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Packaging for a global marketplace (sidebar)

How does a $13 billion multinational food and beverage company keep Mexico apprised of packaging developments in Morocco?

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If the company is Paris-based Danone Group (known in the U.S. as Dannon), part of the answer is "overlay managers."

Officially part of the marketing department, each of Danone's five overlay managers is responsible for a product group: yogurt, dessert, beverages, youth-oriented items and specialty items. A major responsibility is making sure that Danone marketers around the world be made aware of new processing and packaging technologies that might be successfully transplanted from one part of the world to another.

"Corporate headquarters is in Paris, but that doesn't mean France has to be the source of all the new ideas," says Markus Sandmayr, the overlay manager in Munich, Germany, who is responsible for the dessert category. "We try to look at the best practices and then apply them to other countries."

The migration of Danone's "tubes of yogurt" from North America to Europe is a good example of how this process works. Danone marketers in Mexico were the first to see an opportunity for this kids-on-the-go-type product, which comes in a flexible package formed from a foil lamination. It was launched in Mexico in 1996. According to Sandmayr, even the smallest one-room shops in Mexico have a refrigerated case from which to merchandise this refrigerated item. Selling for about U.S.56¢ per three-pack of 40-g tubes, the product quickly became a hit in Mexico.

The overlay manager responsible for products targeted at kids ensured that Danone units in other parts of the world were aware of the success of yogurt in the tube package. Now this package is produced in Germany and Poland, and it's marketed there as well as in Austria and Italy. Shown above is the product as it appears in the German marketplace.

Not every product or package concept is suitable for every country, says Sandmayr. A number of factors must be weighed, including the specific marketing strategy that Danone has developed for that country. Danone marketers also have to ask themselves if consumers in a specific country are ready for a new concept, and if their income levels can support it. The location of the packaging technology providers can't be ignored, either.

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