The Promise of Great Packaging at Retail
With stores stocking innumerable branded and private label competitors in every category, consumer goods companies are finding that the traditional promises of brand quality and safety are no longer sufficient differentiators. Thus, product packaging acts a crucial instrument of brand identity in the retail environment, according to Cambashi, a global industry analyst firm (www.cambashi.com). Not only must its functional duties conform to regulations, but packaging must also convey the experience of using the product, communicate brand values and re-enforce the relationship between consumer and manufacturer through eye-catching and innovative design.
An Increasingly Challenging Design Environment
Packaging design itself is extremely challenging. The "perfect package" ideally incorporates input from an array of geographically-dispersed stakeholders, including: multi-disciplinary design teams, packaging manufacturers, logistics operators, retailers and, of course, the consumers themselves. This complex network of partners must all work together to create products that fulfill the heterogeneous demands of markets across the globe, each with their own consumer behaviours and unique regulatory and marketing requirements.
Let’s take tobacco packaging as an example — some markets require graphical depictions of the health risks caused by smoking; even the nature of the images varies by country. Then there are other labelling requirements to consider, for example, written health warnings and ingredient displays requiring translation for many different markets. Considerations like these must all be included in the final product, without impinging on design fundamentals, like corporate branding and product protection. To add to the complexity, Australia introduced regulations in December 2012 banning all forms of branding on tobacco products (an initiative being monitored by other global markets), so entirely new designs may be needed for specific geographies. In more general terms, recent research studies indicate that in market segments ranging from food and beverage, through to cosmetics and household products, manufacturers are carrying more SKUs, yet commanding thinner margins, than ever before.
Sequential versus Concurrent Design
In many consumer goods segments, manufacturers may only have a limited time to benefit from changing consumer trends and so any new product needs to be brought to market quickly. However, companies have tended to operate a sequential process for packaging design, with each team impressing their input onto the product one stage after another. The issues that arise when, for example, space needed for labeling is cannibalized by the brand logo during a preceding process, often lead to conflict, unexpected re-work, extra cost and wasted opportunity.
This is where product lifecycle management (PLM) becomes invaluable. PLM is often described as a technology-enabled strategy that improves, through the management of product data, the processes involved in bringing products to market. This collection of technologies includes computer aided design (CAD), simulation software, workflow enforcement and version control. Together, these integrated applications enable a concurrent design process in which each stakeholder, armed with organized, relevant data, can offer feedback into the design environment at any time; the result is a streamlined, collaborative business process that reduces errors, speeds up time-to-market and delivers improved products.
Reaping Benefits throughout the Supply Chain
A crucial feature of PLM is that it enforces "sign-off" by multiple parties at each development stage, ensuring that no time is wasted on flawed versions that fail to secure total supply chain approval.
In addition to this, there are a host of team-level benefits. Procurement and sustainability personnel can improve the process of materials sourcing through the use of applications to compare suppliers, monitor performance and assess risk. Using intuitive 3-D modeling software, design teams can create an accurate visual representation of each package and have the ability to "post" their ideas in a "social environment", fostering the innovation that leads to faster problem solving. Truly consumer-centric product design can be achieved through the use of databases that store the results of research efforts, point of sale data and customer feedback.
Cataloguing and retaining the history of all of the constituent parts of each product allows manufacturers to re-use components and other intellectual property in further designs, reducing future design costs. Simulation software can be used for initial tests on the physical properties and behaviour of the packaging under different conditions — all before production begins. Logistics operators can offer input into product dimensions, ensuring that SKUs are designed to fit pallet specifications to allow for efficient handling and distribution.
At the customer-facing end of the chain, retailers can use applications to create a virtual shopping environment. This allows them to monitor a product’s in-store behaviour in a variety of scenarios — the first real "moment of truth" for any new addition to the market. This information is immediately visible to design teams and brand managers throughout the manufacturer’s organization and adds to the already extensive collaboration between manufacturers and retailers in the industry.
An Increasingly Challenging Design Environment
Packaging design itself is extremely challenging. The "perfect package" ideally incorporates input from an array of geographically-dispersed stakeholders, including: multi-disciplinary design teams, packaging manufacturers, logistics operators, retailers and, of course, the consumers themselves. This complex network of partners must all work together to create products that fulfill the heterogeneous demands of markets across the globe, each with their own consumer behaviours and unique regulatory and marketing requirements.
Let’s take tobacco packaging as an example — some markets require graphical depictions of the health risks caused by smoking; even the nature of the images varies by country. Then there are other labelling requirements to consider, for example, written health warnings and ingredient displays requiring translation for many different markets. Considerations like these must all be included in the final product, without impinging on design fundamentals, like corporate branding and product protection. To add to the complexity, Australia introduced regulations in December 2012 banning all forms of branding on tobacco products (an initiative being monitored by other global markets), so entirely new designs may be needed for specific geographies. In more general terms, recent research studies indicate that in market segments ranging from food and beverage, through to cosmetics and household products, manufacturers are carrying more SKUs, yet commanding thinner margins, than ever before.
Sequential versus Concurrent Design
In many consumer goods segments, manufacturers may only have a limited time to benefit from changing consumer trends and so any new product needs to be brought to market quickly. However, companies have tended to operate a sequential process for packaging design, with each team impressing their input onto the product one stage after another. The issues that arise when, for example, space needed for labeling is cannibalized by the brand logo during a preceding process, often lead to conflict, unexpected re-work, extra cost and wasted opportunity.
This is where product lifecycle management (PLM) becomes invaluable. PLM is often described as a technology-enabled strategy that improves, through the management of product data, the processes involved in bringing products to market. This collection of technologies includes computer aided design (CAD), simulation software, workflow enforcement and version control. Together, these integrated applications enable a concurrent design process in which each stakeholder, armed with organized, relevant data, can offer feedback into the design environment at any time; the result is a streamlined, collaborative business process that reduces errors, speeds up time-to-market and delivers improved products.
Reaping Benefits throughout the Supply Chain
A crucial feature of PLM is that it enforces "sign-off" by multiple parties at each development stage, ensuring that no time is wasted on flawed versions that fail to secure total supply chain approval.
In addition to this, there are a host of team-level benefits. Procurement and sustainability personnel can improve the process of materials sourcing through the use of applications to compare suppliers, monitor performance and assess risk. Using intuitive 3-D modeling software, design teams can create an accurate visual representation of each package and have the ability to "post" their ideas in a "social environment", fostering the innovation that leads to faster problem solving. Truly consumer-centric product design can be achieved through the use of databases that store the results of research efforts, point of sale data and customer feedback.
Cataloguing and retaining the history of all of the constituent parts of each product allows manufacturers to re-use components and other intellectual property in further designs, reducing future design costs. Simulation software can be used for initial tests on the physical properties and behaviour of the packaging under different conditions — all before production begins. Logistics operators can offer input into product dimensions, ensuring that SKUs are designed to fit pallet specifications to allow for efficient handling and distribution.
At the customer-facing end of the chain, retailers can use applications to create a virtual shopping environment. This allows them to monitor a product’s in-store behaviour in a variety of scenarios — the first real "moment of truth" for any new addition to the market. This information is immediately visible to design teams and brand managers throughout the manufacturer’s organization and adds to the already extensive collaboration between manufacturers and retailers in the industry.