Corona Clipper Adapts Package for Wal-Mart

The rationale for Corona Clipper Inc. to utilize a try-me package was simple: Wal-Mart said, "Do it this way." The retailer wanted the Corona Bypass Pruner as the "top-quality" tool in its array of good-better-best pruners.Corona marketed the tool as part of a line of gardening implements in home centers, so the product already had built brand loyalty among gardeners. It was sold in a paperboard carton and displayed through a die-cut window. Wal-Mart, however, wanted a different package."They told us to go to a store, get a certain package and basically copy it," says Mike Clewell, purchasing manager at Corona. "The package was a clamshell blister, and it was in a display shipper with peg hooks inside."Wal-Mart, it appears, believes in the selling power of try-me packaging because the other pruners it sells were in blisters. That package style allows consumers to pick up the tools, handle them, feel the weight and test how they work. Designers also say try-me packages reduce the number of returns because consumers get a better appreciation of the product's exact characteristics before they leave the store.Corona worked with blister supplier Alloyd Inc., DeKalb, Ill., to develop the clamshell, which surrounds the "business end" of the clippers. When consumers squeeze the handles, the cutting head remains inside the clamshell.Creating More Shelf SpaceWal-Mart has another rationale for clamshell blisters: The packages help the retailer maximize shelf space.Corona's earlier windowed cartons required a shipper with a footprint bigger than the module Wal-Mart wants on its shelves. The retailer wanted a dozen pruning shears in a display shipper with the footprint of Wal-Mart's standard module. The clamshell created a thinner profile for the primary package, allowing a dozen to fit into Wal-Mart's shipper dimensions.Volume outlets such as Wal-Mart and club stores like the modular shippers -- often called PDQs -- because they speed shelf stocking and shelf reallocation as the retailer moves product around, expanding and shrinking sections as seasonal selling demands change.Plus and MinusFrom a package perspective, the Wal-Mart directive to Corona was a "mixed bag." On the plus side, the clamshell highlights the clippers better than the windowed carton. When the non-professional gardener who doesn't recognize the Corona brand looks at the product, the clamshell helps the product sell itself. If the proof is in sales data, then the Wal-Mart approach works. Sales of the pruners exceeded Wal-Mart projections for the 2003 season by 27%, Clewell says.On the minus side, the clamshell leaves little room to preserve any design equities in the previous package. The clamshell has a paperboard header card that is 3-1/4 inches by 2-7/8 inches. The designer had to cram the logo and eight lines of sell copy onto the card. As a result, the type size is small and difficult to read. My suggestion: Reduce the number of selling points to three and make them more prominent. Jim Peters is a writer and consultant with 25 years in the packaging field. He is president of J. Peters Associates Inc. Click here for his contact information.

Corona Clipper Adapts Package for Wal-Mart

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