Sealed Air Case Comments

Sealed air case is a comprehensive case that captures many issues that we have discussed in the marketing course. It is also one of the best selling marketing cases and I think for some very good reasons.

Here are my comments on the case questions.

Question 2:

Sealed Air created value to its customers by building high performance (technical) product quality in its coated bubbles and by educating the customers about the benefits of coated bubbles through the educational efforts of its salesforce and its brochures. Sealed Air’s salesforce also used “consultative sales approach” and provided problem solving advice to the customers. However, there are also indications that the company may be providing too high performance(technical) quality at least for some applications. The company created value for its distributors by the strength of its brand equity, the strong demand for its products and its helpful salesforce. The company also used selective distribution policy which meant less competition among distributors and thus this policy preserved the distributors’ profit margins.

Question 3:

There are several possibilities here. The important ones (not counting no response) are:

• Spend more resources in educating customers about the benefits of bubbles • Launch uncoated bubbles • Cut prices of the products most directly affected by the uncoated bubbles • Provide additional services to the coated customers to offset the effects of lower prices of competing uncoated bubbles • Develop intensive sales efforts directed at distributors with the goal of getting them to stay away from uncoated products

Question 4:

(In the discussion below, when I say GAFCEL, I mean GAFCEL and other similar producers who may come to the market.)

In analyzing what part of Sealed Air's coated business