Do pizza company leaders view their pizza box as a Marketing Weapon?
Most would reply, YES. In fact, however, most of them do NOT view it that way. You know this by where the locus of packaging control lies within the organization. In most pizza chains this turns out to be the purchasing department. Purchasing is the primary controller and decision-maker (sometimes the only decision-maker) in packaging development. A group sometimes having secondary input, usually in an advisory capacity, is the R&D department. And last in order is the marketing department which, if it has any involvement at all, usually consists of deciding where to position a couple boiler-plate graphics on the carton. Interestingly, in all other forms of retail enterprise the situation is just the opposite. Marketing initiates, drives, and controls packaging development. Once a total concept is brought to fruition by the marketing department it’s handed off to the R&D folks for QC testing. When this is completed it’s finally given to the purchasing department for vendor selection and
