The fifth element in the marketing mix is the “packaging.” Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.
With regard to the packaging of your company, and your product or service, you should think in terms of everything that the customer sees with his or her eyes from the first moment of contact with your company, and all the way through the purchasing process.
The element of packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging also refers to your people, and how they dress and groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures, your correspondence and every single visual element about your company. Everything counts.
Everything helps or hurts. Everything increases the confidence of your customer in dealing with you, or lowers his or her confidence in dealing with you. When IBM started, under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded that fully 99% of the visual contact that a customer would have with his company, at least initially, would be represented by the salespeople for IBM.
Because IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew that customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of the salesperson who was encouraging them to buy. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.
As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect. Every element of their clothing, including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean fingernails, and every other feature gave off the message of professionalism and competence. One of the highest compliments a person could receive was “You look like someone from IBM.”
Taken from : Million Dollar Habits