Have you ever gone to a fast food restaurant and ordered a value meal a fixed price combo that usually includes a sandwich, fries, and a beverage? Chances are, you have. What you may not have realized, however, is that your lunch was an example of one of the most powerful marketing tools your business has: strategic packaging.

Most business owners dont appreciated or understand how easy and powerful packaging can be in their business and marketing activities, regardless of the type of business theyre in. Strategic packaging is simply the combining of products and services to make what you offer to your marketplace so irresistible, so incomparable, so compelling that it becomes almost impossible for your prospects and customers to say no.

The essence of packaging is to give such a high perceived value, people cannot help but want to buy. This not only attracts new customers, but also helps you sell more to existing ones.

How do you get such a good value? First you have to identify what I call the cycle of business life. This is simply the logical progression of buying activities that people will normally engage in prior to, during, and after they buy your product or service.

Think about your typical customer. Write down everything theyre likely to buy prior to calling, visiting your business, or Web site. Next, determine what they buy and how much they usually spend. Write this all down. Write down or input into your database everything theyre likely to buy afterward, both products and services.

Now ask yourself, how can I combine my product or service with the item that normally coincides with or follows mine. For example, suppose you sell sporting goods. Its winter, so skis are probably going to be a big seller. What else is the consumer likely to buy right before, during, or after purchasing a pair of skis? How about a pair of ski boots or a ski jacket? They might be thinking about buying a ski hat or a pair of gloves. A little further down the line, they might be interested in lift tickets at nearby ski resorts

Any of these items or follow-up services could be used in a packaging or add-on strategy. For example, you could offer a free pair of top-of-the-line goggles with every pair of skis you sell. Or, you could include a set of poles with any ski purchase over a certain dollar amount. You could also offer discounted lift tickets or lodging at popular ski resorts. Combine the ski sale with a waxing service and adjustments the following season, a great way to get them back in your store a year from now.

No matter what type of business youre in, you could put together a package that will give you a competitive edge. For example, mechanics could include an oil change with every comprehensive break job or car wash coupons with every tune-up. You could also offer products along with your service: a dentist could offer a new toothbrush with every cleaning; a hair salon could offer shampoo and conditioner samples with every haircut. The possibilities are endless.

Your challenge and goal in your business is to identify and focus on all the different products or services you can package together to make a more appealing, exciting, value-oriented purchasing proposition.

Strategic packaging gives you four competitive advantages:

* It makes your product unique, different, more appealing. While everyone else is offering a generic commodity, youre offering a unique proprietary package. Youre offering a different configuration, a different look, a different combination. More value for the customers dollar.

* It makes decision-making easy. Your customer doesnt have to wonder where to go for his or her next purchase. It creates a turnkey operation.

* Its guarantees the consumer that he or she can trust all the elements of the package. Remember, always guarantee the package youre offering.

* It gives the customer, greater value. Instead of having to cut your profit margin on your product or service, you can get full profit on your product when you throw in two or three other products or services that you reduce your profit margin on.

When you offer strategic packaging your customers get a very high perceived value, because they feel theyre getting savings across the board on all the products theyre getting in the package. Its a win-win situation. Your prospects and customers get the value they want and you improve your bottom line.

Copyright2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide

Joe Love

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. A former ad agency executive and marketing consultant, Joe?s work in personal development focuses on helping his clients identify hidden marketable assets that create windfall opportunities and profits, as well as sound personal happiness and peace.

For Joe, success in life is the comprehensive product of greater wealth and income, better personal relationships, and productive attitudes and environments. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing.

Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.