Company works closely with educators to develop graphing calculators. Equal attention is paid to packaging that will close the sale.
At Texas Instruments, the Educational & Productivity Solutions (E&PS) business faces the same pressure to increase sales as any of TI’s other entities. But E&PS also operates under two special constraints:
1. A key selling season takes place during a compressed time period—the back-to-school time frame—when shelf clutter dominates retail stores.
2. The E&PS unit needs to market multiple products through the same retailer to meet differing needs of various educational curriculums and teachers.
Dallas-based TI uses packaging to meet these challenges. Packaging acts as the cornerstone of a strategy to communicate product differences to customers and help them select the best product for their individual needs.
The approach to TI’s graphing products demonstrates how this process works. TI’s graphing products are advanced calculators with large screens and the ability to add software and upgrade operating systems. They are developed based on educator needs.
These products stay in rotation in schools for several years—longer than many consumer electronic items. Teachers often use a specific model—from the TI-83, TI-84, or TI-89 families—and ask students to purchase that specific model. The model that teachers specify on their school supply list is the one they will use in the classroom.
When students and their parents visit a store to purchase a calculator, product selection can be confusing. At this point, TI believes, its packaging guides consumers to the right product and clinches the sale. “We needed to pool our products together and have a billboard packaging effect,” explains Monika Mohacsi Blair, Product Line Manager.
Perception Research Services recommended yellow as the packaging background color for TI’s graphing calculators, based on consumer eye-tracking study results. Consumers in the studies associated yellow with attributes such as “up-to-date” and “high tech.”
The graphing calculators are packaged in thermoformed clamshells. The graphics card inside the clamshells features rounded corners and a soft Z pattern on the card front. The Z starts in the upper right corner and leads the eye through the hierarchy of information.
TI-84 Plus Silver Graphing Calculator packaging offers an example of how the company maximizes packaging real estate and uses awareness of its TI-83 Plus line as a springboard for the TI-84 family. Copy on the “violator” atop of the calculator reads: “Best if TI-83 Plus Recommended.” Below that message, yellow, orange, and blue icons call attention to upgrades from the TI-83 Plus model.
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By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief
