NASHVILLE, TN—After months of anticipation, Forum 2015 kicked off Sunday afternoon with a look at buyer preferences, brand protection and where the industry is going with “Upside Down or Inside Out: What’s Next in Packaging.” Penny Holland of Sun Chemical Corp. and Galen Croxton of Tetra Pak chaired the opening session.
Suzy Badaracco, president of Culinary Tides, Inc., started things with an in depth look at the various consumer groups and generations that exist today, pinpointing characteristics of each as well as their preferences and aversions.
“Generation Y doesn’t want to be friends with companies” she said, before going into detail on each age segment and offering a few key traits:
- The Baby Boomers: Good economic opportunities, largely optimistic
- Generation Jones: Economic struggles, skepticism, narcissism
- Generation X: Children of divorce, concern over family, highest education
- Generation Y: Influenced by parents, price driven, not loyal to brands
- Generation Z: Influenced by peers, sustainability driven, very loyal to brands
Badaracco then discussed some findings from a consumer forecast that zeroed on key concerns for consumers; they included:
- The economy
- Control, safety & security
- Health
- Sustainability
- Motivation/behavior
“You can’t just survey a consumer and ask them what they want in three to five years,” she noted. Instead, Badaracco argued that the best way to determine consumer preferences is to analyze their behavior and subsequent actions. An example she gave, grab and go packages, pointed to ever increasing active lifestyles and the subsequent gravitation to packaging that enables that.
Lori Campbell, chief of operations at The Label Printers, spoke second, delivering what may be eye opening news to brand owners: It’s not just high end goods like Rolex that gets counterfeited. She rattled off a list of items not thought of as being targeted:
- Olive oil
- Airbags
- Razor blades
- Zippers
- Golf balls
The portion of counterfeit goods caught by U.S. Customs & Border Protection was valued at $1.7 billion in a recent report, demonstrating the monetary toll that knockoffs can take.
Campbell implored flexographers to think of brand protection as a business opportunity and a way to strengthen a relationship with a brand owner and provide solutions. Displaying a cartoon of an ostrich burying its head underground, she urged to not let customers ignore the potential problem.
“Bring your ‘A’ game,” she stressed, suggesting printers approach longtime clients where there’s already a relationship, rather than new customers who could be put off by the idea. And talk to upper level management, as they are the ones with the power to OK such a proposal. Campbell further advised that there is no “one size fits all” solution, and that custom offerings are crucial, as they can pinpoint a brand owner’s needs. Some options include:
- Security papers & films
- Optical security
- Inks & coatings
- Track & trace
“Rely on those suppliers—they’re the ones you need to rely on to understand what particular technologies are available,” she said.
Taking a look into the future of packaging, California Polytechnic State University Assistant Professor of Graphic Communications Colleen Twomey wrapped up the session. After revealing a statistic every attendee was happy to see—packaging ranks No. 1 on the list of print’s fastest growing business segments—she shared a personal and memorable definition of “interactive” packaging: The box from an appliance purchased last year, being used for various imaginative things by her two children.
Building off that idea, Twomey spoke to different ways to engage consumers by reaching them on their smartphones, offering some very unique use cases:
- Citing an example of Near Field Communication (NFC), she spoke about Johnnie Walker, owned by FTA member Diageo, who uses the technology in its Blue Label variety to know when a consumer has opened the bottle, and then give them relevant recipes
- San Francisco Soup Co., which uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to cater to tech savvy customers in large batches
- Nivea, who embedded BLE in a detachable magazine ad that could be wrapped around a child’s arm as a bracelet, alerting parents to their location at the beach
- Bombay Sapphire, which utilized printed electronics for a box that lit up when a customer lifted it off a shelf
Above all, Twomey implored printers to “Give the consumer something useful!”