s all about selling the products. —JP
See the story that goes with this sidebar: Club stores stay ‘hot’ with packaging a key to sales
