In What's in a Package, Hine expresses the idea that what a package looks like is more important than what is inside the package. The shape, size and appearance of a package have been carefully selected to entice consumers in to buying the package. He claims that packaging is final piece in the retailers marketing campaign.
I would agree with Hine's statement that packages sell the product, but I think that this will only work once. If I buy something at the store and it doesn't work or it tastes bad I am not going to buy it again. .
Hine elicits this response by giving of how a products shape is an important selling point of the product. An example of this is the Heinz ketchup bottle. Even though it is widely known that it is a pain to get thick ketchup out of a bottle, half of the American public still prefers the glass bottle to the squeeze bottles and ketchup in the little packets. Hine used several examples of how the companies sell a specific attitude or image through advertisements and packages. Certain packages suggest health and fitness while others suggest elegance, power, and class. .
This article relates to everyone I know. My roommate has bought fitness powder and pills to make him more "healthy" and I have bought clothes because the name brand suggests prestige and class. The old saying that "clothes make the man", must have been made up by someone selling or marketing clothes. Why else would someone spend four times the money to buy a name brand item when they can buy the same thing in a generic brand? Today it is not just the clothes, but the car, cologne, shoes, watch, haircut and much more to make the man; all thanks to marketing.
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