Make no mistake about it, everything you do impact your product’s brand. Everything you do with your brand impacts your profitability.
Too many companies missed the memo regarding this. Too many companies basically do things by the seat of their pants and at the end of the process are left guessing why their profits look the way they do. They do all sorts of things, and they are left guessing as to why they aren’t profitable as they could be. The reality is that all aspects of your operations impact your overall profitability.
This article focuses on cartoning processes and decisions that can actually cut into your company’s profits. Sure, the impact might seem minimal on an absolute numerical basis, but if you look at the accumulated costs over the years, you would be surprised. This is money that could have been distributed to your shareholders. This could have been money that could have been shared with the employees as a bonus. Here are the five ways cartoning cuts into your company’s profits.
Excessive size
If you want to cut your costs, one of the easiest ways to cut your operational cost is to reduce the size of your packaging materials. Unfortunately, if your packaging materials and your cartoning are designed in such a way that is excessive, you might not even notice how this decision impacts your bottom line. In fact, it can be quite drastic. So don’t always assume that the size that you have decided on in the past is the right size as far as your product cartons are concerned.
Too bulky
Another way your product cartoning decisions can impact your bottom line is when you choose bulky options. This actually impacts you when your suppliers order less products because it actually cost them more money to store your inventory because your inventory is bulky. Again, these are one of those camouflaged costs because it’s not obvious. It is cloaked in the behavior of an intermediary which is your distributor. Still, make no mistake about it, this can impact your profits because your distributor orders less products than they could be ordering.
Excessive design
When you put too much design in your cartoning, it might actually send the wrong messages. It’s really important to take rifle shots with all the branding signals that your company is sending out. Your cartoning is not immune to this. Everything that features a printed version of your logo or your brand or can be traced back to your company must have the right kind of design.
Inappropriate design
Inappropriate designs are designs that send mixed messages. These are seriously bad news. Why?
Whenever you send a mixed message, you’re basically confusing consumers. When consumers are confused or when distributors are sent the wrong message, it leads to them doing things that you don’t want them to do.
On the consumer end, it leads to confusion. When consumers are confused, they stop buying, or they buy less. When distributors are confused, they start looking for alternatives. Either situation is bad. Stay clear of inappropriate design in your cartoning decisions.
Missed branding opportunities
In many cases, by failing to include your brand in your cartoning or casepacking, you are actually passing up a tremendous branding opportunity. You have to remember that your distributors are also being branded. The more you convince your distributors that you should be the only source of a particular type of product, the higher the likelihood that they would look at you as an exclusive source.