The hottest packaging strategy and the sales of OT

Packaging strategy and sales of OTC drugs (Part 1)

I. The significance of OTC drug packaging

with the improvement of living standards and the change of medication habits, people pay more and more attention to drug packaging. In the OTC market, good packaging can often stimulate purchase. Moreover, packaging in the modern sense does not simply refer to the physical objects seen by consumers in pharmacies, but also includes theoretical packaging and terminal packaging of drugs, which play an important role in OTC marketing

the marketing of a drug, whether it is new development, old drugs and new drugs, must be based on scientific pharmacological properties, which requires theoretical packaging of drugs. In the OTC market, drugs are faced with ordinary consumers. When they buy drugs, they want to know what principle this drug uses to achieve the therapeutic effect. However, this theory should not be straightforward. It should be "vivid", "visualized" and "differentiated", that is, it should package the profound theory, interpret the theory with simple principles, and make the theory become something that everyone can understand, so as to impress consumers and lay the foundation for a series of subsequent marketing planning activities

physical packaging refers to the appearance entities of drugs that consumers see in pharmacies, but some special steels can only be supplied from overseas or in the United States. In the OTC market, pharmaceutical enterprises pay more and more attention to the shelf sense of drugs. When consumers choose similar drugs, in addition to advertisements and salesperson's recommendations, the appearance and feeling of the drugs themselves are also very important. Drug packaging experts suggest that meeting the psychological needs of patients is the focus of visual design. The packaging should present a cultural and technological atmosphere, and achieve the purpose of communicating with patients through artistic creativity. On the packaging, OTC drugs tend to learn from the expression forms of food and beverage, which are vivid, pleasing to the eye and distinctive in personality. On the packaging, they use various expression elements such as characters, plants, calligraphy and modeling to shorten the psychological distance with patients

the traditional packaging concept believes that the purpose of packaging is only to contain and protect products for transportation. The background of this concept is that the product level is low and the market form is in the era of seller's market in which supply exceeds demand. In the seller's market, the traditional packaging concept is completely correct and in line with the interests of both parties. Later, with the progress of science and technology and the development of economy, the seller's market was gradually replaced by the buyer's market. In the buyer's market, packaging is not only the function of protecting products, but also an effective means of promotion. In many cases, it is already part of the product

according to incomplete statistics, before 1980, China lost more than 20billion yuan every year due to poor packaging. Backward packaging has also affected the export of our products, which is one of the main reasons for the same quality and different prices of products with other countries

the backwardness of product packaging in China is manifested in many aspects, such as materials, design and technology, but the most fundamental reason is concept. In the past 20 years, with the introduction of foreign advanced printing and packaging equipment and the improvement and upgrading of packaging materials, the situation has changed greatly, but there are still problems in concept. Some managers of enterprises regard packaging as something dispensable, and mistakenly believe that as long as it is good and cheap, the quality of packaging has little to do with it. It is even believed that raising the level of packaging will increase costs and raise prices, which is detrimental to product sales. On the other hand, some managers exaggerate the role of packaging. The most terrible thing is that in packaging decision-making, they only rely on personal likes and dislikes, ignoring consumer research, and packaging decision-making depends on the boss' personal likes and dislikes

many physical products entering the market must have packaging and labels. Packaging (or packaging work) can play both a minor role (for example, for inexpensive hardware products) and an important role (for cosmetics). Some of the packaging is world-famous: such as "Coca Cola" bottles. Many marketers call packaging the fifth P. Most marketers still regard packaging as an element of product strategy

(II) definition of packaging

1. Definition of packaging

serious wait-and-see mood in the packaging market refers to a series of activities to design and produce containers or bandages

this container or bandage is called packaging. Packaging can include up to three levels of material. For example, the queen bee is hardbound in small bottles (main packaging), it is packed in cartons (secondary packaging), and the corrugated cartons (transportation packaging) for products are packed in 24 boxes per box

2. The role of packaging

in today's market, packaging has become a powerful marketing tool. Well designed packaging can create convenient value for consumers and promotional value for producers. The role of packaging is mainly reflected in two aspects:

(1) Company and brand image. It helps consumers quickly identify which company or brand

(2) innovation opportunities. The innovation of packaging brings great benefits to consumers and profits to manufacturers

3. packaging decision

formulate effective packaging for new products, which requires the following decisions

(1) establish the concept of packaging. The definition of the packaging concept is to specify what the packaging should basically be, or what role it plays for a specific product

(2) the main function of packaging should be to provide protection for high-quality products, introduce a novel way of use, and remind the product or company of a certain quality, or some other function

(III) basic functions of packaging

excellent packaging should have the following main functions:

low price and reliable service

1. The function of protecting products

the so-called protection refers to maintaining the good condition of products. OTC drugs have transportation and storage problems in the circulation process; In the process of use, there are also storage problems. In order to avoid damage, leakage, volatilization, deterioration or pollution, we must rely on good packaging

2. The role of convenient use and guiding consumption

for example, packaging can be carried out according to habits and different use occasions. Text instructions can also be attached to the packaging to introduce the characteristics, usage, dosage and precautions of OTC drugs

3. means of product differentiation

after the packaging of OTC drugs, the first thing perceived by consumers is not the TC drugs of O semi-automatic impact testing machine, but the packaging of OTC drugs. The unique packaging can make the product easy to identify. Although the internal quality of OTC drugs is the focus of market consumers, it is difficult to play its competitiveness without high-quality packaging

4. promote sales

packaging is a kind of economic and effective advertising, which has a direct attraction to consumers. An American Marketing scholar once did a study and found that 33% of the buyers attracted by media advertising turned to buying attractive brands. It can be seen that packaging plays a direct role in promoting sales

5. Increase profits

good packaging can increase the value of OTC drug products, meet some psychological needs of consumers, and make consumers willing to buy at a higher price, thus increasing the profits of OTC drug enterprises