The right package could land your product a preferred position on the store shelf, making it more visible and leading to higher sales.

Current merchandising practices in first-aid products, particularly adhesive bandages, seem to reflect this axiom. Two trends are occurring:

A growing number of packages have become co-branded marketing tools. They display animated characters on the bag or carton.

These co-branded packages are migrating to the lower store shelves.
Why? The three or four lowest shelves sit at “eye level” for kids, and these packages attempt to draw their interest. In turn, kids influence mom’s buying decision.

This tactic seems to be working for Band-Aid. It displays an extensive lineup of co-branded adhesive-bandage packaging that uses characters such as Bugs Bunny and Spiderman.

Band-Aid is the category’s brand leader in dollar sales. Scanner data for a recent period from Information Resources Inc. (IRI) show that Band-Aid’s sales totaled $86.5 million, up 6.8 percent.

First aid is a particularly strong category for private-label brands. Collectively, they led the category with sales of $93.2 million. That’s a 4.3 percent increase.

SHARE DATA: First Aid — Tape/Bandage/gauze/cotton
Top 10 Brands	Dollar Sales (millions)	% Change vs. Prior Year
Private Label	$93.2	4.3
Band-Aid	$86.5	6.8
Johnson & Johnson	$68.0	-3.9
3M Nexcare	$18.8	-9.0
New Skin	$11.8	18.6
3M Nexcare Active	$10.2	-9.2
J&J Hurt Free	$8.5	1.8
Band-Aid Tough Strips	$8.1	170.3
Curad	$7.7	31.3
3M Nexcare Comfort	$7.3	-21.2
Category	$458.2	2.5