www.creativeprintpack.com JUNE 2021 CPP INSIGHTS
Sustainable packaging should really be sustainable.!!!!
Sustainable packaging is becoming a higher priority for both brands and consumers - more now than ever before.
WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING FOR SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS. onsumers today value sustainability more than ever. For offline/online shops, this means a rethinking of processes and a shift towards more C sustainable packaging and products. But what is particularly important for your long-term success in supermarkets or e-commerce? This article will show you all you need to know about purchasing sustainable packaging.
Sustainable packaging for e-commerce: These 3 things are especially important
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING SHOULD REALLY BE SUSTAINABLE. This sounds trivial, right? But it is often neglected, which can easily result in what is called “greenwashing”. It is commonly visible in food packaging. While salmon in our local supermarket used to be packed in plastic, the packaging now looks like it is made of paper. However, it is not actually paper, but a cardboard-plastic-composite which is even less recyclable than the old plastic box. This kind of “fake sustainability” may trick some consumers into buying the product. But most consumers who value sustainability are usually well- informed, and word-of-mouth will lead to a damaged brand in the long run. Greenwashing frequently results in negative PR, bad word-of-mouth on social media, and public boycotts.
Paper or card seems the most environmentally friendly option given that plastic takes decades if not centuries to degrade and, when it gets into our waterways, pollutes the ocean both directly and by breaking down into microplastics.
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It does not necessarily have to be deceptive packaging, though. In many cases, the packaging is not eco-friendly simply due to the use of new raw materials instead of recycled ones. And oftentimes the supply chain can be problematic as well. A lot of allegedly sustainable packaging is produced in China and slightly produced in India and shipping a long way to Europe, Africa, Australia, and the USA. Many times the original raw materials come all the way from China and have a negative impact on the rain forests.
In summary: Truly sustainable packaging should always be 100% recyclable and be made for a circular economy. As few raw materials should be used as possible. At the same time, the material should itself be recycled or made from eco- friendly resources. A common trend in the sustainable packaging industry now is to use paper made of grass or hemp, as well as biodegradable plastic alternatives. But certificates can help to evaluate the eco friendliness of the sourced material as well, e.g. FSC-certified paper. Moreover, packaging should be produced locally to guarantee short delivery routes.
DESIGN IS IMPORTANT. Many offline/online shops – especially smaller ones – make one common mistake: They use unbranded packaging. It may indeed be the most eco- friendly method to have used shipping boxes or even old shoe boxes for delivery. However, it can vastly damage the long-term success of your business. We recommend having your own unique packaging design, which incorporates your brand and strengthens customer loyalty.
The current trend when it comes to sustainable packaging is to have it look as sustainable as possible. This is especially useful when your customer base is very concerned about their environmental footprint, or when sustainability is a core value of your brand.
Although it is not necessary for your packaging to shout “sustainability”, it should be clear to the customer that the material is sustainable and recyclable. Other than that, be creative! Most importantly, the design should fit your brand identity.
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THE PERFECT UNBOXING EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR CUSTOMER. The unboxing experience should take a central role when designing a package. After all, humans are still humans. We love unboxing beautiful things. It probably reminds us of our childhood – of unboxing presents at Festivals or birthdays. The unboxing experience plays a key role in creating a bond between your customer and your brand, as it gets them emotionally involved. The most important factors are:
. unboxing must be easy and intuitive . “wow”-moments are important: unboxing should always be a personal experience and involve emotions . little packaging waste should remain after unboxing
You should ideally design your own packaging; specifically made to fit the products you sell. Nothing is worse than using shipping boxes that are too large, leave a lot of space, and require tons of filling material. Adhesive tape made from plastics, plastic chips, or Styrofoam as filling material should also be avoided by all means. We have already mentioned in this edition how innovative packaging material can create a “wow”-effect. We believe that packaging should generally be an extension of your product. Several messages
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WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. remind the customers that they did something good for the environment by placing their order. This makes them feel good about themselves and ultimately about your product and brand, reinforcing brand loyalty.
Brands have introduced reuse and repurposing initiatives as well as closed- loop systems to ensure they maximise the life-span of their packaging. They are also using clever comms to encourage their customers to reuse their packaging too.
Don’t forget about the unboxing experience as a consumer initially opens your package and reveals your product for the first time. Keep in mind that this is the very first chance you have to make a positive impression. If the unboxing experience is not a positive one, your product already has a tarnish on it regardless of how great it might be. Its best to make the experience pleasurable but don’t make it complicated with unnecessary obstacles or barriers. This is not foreplay, let’s get to the good stuff already…your product! Prototyping
One of the best methods of ensuring that your product experience is a good one is to prototype your complete packaging solution so that you can put it through its paces. You may even need to do more than one round too because there are so many variables and considerations involved. Make sure you have some real-world, hands-on experience with all aspects of your packaging solution before you finalize it and pull the trigger on production. The more time you spend upfront addressing potential issues, the less likely you are to encounter that “oops” moment further down the road when you have retail commitments to adhere to.
Brand it. Every detail about your package should tell a story about who you are + what your company is all about. Branding is very very powerful + you should use it as your ally everywhere you can.
We hope these tips can help you turn your packages from good to extraordinary. Further any assistance or guidelines you can contact us via [email protected], our packaging experts will revert with best packaging solutions.
We eagerly interest to know how you package your products + looking forward to hearing your best packaging practices + advice for providing outstanding packaging.
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We haven’t even touched on the graphics & printing requirements of the package yet…that is an entirely different subject with a new set of considerations. These include your branding, product story, and all the good stuff that helps consumers to make an emotional connection with your product. Be sure to address the top 10 considerations affecting the physical structure of your packaging before you even start with your graphics.
Make sure you have an experienced, competent, and knowledgeable team working for you to help you achieve your goals. That second mortgage and extended line of credit are real. Make sure you give yourself the best chance to succeed and get those great products of yours flying off the shelves!
BUY SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING WITH YOUR OWN UNIQUE DESIGN Kondaiah’s Creative Print and Pack (CPP) offers sustainable packaging for a variety of Mono Cartons, Corrugated Boxes, Paper Carry Bags, Rigid Boxes and other Packaging materials. You can design your own packaging even when ordering only minimum quantities. Our service is easy to use via CPP’s Think Beyond Creativity Program.
All packaging is manufactured in India from sustainably sourced material. This guarantees short delivery routes across globe, further lowering the carbon footprint. This way you can buy sustainable packaging for your offline/online shop, which fulfills all the factors we mentioned above.
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WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. HOW INNOVATIVE PACKAGING MATERIALTIPS
CAN CREATE A “WOW”-EFFECT Let’s take a look at a few key factors that will contribute to the effectiveness of your packaging:
PHYSICAL PROTECTION Is your product going to be sold exclusively offline/online? If it is, your packaging may be simpler and cheaper but you will need to protect from abuse during warehousing, shipping & handling. Variables like temperature, time, and other environmental influences like dust, mold, insects, microorganisms, and UV light can damage certain packaging materials. It’s best to make the right decisions on the use of materials from the get-go to avoid any potential issues further down the road. Now that you have a second mortgage on your house to finance your dream product, it’s important to proceed with care and confidence, while so much of your money is invested into your product before you have even sold your first unit. Thinking of your packaging as a protective shell for your product is a good approach and only the first of many factors to consider.
DROP TESTING Physically surrounding and protecting your product is only a part of what packaging should do. What about drop testing? This is the packaging design equivalent to an automotive crash test. Your package will need to survive a fall from a predetermined height and your precious product inside will also need to survive without physical damage. If your product is a food item, you should consider the shelf life measured against the estimated time your product will be in transit, and in warehousing/distribution before it gets to your customer. All those environmental factors mentioned earlier like temperature and time duration will surely have a huge impact. Ultimately, your packaging solution needs to act as a protective outer shell from manufacturing, through shipping & transport, and all the way down the line to the retail environment and into the hands of the consumer and that cashier with butterfingers.
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WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. SUSTAINABILITY Have you thought about the sustainability component of your product? Can you even produce a cost-effective packaging solution while looking out for Mother Earth? In a perfect world, we all want to be better stewards of the earth and do our part to reduce any negative impact, but how? You don’t want to be responsible for creating more waste or be the one responsible for entangling sea turtles in plastic debris. In some instances, you do have options for using recycled packaging materials or at least a percentage of it along with environmentally safe printing dies and materials for any additional product protection while in the box.
When buying materials, don’t forget about your lovely planet. Be as green as you can be. I personally love to receive packages that are made from eco- friendly + sustainable materials. The harsh truth is that sometimes, things are not as environmentally friendly as we might think, particularly if a certain production process has a high scrap rate or increased cycle time associated with it. Some of these processing methods could mean using more energy during production. That can’t be good for the earth either, can it? Is your finished packaging solution easy for consumers to break down and recycle? Is every material clearly labeled to help with this process, or will it simply get trashed out of confusion or frustration and end up floating in the pacific ocean? Wow…so much to think about, right?
TAMPER & THEFT PROOFING You will also need to consider how to make your package tamper-resistant to reduce potential theft. Yes, it’s a problem and it’s often ignored by many. Is your packaging solution so small and efficient in the use of materials that it is now also very vulnerable to theft? Perhaps your product requires a visual indicator to show consumers that your product is safe to use/consume and tamper-free. Many food items or medications have safeguards in place to protect products from tampering and to raise consumer confidence & safety.
Not only can some products be removed far too easily from the package itself, but some entire packages can be easily stolen if not carefully designed to safeguard against it. Often a package for a very small item needs more visual presence or bulk intentionally designed into the packaging solution just to reduce or illuminate the possibility of being stolen.
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In addition to the exterior packaging, your product might require additional plastic wrapping, a plastic hang tag or a blister pack or a plastic vacuum- formed tray, wire fasteners/tie-downs to help secure your product or protect it.
ACCESSORIES Will your product be all alone in that beautiful package? What about any additional elements that need to be considered? Extra parts, accessories, cables, power adaptors, batteries, mounting hardware/fasteners swag, or anything else that needs to be accommodated alongside your product? Many additional items require additional special tooling or forming that adds additional cost and also has a potential environmental impact. If these items need to be food grade, your options will be limited in terms of material choices and may be regulated depending on what you need to include in the box.
COPY AND TRANSLATION Have you considered what kind of written literature needs to be included to help consumers with your product? How about an instruction booklet, warranty card, or additional legal copy? All that copy will need to be written and illustrations & icons created, not to mention any certification labels required and it doesn’t stop there. Just when you thought you had so much packaging real estate to work with, you may need to have all of your copy translated and written in other languages too depending on where you are intending to sell your product. Sure, it’s becoming a global market but there are still many differences within various parts of the world. On top of cultural and language challenges, If you want to maximize your product’s potential, you’d best pay attention to the details affecting all the specific regional nuances.
RETAIL REQUIREMENTS Not all bricks and mortar stores are alike and in fact, they all have different practices when it comes to displaying and merchandising your product. Will your package hang on a hook or will it stand on its own on a shelf? Perhaps it will be sold on a pallet in a club store or get stacked? Any concerns with weight? Will it be in a PDQ with its own header card and infographics? Many retailers have specific requirements that need to be followed so it’s best to find out what limitations you may be up against before you get too deep into it.
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You may only have a limited amount of shelf space to work with so the package size will most certainly be a factor. You’ll want to maximize your shelf presence to make a bigger, bolder impact and connect with your intended consumer.
COST VS PERCEIVED VALUE A common objective is often to create the cheapest possible package to help reduce cost but wait, not so fast. Besides theft being a potential issue, think about your product from the eyes of a consumer for a minute. Does your packaging solution accurately match your brand essence and project a high perceived value? Will adding 30 cents to the overall packaging cost help to elevate that perceived value and translate to more sales? If the answer is yes, then it’s a no-brainer. Give your product the best chance to succeed. Conversely, if your product is intended to be a low cost, high volume consumable item, don’t create a package that makes it seem unapproachable or unaffordable. Either way, the packaging should match the brand and clearly communicate your message.
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CIRCULAR ECONOMY ?
A circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.
Looking beyond the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles: . Design out waste and pollution . Keep products and materials in use . Regenerate natural systems
RE-THINKING PROGRESS: THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY There's a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we make stuff. 'Re-Thinking Progress' explores how through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works - designing products that can be 'made
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WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. to be made again' and powering the system with renewable energy. It questions whether with creativity and innovation we can build a restorative economy.
THE CONCEPT OF A CIRCULAR ECONOMY In a circular economy, economic activity builds and rebuilds overall system health. The concept recognises the importance of the economy needing to work effectively at all scales – for large and small businesses, for organisations and individuals, globally and locally.
Transitioning to a circular economy does not only amount to adjustments aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the linear economy. Rather, it represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits.
THE FUTURE IS CIRCULAR. In a world filled with finite resources, products and their manufacturers must adapt and embrace sustainable practices that benefit consumers and the planet. Product design and packaging offers tremendous opportunities to shift from a linear economy to a circular economy.
THE LINEAR ECONOMY… Today, most products and packaging are designed to be used once and discarded. This represents enormous amounts of wasted material and pollution. As landfills reach capacity, and micro-plastics pollute the world’s most remote regions the need for change is eminent.
CIRCULAR PACKAGING AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY A “Circular “Economy” is focused on products and materials being used over and over, in a continuous loop, rather than discarded. In a circular economy, products are reused. Products which cannot be reused are recycled by chemical or mechanical processes, or through biological processes such as composting. Circular packaging solutions incorporate the principles of the circular economy and integrate seamlessly into sustainability efforts.
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TECHNICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CYCLES The model distinguishes between technical and biological cycles. Consumption happens only in biological cycles, where food and biologically-based materials (such as cotton or wood) are designed to feed back into the system through processes like composting and anaerobic digestion. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources for the economy. Technical cycles recover and restore products, components, and materials through strategies like reuse, repair, remanufacture or (in the last resort) recycling.
ORIGINS OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY CONCEPT The notion of circularity has deep historical and philosophical origins. The idea of feedback, of cycles in real-world systems, is ancient and has echoes in various schools of philosophy. It enjoyed a revival in industrialised countries after World War II when the advent of computer-based studies of non-linear
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WORLD’S FIRST CONCEPT- ORIENTED PACKAGING COMPANY. systems unambiguously revealed the complex, interrelated, and therefore unpredictable nature of the world we live in – more akin to a metabolism than a machine. With current advances, digital technology has the power to support the transition to a circular economy by radically increasing virtualisation, de- materialisation, transparency, and feedback-driven intelligence.
FURTHER READING….. https://creativeprintpack.com/blog
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write to us CPP INSIGHTS Kondaiah’s Creative Print and Pack Private Limited (CPP) Plot No: 106 & 107, Sri Rama Layout, Subash Nagar, Jeedimetla, Hyderabad – 500055. India. Telephone: 040 35112211 | Phone: +91 9133395810 eMail: [email protected]
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ENDCRIPTION We at CPP recognize that there are environmental costs to packaging that go beyond the factory price. Keeping this close to our hearts, we work with a manufacturer on the leading edge of sustainability to minimize negative environmental impact through thoughtful design and material selection. Consumers want to make the sustainable choice. Help make it easier for them.
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