Case Writeups : Sealed Air Corporation Essay

1) What has been happening in this market place? How has plastered broadcast (SA) been doing? To what do you attribute SAs success? smashed strip had achieved 25% annual growth in net sales and net winnings from 1971 to 1980. The corporation has been keeping a technical leadership position in the market. During 10 years, the connection built on its development of the first-cell, lightweight cushion material, put downd the first foam-in-place packaging scheme, and engineered the first complete solar heating system for swimming pools. Regarding the protective packaging market, the seal jobs increase AirCap has the feature that differentiated called barrier-coating.Barrier-coatng and its customer benefits had been the major driving force of Sealed Airs AirCap cushioning sales for 10 years. Thus, Sealed Air created value to its customers by building in high spirits technical product lineament in its cover tattles and by informing the customers about the benefits of co ver spill the beanss done the efforts of its salespeople. Sealed Airs salespeople also did consultative selling climb up to increase its market share and profits. Moreover, the participation created value for its distributors by the authority of its brand equity and the strong demand for its products. The company also utilize selective distribution insurance policy with less competition among distributors and thus this policy makes the distributors profit margins maximized.2) Should SA introduce an uncoat breathe in the U.S market to manage with GAFCEL? Why or why not? SA should introduce an un cover bubble for the following reasons Introducing uncoated bubbles bottomland allow Sealed Air to guard these customers whose packs are met with uncoated bubbles. It seems that GAFCELs ability to get sales at the rate of $1 Million/year with entirely 1.5 salespeople from only the New York market is a strong indication that the uncoated bubble is going to be a strong competitor for Sealed Airs coated bubble business. Introducing uncoated bubbles would require no surplus capital or R&D investment on this case. This bell saving could be a competitive advantage over GAFCEL.Distributors need to stock uncoated bubbles for their sales. If Sealed Air does not have uncoated bubbles, distributors can end up selling othercompanies (such as GAFCEL) uncoated bubbles. This would hurt Sealed Airs relationship with these distributors. SA should NOT introduce an uncoated bubble for the following reasons Distributors aroundtimes complained about the level of AirCap selling effort. Since distributors margins on AirCap cushioning were generally higher than the 10% to 12% for Instapak, distributors were not happy. Also, their margins for uncoated products make them not happy compared to AirCap product. Sealed Air in the market is a technology leader. It has had a score of innovations. Introducing uncoated bubbles would mean introducing a me-too product. This could hurt t he companys personality and brand equity in the market place. For years, Sealed Air has told the customers that coated bubbles are better than uncoated bubbles.It is impossible for the company to tell the market that the uncoated bubble is as good as coated bubbles. The company would definitely dawdle its credibility as the technology expert in the marketplace. This is not about confusion, but about the trustworthiness of the company in the customers perspectives. A similar situation can happen with respect to the salespeople. If the company now tells the salespeople that uncoated bubbles equally good for some applications, the company would lose its credibility among the sales people. There can a problem on getting the salespeople motivated for the new product. If the salespeople have to sell the lower priced bubbles, thus their commission income will get reduced.3) Assuming an uncoated bubble is introduced, jut out a marketing scheme for the product, including positioning & organizeing, pricing, branding, direct sales scheme and channel policyI would propose a marketing be after for differentiation between a coated and an uncoated bubble. First of all, Sealed Air should keep the current brand equity status not affected by an uncoated bubble launched especially in the U.S market. It is weighty to develop intensive salespeople directed at distributors focusing on their high profit margin beca give the distributors dont want well-trained salespeople to be allocated to an uncoated product which leads to lower margin. Regarding consumer perspectives, the companyshould keep its brand status of the coated as it participates in exhibition shows. Regarding customers, the company should provide additional service to the coated customers and different packaging for the different grades product to offset the set up of lower prices of competing uncoated bubbles. Different product usage can be applied. For the important and fragile products such as laptops to b e protected, a coated bubble should be used. For the comparatively less fragile products, a coated bubble can be used. This differentiation will be commensurate to make different market value positioning for consumers under uncoated bubble launched.In the European market where packaging supplies are viewed as expendable commodities, Sealed Air should cut prices of the products affected by the uncoated bubble. Additionally, the company should focus on uncoated because the European consumes are so price sensitive. Instead of focusing on salespeople, the company should be aline with some hyper and mass merchants for volume sales on an uncoated bubble. Also, the company expands channel pipeline to use direct mail and trade shows to target smaller businesses.4) Assuming an uncoated bubble is introduced, what changes would you make to the marketing plan for the existing, coated bubble? Given how successful the product line has been, would you unspoilt leave it to be? Although, marketin g cost rises up, I would recommend use different brand name. If the company stays with the current name, there would be some confusion about Sealed Airs products and some dilution of the brand equity of the current name because the new product is all different from the current products. Some of this problem can be rationalize if the company launches the uncoated bubbles under a different name. Also, product differentiation such as color or shape change can be one of the solutions. The differentiation can make consumers and distributors not bemused about high valued coated products. In others words, the uncoated bubble product cannot hurt brand equity of the current product.