*NEWS*THE 5TH ’P’ IN MARKETING TONER INK

The fifth ‘P’ in marketing consumables
Vendors
are realizing the multiple benefits of using packaging elements to
reflect their brand, to fight piracy and underscore the product’s
genuineness
 January  2006
That
consumables bring in higher margins to vendors and channels is a given
fact. To make sure that consumable vendors get a higher return on their
products, a large number of these companies are banking on the fifth P-
Packaging.
Besides the usual 4 Ps – price, product, promotion and
place, packaging is used not just to distinguish the consumable product
in the market more effectively, but also in fighting counterfeit
products. The total computer consumables market in India that includes
printing supplies like cartridges, inks, paper, memory cards, tapes,
CDs, DVDs and storage devices is estimated at around Rs 3,000 crore
today.
To put some perspective on the value of the consumable
segment, take a look at HP’s printing supplies business. In 2004, HP’s
printing supplies revenues alone contributed approximately $12.1
billion to the company’s overall global revenues. With the IT retail
industry heading for a boom, consumable vendors are realizing the need
of good packaging to make their products stand out against competition.
Reinforcing brand identity
“Packaging
plays a crucial role in giving an identity to our brand on a cluttered
retail shelf. It is more important more in international markets than
in India, but is likely to grow as more and more organized retailing
comes to India,” said Moser Baer’s Vivek Chaturvedi -VP, International
Marketing.
The company has streamlined both its branding as well
as its entire packaging to communicate the same message of the quality
of the discs. Vivek reckons however, that packaging would play a more
crucial role when the product moves to organized retailing.
A
company like Wipro ePeripherals, which recently went in for a brand
rehaul is also banking on its packaging to reflect the company’s new
“Bloom” brand identity. Raghavendra Prakash, the company’s chief
marketing officer said, “Packaging is the first customer touch point
and it is important to ensure that the packaging has distinguishing
colors. It should also communicate the product advantages, usage and
price. The disclosures on the package are very important. Product
specifications and warranty is another important disclosure we have on
our consumables packaging,” he said.
Printing major Canon’s National
Sales Manager, VP Sajeevan, said that the company sold consumables as
per the pack size. “With the help of proper packing, we ensure that
goods are delivered to our channel partners in an intact form since
they are very small commodities.”
Fighting piracy
Besides helping
companies cut through the clutter in the market, packaging is a
powerful weapon to fight the grey market and the menace of counterfeit
products.
Using non-genuine cartridges is a big loss to
organizations like ours and to the government as well. In this market
of approximately Rs 3,000 crore, the Government loses Rs 500 crore to
the ex-chequer,” said Sajeevan
Moser Baer has gone in for content
changes in design on paper parts and the disc label. Apart from this,
the company has also moved to moved to international standards by
adopting aspects like color OPS/OPP which is very difficult for other
local or international cheap/smaller manufacturers to copy.
The
most common method used by consumable companies to fight piracy is by
the use of holograms, 3D stickers and color shifting logos on
cartridge. These help customers in making sure that the product he or
she is purchasing is a genuine product.
In a unique initiative to
fight the problem, printing majors in Europe have come together to form
an alliance called Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe (ICCE). This
association has also put in place a program for partners that include
providing an ICCE logo to all certified resellers and distributors for
use in marketing material, packaging and also use of holograms.