Packaging

Marketing success thanks to folding cartons

Thursday 30. July 2015 - The "2015 Touchpoint Study" carried out by Fachverband Faltschachtel-Industrie e.V. (FFI) presents for the first time figures about the reach of folding cartons as well as indications of the contribution packaging makes to marketing success.

With the help of the media equivalent value developed in the context of the study, a specific figure can be calculated for consumer contacts on the basis of the gross reach of a pack. This enables a comparison to be made with other communication channels. As a result, branded goods manufacturers and marketing managers can relate their investment in packaging to its communicative performance. “In 2013, we were able to demonstrate with the study ‘Comparison of 23 media channels’ that packaging and folding cartons support the decision-making process at the point of sale and increase brand commitment in the home”, explains Steffen Schnizer, spokesman for the FFI Executive Committee. “On the basis of this, the ‘2015 Touchpoint Study’ measures the number of visual and haptic contacts and supplements the first study with the media equivalent value by adding a quantitative aspect”, Schnizer continues.
TWO KINDS OF TOUCHPOINTS
For the representative”2015 Touchpoint Study”, 16 groups of common products were chosen that are mainly sold in folding cartons. They include noodles, tea, chocolates, light bulbs or chocolate-covered marshmallows. Over a period of three months, the FFI questioned 2,016 participants in the study who were between 18 and 64 years old about the number of packs they bought in the relevant categories. On this basis, patterns were discovered about the way the different product groups were used and eight factors were determined that play a role in this context. They include handling of the goods when selecting the product, storage and use until the product has been consumed completely. Depending on the pattern of use, this leads to a certain number of touchpoints at the shop and at home. Bars of chocolate, for example, on average generate the same number of purely visual contacts at the shop as they do haptic contacts. Tea, on the other hand, is touched considerably more often: two purely visual contacts per quarter compared with an average of more than five haptic contacts. Tea packs generate a total of 78.6 touchpoints at home – 61.4 purely visual contacts and an additional 17.2 haptic contacts.
THE GROSS REACH OF A FOLDING CARTON
AND THE MEDIA EQUIVALENT VALUE
The gross reach of an individual pack forms the basis for the media equivalent value. To calculate this, the contacts with a product at the store and at home are combined and divided by the number of cartons bought in the same period. The gross reach of cereals is 44.8 contacts per folding carton. The total number of all visual and haptic contacts that all the products sold generate with the folding carton packaging in question can be calculated from this. The average cost per thousand (CPT) of two comparable advertising media was used on the basis of a typical media plan, in order to determine what value these contacts correspond to: poster (CPT = EUR 6.52) for the purely visual contacts and print (CPT = EUR 20.85) for the haptic contacts. “When the total number of products sold in a specific area is examined, it becomes clear what tremendous concealed advertising value calculation of the media equivalent value of the packaging has”, Steffen Schnizer says. If it is assumed, for example, that 10 million cereal packs are sold, the total gross reach is 448 million contacts, consisting of 315 million visual contacts and 133 million haptic contacts. In line with the CPT, the visual contacts are allocated a price of 6.52 per 1,000 contacts, while the figure for the haptic contacts is EUR 20.85. All together, the touchpoints add up to a media equivalent value of EUR 4,826,850 with 10 million units, compared with EUR 2,053,800 for poster advertising and EUR 2,773,050 for print advertising. The
number of touchpoints and thus the media equivalent value as well increase in particular with products that are kept at home for longer periods of time. This gives marketing managers another good reason to consider packaging and especially folding cartons an even more effective advertising medium in the communication mix and to make appropriate use of them.