CASE ANALYSIS: SEALED AIR CORPORATION (HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL 582 103, 1982)
A. Customers. The company's customers are the shippers of products that require protective packaging. The company's customers are located primarily in North America and Europe. The market for protective packaging products is expanding. Customers are motivated by a need to protect shipping sensitive products; however, many also seek cost minimization in the process.
Sealed Air Corporation is the market leader in coated air bubble products in North America. The company is one of the stronger players in the market in Europe. In both Europe and North America, but particularly in North America, competitors have begun marketing an uncoated product that is significantly lower cost than is the company's coated product. The uncoated product is also less effective than the coated product; however, many users appear to be motivated more by price than by effectiveness.
The protective packaging industry produces a variety of products. The coated air bubble product, however, is the most effective of the products. No all items to be shipped, however, are equally sensitive to shipping damage. Thus, markets exist for the variety of products produced by the industry. D. Environment.
The major trend in the industry is the growth in the proportion of protective packaging users who are motivated more by price than by protective effectiveness. This trend is not favorable to a company such as Sealed Air Corporation, which has based its strategy on the production of a highly effective, if some high priced product.
The Sealed Air Corporation has an opportunity to enter the uncoated segment of the air bubble protective packaging material market. The obverse side of this coin of opportunity is the threat t
...