Packaging is a deceptive Industry.
Your man on the clapham omnibus could well assume It to be all cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, is there any Innovation? To which the Industry can reply: are you kidding?
Packaging is a sector valued around $800 billion - and It rivals Silicon valley for Innovation.
One huge story right now is the revolution in medical packaging, triggered by new European union rules.
The Falsified Medicines Directive demands every pack of pharmaceuticals be given unique serial numbers, known as serialisation, until recently the packs needed only expiration dates and batch numbers.
This is a whole new ball game.
Craig Stoble. head of the life sciences team at Domino Printing Sciences, calls the EU directive "potentially the most significant technical and logistical challenge that manufacturers have faced in decades".
The deadline for compliance is 2019. Mr Stoble and his crew have been working flat out to create Industry-grade serialisation processes.
Its not easy.” At Its most basic level, this has involved many manufacturers jettisoning older coding equipment simply not capable of applying a unique code to each Item." he says.
"In 2011. when the directive was published.
Domino Printing sciences estimated that as much , as 70 per cent of Installed equipment would become obsolete In the context of serialisation.”
Packs will need to be redesigned. New Inks developed. "For Ink-based coding methods, such as thermal Ink jet, legibility has been significantly enhanced by the development of new inks that produce clear, high-contrast and durable codes that will last for the lifetime of the product." says Mr Stoble. "This. too, is a new requirement, since codes must now be able to be verified not just In the manufacturing plant, but right through to the point of sale or dispensing.”
The incentive for mastering serialisation ls huge. The EU directive matches similar moves in Brazil , Argentina, South Korea and China, and the United States has announced its Drug Quality and security Bill.
Further, it is likely that serialisation, when proved to deter counterfeiting. will be implemented in other sectors, such as luxury goods and food.
Here's another fast-growing technology - modified air packaging or MAP.
When food and vegetables are picked they start to deteriorate. "Microbes flourish, turning ripe courgettes and carrots into a slushy, mouldy mess, some microbes depend on oxygen.
These include pseudomonas. acinetobacter and moraxella. which spoil food, giving it a bad taste and odour. The answer is to pack food with oxygen-free gases, when bacteria can't grow, the food ls preserved for much longer.
How much longer? Linde Gases, a pioneer in the field, calculates raw red meat can be extended from two to four days to between five and eight. Raw poultry can be extended by triple the normal span; sandwiches from three to ten days.
The question is which gases to use. Linde Gases advocates varying mixtures, depending, on the food stuffs, some require nitrous oxide, argon or hydrogen. Others recommend a more traditional mix of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and even some a tiny dose of oxygen (1 to 2 per cent at most down from 20.95 per cent in the atmosphere). Carbon dioxide is effective at inhibiting microbes, but absorbs into the food's liquid and fat. reducing its pH value.
It can also cause changes impermeability and texture. Dairy brands are keen to improve duration.
Dale Farm, one of the UK’s major dairy co-ops. identified a major problem with its packaging.
Traditional heat-shrink-wrap heat-tunnel machines. used to package yoghurts and “crème flache" for transport, generated a lot of heat . The machinery became so hot, the whole dairy was hard to work in. Not good.
The solution was heatless shrink-wrap machines made by TrakRap. This eliminated the problem completely and improved the eco-performance of the process. without a heating bill, Dale Farm cut electricity usage for pack wrapping by 95 per cent a year. The film used by TrakRap is 100 percent recyclable and so thin that 68 percent less material could be used. For a major national brand such as Dale Fami, an Innovation like this makes a serious contribution to Its long-term prospects.
One final Innovation.
Birch water is a traditional drink In Finland and a new brand has just been launched in the UK called Tapped. Birch Water is a curious beverage. It’s made from the sap of the birch tree, tapped once a fortnight. The liquid is high in manganese, zinc, iron and other minerals.
A product like this needs special packaging to Impress potential customers. so the executives at Tapped asked creative agency Horse to come up with something fitting. The result is an aseptic “lamican" pack, made of 75 per cent wood. It gives the product a shelf life of 12 months; and Horse claim the material has 12 percent of CO2 emissions compared with aluminium and 19 per cent that of plastic.
"Although a traditional spring-time drink In Finland and other parts of the world such as Canada, tree waters are a totally new concept to consumers In the UK." says Ian Firth, creative partner at Horse. "Clarity of product communication was therefore paramount, so we used the packaging structure to our advantage. To help communicate provenance, the water is packaged in a cylindrical paperboard can, which we designed to resemble a real birch tree. This helps overcome some of the challenges of communicating an unusual new product, but equally distinguishes the water from other beverages.”
Will it sell? Various fashion industry magazines have called Birch Water the new “super food”. If does take off, packaging industry will, as usual, have played a vital role.
Racounter.net
Future of Packaging
Edit by Charles Orton Jones
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( 3.1 / 1717 )
Coca Cola has replaced its brand name on millions of bottles and cans in Australia with individual people's names (Ex. Matt, LUke, Rebecca ect.) and printing the logo "share a Coke with" message that invites people to find the names of friends and family and connect by way of a Coke.
Part of a multi-million dollar integrated campaign, the personalize Coke bottles and cans will see the country's 150 most popular names appear on their labels - marking the first time Coca Cola has made such a major change to its packaging.
Cans of Coke will feature nicknames like Matt, Steve, Sis, and Bro and because the campaign runs through Christmas seasonal names like Santa (Creative : Ogilvy & Mather, Sidney - [ www.ogilvy.com.au/sydney )
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( 3 / 503 )By Giulio Ghisolfi - Idealpack
IMPLEMENTATION is the carrying out, execution, or practice of a plan, a method, or any design or project for doing something. As such, implementation is the action that must follow any preliminary thinking in order for something to actually happen.
In the everyday life, we assist at too many presentations of “good” ideas that never reach the market? Why?
There is a famous old saying that tells “ It’s easier SAID than DONE”!! and this is in my opinion where the problem is.
The companies are generally organized to manage the existing , in particulary through the use of “incremental improvements “ activities (call it INNOVATION in my opinion is too much !!) , but they go easily in trouble when it’s necessary to develop a “complete” new product/solution from scratch.
In the packaging field, the “Innovation process” is even more difficult and complicated to manage (there are too many variables to keep into consideration) , in particulary when there is to develop a really “breakthrough” innovation, mainly because the IMPLEMENTATION know-how necessary is spread inside the whole organization and nobody will aim to take the lead (and the related problems!).
In addition , it’s generally very difficult to find out a “DEVELOPMENT MANAGER” who has the power, the skills and above all the resources to manage the “innovation process” from the idea to the final output: the skills and the knowledges necessary are so many that the “Venture” is generally destined to fail.
So how a company can do it in a reasonable way, controlling the risks ?
Through OUTSOURCING, making use of a specialized “Implementation” partner, ( I prefer to use the definition of “NURSERY PARTNER” ), which can act day by day and step by step under the full company name and control.
Case example:
Assuming that a company is willing to introduce a “New Pouch” for a kids beverage (with a shape similar to the sketches you find below) without having the appropriate in-house know-how, in a reasonable time with limited financial resources, how they can do it?
The first issue to be answered is: can we make it? If the answer is yes, which are the suitable material/machinery/process to use?
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( 3.1 / 1926 )
A STAND-UP POUCH (SUP) capped by a large reclosable and tamper-evident closure is a packaging format lunched successfully by The Nest Collective company in the States.
This baby and kid-focused consumer products company brings a whole new level of portability and convenience to its category by using a new
spouted pouch for packaging their Plum Organics line.
The company belives that this new pouch format is far superior to the glass jar, which is still the market standard pack in use world-wide.
TWIST-ON SPOON. The lastest enhancement added to the Plum Organics line a twist-on spoon that delivers one-piece squeeze and feed convenience.
SIMPLY GREAT!!!!!
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( 3.1 / 877 )METHOD company has reinvented successfully the Detergent business through new packaging designs!!!
Now METHOD focused more on consumer needs: with its new high concentrated laundry detergent pump bottle is a good example where product and package address clear consumer pain points thorugh use of a smart structure a simple graphic cue that avoid making unsubstantiated claims. (Source: Shelf-Impact)
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( 3.1 / 1919 )
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