消费品流行小包装

当前位置：首页 > 英语笔译

消费品流行小包装

天之聪教育 2013-04-27 天之聪教育 339次

消费品流行小包装

Growth of the incredible shrinking consumer products

Forget supersize me. The new zeitgeist is to mini-size. Shrinking chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and ready meals might please New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who sought, abortively, to ban restaurants and cinemas from selling sugary drinks in portions bigger than 16 oz.

别再想着超大号了。迷你型才是新的时代潮流。减量的巧克力棒、汽水、方便食品或许会让纽约市长迈克尔•布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)感到高兴。他曾试图禁止餐馆、电影院销售16盎司以上的含糖饮料，不过以失败告终。

But not everyone is happy. Just 3 per cent of Britons reckon it is fine for companies to quietly shrink pack sizes without commensurate price cuts, according to Which?, the consumer watchdog.

然而，不是每个人都欢迎这种做法。消费者杂志《Which?》调查发现，只有3%的英国人认为企业在没有相应减价的情况下悄悄缩减分量是可以接受的。

“Big name brands are shrinking products by up to a quarter, but the prices aren’t dropping,” Which? says in this month’s issue of its magazine. “We asked the makers of these products why they had shrunk them, and were generally told that in the face of rising costs they chose to shrink products rather than increase prices.”

《Which?》在本月这一期刊登的文章中指出：“一些大品牌纷纷缩小产品分量，缩减幅度甚至高达四分之一，但价格却没有降低。我们询问了这些产品的制造商他们为什么要缩减分量，得到的答案基本都是，在成本上涨的情况下，他们选择缩减产品分量而不是涨价。”

Some manufacturers have long used smaller sizes to make products more affordable in countries with lower incomes. Nestlé, the world’s biggest food manufacturer, sells 1 rupee eclairs in India so that low-income parents can treat children (or even themselves).

一些制造商向来都会在低收入国家采用小分量的包装，目的就是为了让更多的消费者买得起。世界最大食品制造商——雀巢(Nestlé)在印度销售单价一卢比的手指饼干，这样低收入家庭就可以给孩子购买（甚至是大人给自己买）。

The Swiss food manufacturer’s small packets proved so popular in emerging markets – where shampoo is sold in single-serve sachets and gum and cigarettes by the stick – that it migrated them to the shores of cash-strapped southern Europe.

这家瑞士食品制造商的小包装商品在新兴市场颇受欢迎，比如小袋洗发水、单块的口香糖和论根卖的香烟，如今他们已经将这些包装模式带到了资金紧缺的南欧国家。

In such regions, the group sells many of its best-known products, such as Nescafé coffee, in smaller packs or in more budget-conscious “refill” containers.

雀巢在这些地区以更小的包装或者是更加经济的“可再填充”容器来销售他们的很多知名产品，比如雀巢咖啡。

Other factors driving the trend are health concerns and the cult of the cute. From cup-sized Sapporo beers to dinky bottles of Coca-Cola, miniaturised products make easy gifts or deliver a smaller jolt of sugar and calories.

推动这一趋势的其他因素包括健康顾虑和以小为美的观点。从杯装札幌(Sapporo)啤酒，到小瓶可口可乐，这些小型产品既是便携的礼物，也减少了糖分和卡路里的摄入。

Nonetheless, the bulk of the downsizing is all about protecting margins. The survey by Which? discovered packs of Birds Eye beef burgers that have shrunk from 16 to 12 patties; Pledge Clean and Dust furniture polish cans with 50ml, or 17 per cent, less; and a 10 per cent reduction in the number of Superfruity Blue and Black Nestlé Shredded Wheat in a 525g package.

不过，缩小分量主要还是为了维持利润水平。《Which?》的调查发现，Birds Eye牛肉汉堡的包装从16个减少到12个；Pledge Clean and Dust灌装家具打光料减少了50毫升，分量减少17%；雀巢525克装Superfruity Blue and Black麦片减量了10%。

Various brands of crisps, pasta sauces and chocolates were similarly evaporating product while, in most cases, keeping prices stable.

各种品牌的薯片、意大利面酱、巧克力都在缩小分量，但大多数情况下价格却维持不变。

Some manufacturers are cutting costs by concentrating on the containers. Enter the small stuff that contains the same as before but with less packaging. Unilever has shrunk down its deodorant aerosols but kept the amount of deodorant – and £2 retail price – the same.

一些生产商从产品容器着手来降低成本。容器里面放的产品不变，但包装容器更小。联合利华(Unilever)的除臭喷雾器变小了，但里面的除臭剂的量不变，零售价也还是2英镑。

For an upfront technology and advertising investment that allowed it to compress more into less space, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate has made savings on costs for transport (more aerosols in a pallet), aluminium and energy (cans do not need to be stretched so much).

通过可以将更多产品压缩到更小空间中的前沿技术和广告投资，这家英荷综合性企业在运输（每个货盘上可以放更多数量的除臭剂）、铝和能源（包装罐不需拉伸到原来的程度）等方面节省了成本。

Detergents are also getting less water and more power. “Most companies see these operations of business not just as a source of cost advantage, but also sustainable growth,” says Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer.

洗涤剂的水分也越来越少，效用越来越大。联合利华供应链负责人比尔•雷吉•西吉斯蒙迪(Pier Luigi Sigismondi)说：“大多数公司不仅将这些运营模式作为一种成本优势，也是一种可持续增长方式。”

For some companies, small has always been beautiful, or at least an important part of their portfolio line-up. The 250ml version of drinks in AG Barr’s cupboard include Rubicon juices and Irn-Bru, the orange fizzy beverage labelled “Scotland’s other national drink”.

对于一些公司来说，小就是美，小包装产品是他们产品阵容中的重要组成部分。AG Barr的250毫升饮料系列中包括Rubicon果汁，以及标有“苏格兰的另一种民族饮料”的碳酸橙汁饮料——Irn-Bru。

Chief executive Roger White says consumers like these for portion control and, in the case of juices, to use in lunch boxes.

该公司首席执行官罗杰•怀特(Roger White)表示，消费者喜欢这些商品，原因是可以控制分量，而小瓶的果汁可以放在午餐盒中。

It is perhaps fitting that as globalisation makes the world seem smaller, so too do the things we use in daily life. The real victory, however, would be if smaller snacks fed through to smaller waists and hence smaller health bills. That bit of the equation, alas, is more elusive.

或许可以这么说，全球化让世界变得更小，日常生活中的用品也有同样效果。不过，如果小包装零食可以让腰更细，从而节约医药费，那才是真正的胜利。哎，节省医药费这一点人们是不太容易想起来的。