I recently had the occasion to visit Café El Marino in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. From its bustling plant in that seaport city, Café El Marino has become one of Mexico’s largest coffee producers in part because company General Director, Arturo Lizárraga Mercado, is a forward thinker. Mercado believes that one largely untapped opportunity in branding
is the cross promotion of related products. This is one approach, he believes, that could get products more into club stores and other high-volume retailers (HVRs).

One product combination that has been running on Café El Marino production lines is a promotional package that shrink bundles a 2-lb can of El Marino coffee with a small carton containing 25 packets of Sweet’N Low sugar substitute. That the package plays well at Sam’s Club stores doesn’t surprise Mercado. Café El Marino does high-volume business with Sam’s Club in Mexico and is intimately familiar with the warehouse club’s specific needs.
A guide to reducing shelf clutter.

This is a great example of the type of package that grabs Sam’s Club buyers’ attention. Instead of two shrink-bundled cans of coffee, the coffee can and sugar substitute combination offers Sam’s Club members a different type of value than they would find at grocery stores.

Packages such as these make a specific retailer a destination. Consumers have to visit that retailer in order to find it. And at a time when America is overstored, retailers are looking for packaging tactics that can give them any advantage over the competition.

Are there opportunities for your product to piggyback with a related product to create value that can make a retailer’s stores a destination?

Jim George, Editor in Chief