The practice of systems marketing in the French packaging industry

Abstract

The focus for this article is “product systems selling” in the packaging industry. In systems selling the seller provides, through a combination of product and service, a fulfilment of a more extended need than is the case in product selling. This paper studies companies, using multipack system suppliers where the vendor provides and installs the machinery, takes charge of maintenance and repair and offers commercial and technical information to its customers. The customer has the choice of purchasing the whole system or purchasing elements of the system. The authors propose that the purchase of the whole system may be more suited to the smaller, independent buyer who prefers to transfer responsibility for the up‐keep of the system to the supplier. Larger organisations preferring greater independence from the supplier may show a tendency to develop their own systems in‐house. The authors forecast a reduction in the total number of systems purchased in the future.