How merchandisers make unpackaged products appear more appealing to consumers
It’s a know fact that packaging helps to sell a product by making it more appealing to consumers. So if a product has no packaging, then how do you make it more appealing? I chose three different unpackaged products and spoke to those who sell them. The three products I chose to focus on were shoes, cars and musical instruments. In regards to the shoes I spoke to Monique from Evans shoes, who told me that it’s all about the display. The way you set out each type of shoe is very important for example never mix the types together, dress shoes with dress shoes and sports shoes with sports shoes. Jazzing up the display’s with pretty eye catching colours and other products like hand bags or things that relate to the type of shoe also helps.

When looking into the cars I spoke to Jarred from Wagga Motors. The first thing that Jarred told me they do is to dress the car up. Examples of this would be adding alloy wheels or a spoiler or some sort of physical feature that will make the cars appearance more attractive. Another thing he mentioned was that they keep the cars and the area they are in very clean. A nice clean shiny car has a much better chance to be sold than a dirty one. Car dealers also use signs and stands which list the cars features and sale material. Things that might be put on the stands would be features like air conditioning, power steering and air bags as well as the warranty offered with the car and any special deal that might be being offered when purchasing that vehicle. Something else that jarred didn’t mention but that I think would add to the appeal would be the colour of the car. I feel that brighter more eye catching colours like red or bright blue would be more attractive than plain white or black.

The third item I selected was the musical instruments. For this I spoke to Nick from Custom Music. A big thing that he said they use is banners to endorse the product. A banner in some respects is just as good as packaging, it can be colourful and eye catching and contain a lot of the physical attraction of packaging. Nick also said that brand names help to sell the product, the more well known the brand the more likely it is to be sold. In regards to the brand Nick also said that they display the instruments accordingly, So they sort and display them by brands so all the Fenders and displayed together in one section and all they Montery’s in another. Another thing Nick mentioned about the display is the spacing they use. He said that they display the instruments evenly so that the same amount of space is between all the instruments. Doing this helps the appearance of the display because it makes it appear more organized and less cluttered and messy. As with the cars they also keep them clean and free from dust that may settle.

In brief the main ways to make unpackaged items more appealing is to keep them clean, display them attractively and efficiently, use banners and signs and make sure all relevant information that may improve the products chances of being sold is somewhere on or near the product i.e. the banners and signs.