While packaging design has always been a fascinating creative discipline, its future promises to be even more exciting and complex. In today’s competitive market, companies are more aware of the importance of good packaging in determining the consumer’s value perception of a product.
In the past, packaging served one purpose – to contain and protect the merchandise. Now, it's a communication vehicle. The focus is just as much on the package as it is on the product inside it.
Below, Laura Drewe takes a look at some exciting trends in the future of packaging design.
Consumer interactivity
As we continue down the inevitable path of digital evolution, interactivity in packaging is becoming a common tool used by brands, advertisers and designers. The use of the QR (Quick Response) code is a good example of this. This code is a symbology developed in Japan in the 1990s that encodes information in a two-dimensional space.
The scope of use for the QR code is huge, particularly for the marketing and advertising of products and brands. One of the most important features of the QR code is that the consumer has instant access to product information. For example, as consumer concerns about food manufacturing and the need to know the ingredients continue to grow, the convenience of interactive product information in this case is particularly relevant.
QR codes are especially successful when linked to additional food facts, nutritional values, recipes, reviews, comparisons with competitors’ products, discounts, deals and social media sites.
The QR code and similar app technology add up to an exciting trend and valuable tool for engagement, and an effective means of altering the way people shop and make purchase decisions.
Sustainability
A dynamic trend that is influential in package design acknowledges growing consumer awareness of the environment. Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about global environmental issues and are changing their buying habits accordingly.
The 2012 Survey of Future Packaging Trends, conducted by Packaging World magazine and DuPont to identify trends shaping the packaging industry for the next 10 years, indicates consumers value convenience (76 percent) and shelf appeal (58 percent).
However, when asked what were going to be the packaging attributes that were most important to consumers in the coming decade, respondents suggest that consumer priorities are drastically changing. The focus is on sustainability, specifically the perceived “greenness” of packaging materials (increasing by 23 percent), recyclability (increasing 27 percent) and reusability (increasing 13 percent).
According to Tom Szaky, writing on sustainable packaging trends in March this year for Packaging Digest, over 80 percent of consumers are mindful of the claims made by products about their sustainability. This consumer response has major implications for companies and agencies aiming to target environmentally conscious consumers across numerous industries, and further highlights the importance of corporate responsibility when it comes to being environmentally and sustainably-conscious.
However, Sydney designer Mike Rossi believes that commitment to sustainability runs deeper than packaging and “should be a core principal of the brand itself and applied across all aspects of its operations for it to be genuine.” He would also like to see more environmental initiatives created by corporations that encourage recycling and reuse.
In the Status of Packaging Sustainability in Australia report, Mike McKinstry, president of the Packaging Council of Australia, writes “Sustainability is relevant to all companies in the packaging supply chain. Companies that ignore sustainability do so at their peril. The time has come for sustainability to work for, rather than against, the industry.”
As well as developing sustainable packaging systems, corporations and industries are acknowledging the importance of investing time and energy in educating shoppers – and in conveying environmental claims and benefits in a clear and compelling manner via labelling, and other educational and advertising support.
Interestingly, here is where the use of a QR code again becomes greatly beneficial – the consumer could be able to trace the origins of the product, and properly look into the brand's environmental credentials.
Practical minimalism
In line with the move to sustainability is the increasing trend to minimalism when it comes packaging. It’s the less-is-more principle – packaging that is stripped to the essential qualities of the product and the stylish simplicity of presentation. It is packaging that is smaller, lighter and economical, elements that acknowledge consumer awareness of the environment, social changes and convenience.
Joe Pryweller, editor of Packaging Strategies, says, “There is certainly a strong push to reduce the amount of packaging, one that has been ongoing for the past five years. This trend does not seem to be declining; go to your neighbourhood supermarket, and you’ll find evidence of packaging that is shorter and smaller.
“Waste is a major global concern, and the push by retailers and CPGs to reduce packaging – and save some money on materials in the process – will not cease. In fact, the newer trends of using pouches and other flexible formats will continue to grow as a means to reduce size and weight.”
There is no doubt social change is indirectly contributing to modifications in packaging design. The average size of households is declining in part because more couples are opting not to have children, and many professionals choose to live alone instead of getting married or living with others.
Increasingly busy lifestyles mean consumers are seeking ease of use and convenient transportation from their packaging. Smaller, lighter and more easily disposable packaging makes consumption-on-the-go easier. Innovations such as no-mess applicators and dispensers eliminate the need for additional packaging, further adding to a no-fuss and disposable approach. Individual-sized portions are becoming key in packaging.
Products are increasingly expected to be easy to open and re-sealable whenever possible. People don't want to waste food, and trends in packaging dictate that smaller definitely is better and less packaging is becoming more desirable.
Packaging design is a large and demanding design field ever alert to the need to deliver both product originality and sales performance. Packaging is the last message consumers see and a last chance to convince them to buy the product. It needs to give meaning, to tell a story that is important to the producer and consumer. Package design needs to engage and to communicate.
Laura Drewe is currently completing a diploma of graphic design at the CATC Design School in Sydney.
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