Introduction: You are a consultant hired by a consumer products research company

Question

Introduction: You are a consultant hired by a consumer products research company to analyze the packaging of various consumer products. Your first assignment is to go into a retail store and pick three products which consumers purchase on a frequent basis. Then, from a consumer perspective, identify the products and complete the Materials Handling/Packaging Analysis Checklist found on the student website in which you rate each item's packaging. Create a 1,050- to 1,400-word field research report assessing how technology impacts materials handling and packaging discussions. Draw comparisons between two of your chosen products and identify what aspects of their packaging would assist or hinder the materials handling function for the logistics provider. If these were products you were manufacturing, what packaging changes would you recommend and why?

Explanation / Answer

FIELD RESEARCH REPORT

The products used for the research are : tea, toothpaste and shampoo.

Consumer analysis:

Tea: usual tea packahing is in the form of plastic packets. These are usually handy and accomodate huge quantities feasably. But once the packet is opened, it becomes troublesome to hold the remaining quantity. They become prone to moisture and require storage in another containers. Also the tea leaves being tiny in size get stuck in corners of the pack making it difficult to fully utilize the product. The box packings also suffer the same fate. Thus there is a need of innovative packaging breaking the stereotype.

Toothpaste : the tube packing is most common for pastes. It is available in all sizes. Is very handy and easy to carry. Is damage proof. And is durable. Only one limitation being the ultimate utilisation. It is prone to wastage unless cut out. A new packaging would be appreciable.

Shampoo : the saches and bottles work all well. But it leads to wastage. Also it cheats upon consumers with the quantity. There are varied packaging varieties available. All attractive ones. But a useful one is necessary.

Recommended packaging :

Tea : an innovation in tea packaging can be a move towards jar packing. Jars provide handy packaging along with multi purpose usage. There is no need to transfer the content to another container. And most importantly it reduces wastage to least as the round base provides no scope for contents being stuck in corners.

Toothpaste : new packaging can be a slight innovation to the old one. It can be a cylindrical tube with two way opening for reducing wastage. The material can include transparent scale for knowing the level of content remaining.

Shampoo: the saches and bottles can use transparent scale to know the usage. Sache can have an aluminum hole opening to make usage easy. Bottles can have refills for increased usage.

The traditional stereotype packaging can be innovated with slight changes to attract greater customers and increase usability.

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