Articles

A ‘Meal Deal’ Glossary of Terms

Categories: Distribution & Supply Chain

As we make our way out of the pandemic, product and service bundling appears to be growing more common and importance for distributors. 

Before the pandemic, customers often purchased a case of disinfectants or a case of ready-to-use antimicrobial sprays, not knowing if they worked together or not. Now, due to the pandemic, trial and error purchasing like this, especially when it comes to infection control, is over. Customers want a “meal deal.” They want to select several products that complement each other and work together.

Bundling can be a cost-saving for customers and a lucrative marketing strategy for distributors and cleaning contractors. But to realize these benefits, we must understand some key terms related to product bundling, such as:

• Bundling
  Bundling is a pricing strategy.  It allows distributors and facility service providers to market several products or services at one price.  
• Pure Bundling
  When two or more products are only sold together.  For instance, some cable service providers provide add-on channels only as part of a package; the channels cannot be selected individually.
• Joint Bundling
  This is when two products are offered together at one bundled price. However, unlike pure bundling, they are usually designed to work together.
• Leader Bundling
  When popular selling products—known as “leaders”—are sold with less popular selling products. The less popular selling products are usually accessories of the leader product.
• Mixed Leader Bundling
  This is when a leader product is sold as a bundle but can be purchased on its own. There usually is a cost advantage, however, for purchasing it as part of a bundle.

It’s a bit surprising that bundling is not more common among jansan distributors and facility cleaning providers. It is popular in other industries, and now due to COVID-19, likely will become much more widespread in the jansan industry as well.

About the Author.

Michael Wilson is vice president of marketing for AFFLINK™, developers of Rest Assured, a bundle of products designed to protect human health at home, in school, and at work. He may be reached through his company website, www.afflink.com.