Packaging matters - report back from London

Chair and CEO of The Packaging Federation, Ian Dent, summed up the most relevant contemporary issues: how to appeal to an increasingly sophisticated global customer; how to prevent the 'bread and butter' aspects of our business from becoming stale; macroeconomic factors such as expanding European and Asian markets; and the ever present reality of dwindling raw materials resources or energy supplies to play with.

Dent spend much of his time with key decisions makers in Brussels and it will become increasingly important for contenders in the global marketplace to familarise themselves with the legislative issues. There is a huge job to be
done in educating designers and clients with regard to compliance standards because in the future, falling foul of these regulations could generate the negative publicity, consumer backlash or even prosecution which could
seriously damage or erode brand equity.

Legislative update

Catherine Goodall from USA Group Environmental Packaging International, advises a client base which includes Microsoft, Mattel, Starbucks Johnson & Johnson, Estee Lauder, etc, on staying on the right side of damaging activism and/or legislation. To this end the company also has offices in Germany and Canada. Already 30 countries, including the Scandanavian countries, Italy, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK, have environmental design requirements and the trend is gathering momentum, with fee based penalties for over-packaged
goods and essential requirements guidelines which take into account factors such as recoverability, energy usage and the use of heavy metals or hazardous substances in the packaging process. The trend toward minimal packaging is looking large.

In total contrast, is the popularity of omnipresent decorative or shrink sleeves. And while admittedly, it is possible for marketers to get fabulous shelf impact and brand recognition via this method, there is at present unfortunately no waste management stream for these materials, so it will be
interesting to watch the fate of flexible packaging decoration.

Case studies presented by Gary Korda, Vice president of Creative Global Packaging from Estee Lauder; Philippe Roulet, Head of Global Packaging Material and Training from Nestlé; and Per Holen, the Identity Director (nice title) for Danish super brand, Carlsberg; all showed up one of the main issues concerning brandowners today, i.e., the fine line of appealing to the global market and achieving breakthrough innovation, whilst maintaining a consistent and recognisable brand identity.

As sole African representative at the conference, Terry Levin campaigned for redirecting the bulk of our marketing resources from expensive and remote media into packaging. She says that conceptual thinking and engineering must be employed to ensure packaging that will not be discarded after use, but that
can be retained or reused. Embracing these sorts of approaches en masse will go a long way to limiting our waste output, but will also be adding quantifiable value to our customers. In order for all players to compete, in the face of a veritable deluge of Asian merchandising, marketers are going to have to launch groundbreaking and memorable brands. Me-too will not do.
Properly managed packaging strategies can facilitate the creation of more powerful and desirable global brands, especially important for emerging economies like South Africa.

New technologies and trends

Helping us get to grips with the vagaries of the global consumer, new technologies and trends are a plethora of models - IC Pod, who embrace a Japanese model of anticipating customer needs called Kansei Engineering, based on emotional as well as ergonomic factors. Joseph Dollens, of GIO Intelligence, is likely to be found shopping anywhere from Japan to LA, in
in pursuit of packaging that inspires desire on the shelf. His definition of desire - the factors that made you pick something up, that make you buy it - in the critical 3-5 seconds in which most shopping purchases are decided. His conclusion - great products sell anywhere.

Fans of scientific research will relish the advances made by a company called Eyetracker. Apparently previously dismissed as an academic research tool, to which the hard sell is now being applied in order to market it as an aid to shelf layout, pack design and brand recognition. Respondents don specs that provide maps of the minutiae of their eye movement. The claim is
that these help in determining shelf stand out, what elements of a pack are impactful or the effectiveness of the pack or in delivering 'supporting' or secondary information. None of which takes into account that when your eye-tracker glasses are steamed up with the tears of frustration and confusion involved in trying to find a product on the shelves that is at once attractive, nutritious and recyclable, all the research tools in the world are rendered meaningless.

New software for packaging development, nano-technologies, smart devices such as self-heating or cooling products, breathable films, intelligent sell by timing devices, substrates permeated with aromas, smart coatings and even
interactive packaging will no doubt all become commonplace in the quest by brandowners to continually make their products more desirable. However in the opinion of Dr Paul Butler, Smart Packaging Consultant from Oxford University and others, there is currently plenty of room for improvement in packaging design and few breakthrough or imaginative ideas, making it ever
easier for products to be counterfeited, copied or just plain overlooked. The need to move beyond eye-candy effects and shelf-shout towards real communication with the consumers, is critical.

Nick Verebelyi OF 3-D branding and design company, Design Bridge, called packaging "a window into the soul of a brand" and identified that it is increasingly 'soul' that globally discerning customers are looking for via their purchases.

The good news, that the channels of debate with regard to packaging issues seem to be opening, is that a chain of events has been set in motion and brand owners are coming to the table... The benefit to those who are prepared to embrace new models will impact favourably not only on the all important
bottom line, but also on us all as consumers and the precious environmental resources on which we depend.