Retailers are demanding lower prices, smaller packaging footprints and more space in their planograms. Sales teams are looking for more incentives to entice retailers. And you want to be bold and aggressive, enter new markets and stay a step ahead of new product opportunities. How do you stand a chance at achieving all of this? Reduce entry costs.
But reducing entry costs can be challenging, especially when it comes to packaging. It’s tough to get around high set-up and unit costs, especially for smaller runs.
What if there was a way you could overcome these hurdles? What if you could launch products with minimal setup? Take advantage of small packaging runs? Or come out on top in a retailer’s line review, delivering on cost and size?
It would be a game changer. One method called combination-run blisters allows you to try new ideas quickly and inexpensively without commitment to huge runs or large investments in tooling.
How Combination-Run Blister Packages Can Reduce Costs
A combination-run blister package is a highly effective way to reduce entry costs. Your blister run is combined with other customer orders that have a common setup. In other words, small runs of the same gauge material are grouped on the same sheet so everyone shares the tooling costs.
It’s a proven tool for keeping companies of all sizes nimble and aggressive. A number of brands and products are already benefiting from the program: Sharpie®, Softlips®, the Tweezerman® nail care brand, small electronics like flash drives and others. Even Radius®, the ergonomic toothbrush sold through retailers like Whole Foods, has experienced the benefits of combination-run blisters.
Lower Setup and Tooling Costs
Combining production of your blister packages with other orders dramatically lowers the cost of tooling. You don’t bear the burden of setup costs entirely on your own. Traditional tooling costs can be between $3,000 and $6,000, but tooling costs for combination-run blisters are typically less than half that, no matter the number of units you want to produce.
And if the packaging company producing the combination-run blisters has a large, diverse customer base, it means there are a lot more opportunities to pair you up and lower costs.
Combo-Run Blisters is the Best Solution for Smaller Runs
The low tooling costs of combination-run blisters also means you can justify low-quantity runs. When setup costs are low, you don’t have to do big runs to spread out that initial cost.
But be careful, your choice of packaging company can make a difference. When you depend on small production runs, you need to make sure your packaging partner has the resources to move quickly and complete additional orders on short notice. With retailer delivery penalties and risk of running out of stock in store, you could stand to lose the savings you saw on your initial costs.
These risks are non-existent with the right supplier, and the advantages of small runs can free you up to try things you couldn’t justify in the past like a trial promotion or a new seasonal SKU. You can afford to give the idea a shot to quickly find out if it works. If it’s successful, you can ramp up to a larger run without penalties if you’ve chosen a scalable combination-run program.
Combination-run blister packages are a powerful tool. They includes a lot of packaging style options, each with minimal upfront costs. And you get a lot of flexibility to try out new things in multiple channels.
If you’re considering combination-run blisters, don’t forget to think about feedibility and heat sealing. You’ll need a partner that can collaborate with you to design and produce tooling and blisters that won’t cause headaches on the back end.
