teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Online retailers seeking to enhance their customers’ shopping experience are focusing on what’s in the box.  In Basic Marketing and Essentials of Marketing we note three primary roles of packaging:  promoting, protecting, and enhancing the product.  This multimedia Wall Street Journal story (which includes an article, interactive graphic, and  video) “Boxing Up Shopping’s Magic Moment,” (November 17, 2011, non-subscribers may have to click here) provides great reinforcement of all three roles of packaging:

1. Extensive testing of many packaging materials to assure that packages survive the trip from the retailer’s warehouse to the customer’s home in good shape.
2. Many online retailers are wrapping the inner package in a beautiful manner to enhance the overall experience when the package is opened at home.
3. The beauty of that inner package makes people feel better about the brand and promotes the next purchase.

This Wall Street Journal “package” offers a variety of examples you can use when you teach product or retailing.  The video might work well in class because it is more than just talking heads and includes some nice images to complement the story.  This was also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Marketing managers are increasingly paying attention to the customer’s entire purchase experience.  Scholars of the marketing of services have long studied queues and wait times.  Smart companies are finding ways to improve the wait experience — and you can read about some examples in this Wall Street Journal article “Fun for the Whole Family:  The Long Wait in Line” (August 10, 2011 – non-subscribers may need to click here).  This article could be used when you cover services — or more generally as an example of total customer experience.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

My former colleague Jim Pailin, who was in the PhD program with me at North Carolina, worked on a dissertation in this area almost 20 years ago.  And it is still true, “Happy Employees Create Better Customer Experiences” (Customer Experience Matters blog, February 1, 2010).   Jim was particularly interested in looking at this for services — and I am sure that happy employees matter even more in service businesses.  From Bruce Temkin’s blog post you can find a link to Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for.