Aids To Mkt - Packaging

PACKAGING AIDS TO MARKETING*

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products "as is." That is, little attention HE interest of AMA members seems has been given to product and package to be predominantly in locating. design as aids to marketing.^ Product • bears out measuring, and reaching markets for thatThe July 1948 JOURNAL OF MARKETING "Effective assumption. Except for an article on
INTRODUCTION * Paper given beforeWashington Chapter of the American Marketing Association in July 1948. Marketing Begins on the Design Board," the JOURNAL is devoted to the conventionalfieldsof interest.

THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING design is a basic determination that might be reserved to management or production and engineering decisions, although it has its undeniable effect on marketing. Package design, on the other hand, need notconflict with the basic characteristics of the product and can be both a proper and an effective aid to marketing. To define our present premises, we shall consider packaging as the container which is necessary to convey a product to the ultimate consumer, as contrasted with packing (cartons, crates, cases, etc.) required for bulk shipment. In this paper we are discussing not ordinary utilitycontainers as bottles, cans, boxes, but particularly the transparent wrapping films which provide both utility and visibility of the basic product. In other words, we are interested in the eye appeal, the attractiveness, the stimulus to impulse buying which transparent wrapping films can impart to many lines of consumer goods. Transparent wrapping film in the public mind is commonly known ascellophane, but there are a number of technically different competitive films. Cellophane is a term applying to regenerated cellulose films produced by Du Pont and by the Sylvania Division of American Viscose Corporation. DuPont purchased the American rights for the French process of La Cellophane, S. A., and began manufacture about 1924, regarding "cellophane" as a trade name until 1941 when the FourthCircuit Court of Appeals ruled it to be a generic term in DuPont vs. Waxed Products, Inc} American Viscose Corporation began production in 1929, using a Belgian patent. Cellophane, the product oi these two companies, has an estimated annual output of around 150 million pounds, greatly exceeding the combined output

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of all Other transparent wrapping films.' While these films are in generaladaptable to similar uses, they are not entirely interchangeable for all uses. One of the most fundamental considerations in usingfilmsis to select the properties which are best suited to the particular product. Where, for example, the loss or addition of moisture is undesirable, moistureproof film is necessary. If the product must be permitted to breathe as in some produce items, that is to takein oxygen and give off carbon dioxide, then the gas permeability of the film is important. Moistureproof cellophane represents roughly three-fourths of the total sales. The non-moistureproof types are quite suitable for that extra cover which prevents breakage of a glass bottle of drugs or box of cosmetics, or prevents soilage of linens and like products. The comparatively elastic Pliofilm or thedenitrated cellulose meat casings made in tubular form by American Viscose Corporation are commonly used for products of irregular size or proportion, as chickens, boned-hams, and so on. Other variable film characteristics which have a bearing on the suitability of the wrapper are the gauge or thickness and transparency versus opacity. Thickness influences strength and may enter into a decisionbetween using double layers of thin cellophane or a single, thicker gauge. Opacity may be a factor if the product is subject to fading on ex-

' Other competitive wrapping films include cellulose acetate sheets made by Celanese, DuPont and Tennessee Eastman; ethyl cellulose sheets made by Celanese and Dow Chemical; nitrocellulosefilmsmade by American Viscose, Celanese, DuPont and Tennessee...