CPP INSIGHTS - OCTOBER 2021

C P P

INSIGHTS VOLUME VIII

8

OCTOBER 2021

GOLDEN DAYS For Packaging Companies

WAKEUP TIME Quality Conscious in Brand Packaging

BRAND TE[A]CHNIQUES LEARNING LESSONS FROM PRODUCT AND PACKAGING DESIGN MISTAKES.

UNBOX YOUR IDEA

BIRTH AND RE-BIRTH OF

PACKAGING an unpredictable growth

Dear Customer....

We have fulfilled and reached our missions because of your business.

And we are devoted to assisting you with respect and fulfillment.

Kondaiah's Creative Print and Pack Pvt

Ltd

[CPP]

celebrating

15th

Anniversary.

About us CPP

is

the

oriented

world's

Print

first

and

conceptPackaging

solutions provider started in 2007.

CPP takes pride in creating enduring value

through

sustainable

development. It strongly believes in connecting its core capabilities to provide print and packaging solutions.

Apart from being a market leader.

CPP has long been driven by the concept of sustainable development, with maximum market share across the Indian subcontinent.

We

offer

Exclusive

Packaging

Solutions for Food, Pharmaceutical, Garment.

Electronic,

FMCG,

Beverages and Agriculture industries.

And we are committed to protect and promote

your

product

with

our

premium range packaging solution.

e v o l e w ur yo ct p rodu

CPP INSIGHTS | October 2021

15

• Y E A R S •

HELLO

PACKAGING

Kondaiah's Creative Print and Pack [CPP] celebrating its 15th Anniversary.

Thank you for Everyone.

----------------We design and manufacture packaging solutions with COPS technology and we believe in progress—that the application of intelligence, reason and science can improve business, image and the sustainable condition.

We believe our strength lies in the diversity of our employees. CPP encourages creative pursuits and passions outside of work, because when CPPians can explore their curiosity, it gives all of us a new outlook on the world and its possibilities for emerging tech. Together, CPP can drive progress through meaningful innovation and action.

Cheers,

Kondaiah Chowdary

Kondaiah Chowdary

F O U N D E R

A N D

M D

N O T E

CPP INSIGHTS

World's First Concept-Oriented Print and Packaging Magazine

EDITOR IN CHIEF RAGHU KACHARAGADLA raghu@creativeprintandpack.com

FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR KONDAIAH CHOWDARY P

WRITER CPP Insights Team insights@creativeprintandpack.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER CPP ID Team design@creativeprintandpack.com

DIGITAL TEAM Think Beyond Creativity tbc@creativeprintandpack.com

CONTENTS GOLDEN DAYS

For Packaging Companies

WAKEUP TIME

P1 - P4

Quality Conscious in Brand Packaging

BRAND TE[A]CHNIQUES

P6 - P13

Learning Lessons from Product and Packaging Design Mistakes.

HOW COVID-19, ECOMM ARE DRIVING DEMAND P14 - P17 FOR PACKAGING TO AN ALL-TIME HIGH

No matter the category, today’s brands live as much online as in hand.

FUTURE PACK-A-GING – MUST DO’S FOR PACKAGING AND BRANDING COMPANIES Packaging is ubiquitous.

Copyright© 2021 CPP INSIGHTS

P18 - P23

cover story

BIRTH AND RE-BIRTH OF

PACKAGING an unpredictable growth

GOLDEN DAYS

For Packaging Companies

WAKEUP TIME

Quality Conscious in Brand Packaging

GOLDEN DAYS

For Packaging Companies

WAKEUP TIME

Quality Conscious in Brand Packaging

By 2025, India is expected to become the fifth largest consumer market in the world, according to CII. The inception of new technologies along with a rise in e-commerce, changing lifestyles, urbanisation and increased personal health awareness has boosted the growth of the print and packaging markets, especially in regions such as the AsiaPacific.

If we talk about the Indian packaging industry, it is currently growing at a rate of more than 12-16 percent per year, which is playing a crucial role and adding value to various manufacturing sectors like Apparel, agriculture, pharma, retail, FMCG, and so on. which comprises more than 2,50,000 small, medium and big printing companies. There are more than 36 printing institutes in India, of which some are giving post-graduate education. Every year, around 3,500 new printing graduates are joining the print industry.

Due to the COVID-19 impact, the packaging industry in India has been growing due to solid demand from the food and pharma sectors.

Global packaging grew from $843.8 billion to $914.7 billion during 2015–19 with a compound annual growth rate of 2.0%. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020 it is expected that global packaging will experience a drop of approximately 6% in 2019– 2020 to $859.9 billion. The market in 2020–30 is expected to recover, reaching $1.13 trillion in 2030.

The global pharmaceutical packaging market has been predicted to double to $149bn in a decade, with India one of the markets currently producing a large quantity of paper and plastic pharmaceutical packaging. Large multinational and Indian pharma packaging companies lead the way within the country’s pharma packaging market.

The Food suppliers either offline or online specially focused on branding and food safety.

And also packaging norms are getting stricter, or these are expected to be safe and promote the use of good-quality packaging. Also, affordability, small urbanized household size, and time compression are expected to give way to the packaged food category.

As per industry data, the paper packaging market contributes more than 30 per cent to the overall packaging market share and dominates other packaging domains. The demand for sustainable packaging made of paper, jute, cloth and even plants is also increasing around the country. The Indian packaging industry has registered a robust CAGR of 15 per cent in the last five years, and it is projected to achieve an annual turnover of US$ 32 billion by 2025.

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Current Indicators The global population will expand and especially in key emerging markets, like China and India, the rate of urbanisation will continue to grow. This translates into increase consumer incomes for spending on consumer goods, as well as exposure to modern retail channels and the aspiration among a strengthening middle class to engage with global brands and shopping habits.

Rising life expectancy will lead to an aging of the population – especially in key developed markets, like Japan – will increase demand for healthcare and pharmaceutical products. Simultaneously there is a need for easy opening solutions and packaging adapted to the needs of elders.

Another key phenomenon of 21st-century living has been the rise of the ecomm market; this is pushing demand for goods packaged in smaller portion sizes; as well as more convenience like brand packaging.

The index of current indicators has continued to rise since the inception of this research in March 2021 but has now just passed 50.0 for the first time. The latest reading of 52.2 for the April 2021 - June 2021 period indicates that more companies are now reporting upward trends in business activity than those who are reporting declines. The index of current indicators measures sales, production, employment, pre-tax profitability, and prices. The increase has mainly been driven by respondents reporting higher sales and levels of production.

The print and packaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% over the forecast period (2021-2026). The printed packages enable the manufacturers to enhance the visibility of the products, thereby, attracting the buyer's attention and propelling him to go for the product.

Hesitancy to Invest in Capital Equipment Likely to Ease as Business Picks Up Later in 2022 Companies tend to make capital investments in their business when it is an opportune time to do so. To better understand industry sentiment heading into the New Year, CPP Insights asked packaging companies if they are planning on making any of these investments this year. Thirty-nine percent (39.0%) are planning to invest, 23.9% are not planning to invest, and 37.2% are waiting to see how things play out. If uncertainty is eased, there is potential that some of this group will invest in themselves, but time will tell if they are capable of doing so.

The growing demand for aesthetic appeal, coupled with personalized packaging, is one of the significant factors that are expected to fuel the growth of the packaging printing market, over the forecast period. According to Evergage Inc., 70% of the marketers feel that personalization has a strong impact on the consumer's buying behaviour.

The need for increasing the speed to market is propelling the players to increase the deployment of the printing technologies. This may enable them to not only increase the in-house production capacity, but also get the products ready in time, by meeting the scheduling challenges quickly and efficiently.

The growing need for high shelf impact, ability to stand, lightweight, and sustainability of

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brand owners are drawn toward Mono cartons. As mono cartons are a laminated box made from several features of finishing that requires a number of different operations in production, the players in the market are developing solutions that enable them to provide a fast turnaround solution.

The advancements in the technology, coupled with demand for creative packaging, driven by intense competition and brand awareness, are expected to aid the growth of the market. The growing demand for innovative packaging from end-user segments, like food, beverage, and cosmetics, among others, is expected to lead the expansion of the market studied.

The packaging and label sectors witnessed a surge in demand due to the rise of ecommerce activity. On the other hand, wide format graphics, commercial printing as well as sheet-fed digital printing were areas heavily affected by Covid-19, but which we expect to bounce back quickly post-COVID. India’s e-commerce retail market faces an increasing demand for packaging, such as Mono Cartons and Corrugated Boxes due to the packaging’s firm structure, adding brand concept and preventing potential damage in transportation. The mono carton packaging category makes up 80% of the country’s overall packaging market.

On a more positive note, we’ve witnessed a number of our customers diversifying their offering. In one case a customer successfully changed their focus from sustainable packaging manufacturing to mass production.

Market sector is key. Entertainment, leisure travel, have all be affected badly, but any businesses associated with pharmaceutical or online shopping have boomed. Packaging companies that offer their services direct to the public online, either via gifts, cards or publishing have fared well.

The web-to-pack industry is growing rapidly due to the fact that the e-commerce space is also seeing enormous growth and has become the preferred choice for many in light of the current global situation. This creates a demand for more packaging options and better unboxing experiences, which will see more packaging companies capturing the market by launching their businesses online in order to supply these demands. The type of packaging companies we will see entering web-to-pack will be folding carton and corrugated converters and web-to-print companies who will use their experience and know-how in the digital space to enhance product offerings with packaging solutions.

This will include more sustainable materials, less packaging waste, and more innovation to help brands connect with their audience. In addition to this, offline packaging converters will also be faced with strong competition in the digital world, which means that their focus will shift towards excellent service, speed, and delivery as this has become an expectation for many online consumers and brands.

More Flexibility, More Options Sure, the top priority of packaging is still protecting the goods, but the way it is done is very much changing. To make packaging more sustainable, packaging companies are opting for thinner materials and more sophisticated design.

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With the delivery mechanism of boxes becoming more complex and varying in retail formats, packaging production needs to also be able to be more flexible, requiring faster and more efficient machines. The boom of the e-commerce sector has proven to not only be a chance of growth for the packaging industry but also a challenge in that regard.

But it’s not only protection of goods and delivery mechanisms that are changing; the presentation of the product through clever and innovative packaging has also been stepped up quite significantly. New digital solutions have enabled substantial progress, allowing packaging designers and converters to do things that were previously impossible. And while digital may not completely replace analogue printing, it still provides the flexibility needed to work with shorter production runs, as the recent trend requires. Customization, security and traceability have never been to in demand or so easy to achieve.

PRINTING PACKAGING MARKET CHALLENGES High Cost:  High initial investments for printed packaging raise the production costs for the manufacturers, which acts as one of the major factor restraining the market growth.  The major effect is Raw material Price increases and payments due to the COVID effect, Suppliers have been changed the payment terms, so print and packaging companies should pay in advance to them but printing and packaging companies are not getting advance payments from their customers [majority].  And also due to the price increase in Raw material, packaging companies are facing a tight position to reach customer target prices. It will impact on sales growth.

Since the packaging industry is a highly competitive one, the companies tend to keep change or upgrade their packaging patterns and so on from time to time in order to retain their market position as well as improve brand endorsement. This up-gradation or innovation for the printed packaging over time contributes towards the requirement of packaging patterns and printing formats and so on incurs high spending by the endusers. Additionally, purchasing printing and packaging conversion machines, as well as its maintenance over time, eventually requires the end-users to spend a large amount of capital investment, which causes lesser adoption from small scale or medium-sized businesses. Owing to high expenditure in the short term, small startups or businesses generally rely on simple and economical packaging options, with minimum printing in order to maintain production costs, thereby hampering the market growth.

An Eye on the Future Start investment and trails on  

Smart Packaging [AI/RFID/NFC] Sustainable Packaging

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Packaging is at the heart of promoting a product, influencing consumers’ buying behaviours, and safety of the product. It communicates with customers, effectively telling them what the brand and company stands for. This is what the power of an effective packaging is.

Worlds First ConceptOriented Packaging Company.

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A strong brand packaging communicates what your company does and how it does it. A strong brand also establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers.

BRAND TE CHNIQUES [A]

LEARNING LESSONS FROM PRODUCT AND PACKAGING DESIGN MISTAKES.

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MISTAKES DESIGNERS MAKE WHEN DESIGNING PRODUCT PACKAGING – by CPPian The smartest thing we ever heard anyone say about package design is ... "It needs to be quantified:' We need an empirical measure to determine how many dollars of incremental profit come back to the brand owner for every dollar invested in design. I'd imagine that many of the brands in this book are not supported by advertising, and package design is their only form of consumer connection. Even among heavily advertised brands, package design is the most permanent part of their brand message and the one seen by the most consumers. Really Good Packaging Design continues to drive brand affinity throughout multiple advertising campaigns, countless promotions, numerous changes in brand management, and all the other elements of a brand's evolution.

1. Failing to discuss money up-front.

Would you work with a plumber, carpenter, dentist, doctor, or lawyer if you didn't know how they bill? Money, sales, and contracts are not what designers are trained to discuss and therefore, it's a matter too often avoided until countless hours have been invested in a project and the desire for fair compensation creeps in. When designers can clearly identify their strategic process and how their creative value serves a client's identifiable needs, then the value creation is clear.

It is only then that they can define the variables that determine fee structure.

For creative inspiration, We...

Design and manufacture packaging solutions in Hyderabad City [India]. we experience the endless sense of wonder, the breadth of imagination and fountains of ideas that come from fresh minds, the freedom of experimentation unconfined by clients or real-world restrictions, and the energy that comes in rooms full of creative minds working together to achieve their best, Every week we encounter amazing concepts, incredible talents, inspiring uses of materials, technology, typography, and resources. When it's not happening in the lab of CPP, there are few places in the world with the diversity, energy, and stimulation of Hyderabad City. – Innovation Team, CPP Insights 2. Jumping onto the computer before brainstorming, researching, sketching, collaborating or experiencing.

Thinking that the Internet makes up for real-life research and experience is a mistake. Actually, it's called laziness. Certainly there are thousands of inspiring works right at our fingertips, but nothing can take the place of interpersonal, experiential, and sensory experiences. In fact, the mind-set that makes us jump onto the computer-being overwhelmed, feeling a lack of creative thinking, not having a clear sense of direction or organization-is precisely what often leads to a great sense of frustration [or even design plagiarism.] With the breadth and diversity of information at our fingertips, we are bombarded by sensory overload

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and time is lost in this Internet vacuum. This is also when design plagiarism can occur. A great brainstorming session, researching analogous or dissimilar subjects or collaborative mind-mapping can increase productivity. Designers make better decisions when they have a clear, well-informed, well organized, yet varied problem-solving process.

3. Failing to design with the end in mind.

Not only is this all too common, but add to that failing to work with a printer or production professional at the onset of a project. From size, material, and production processes to retail environment, lighting, shelf positioning, and consumer demographics, too often designers move forward in the design process uninformed.

Designers should not be afraid to have a backward design process, to ask questions and advice from manufacturers and production professionals, and to use all potential recourses and collaborative opportunities to advance a design process. There is no road map for the designer who fails to understand or articulate the essential outcomes of a project.

4. Thinking that design aptitude can compensate for communication skills.

Designers need to be not only walking visual thesauruses but also world citizens.

On a macro level, they need to be informed about the workings of the global business world, the financial transactions, management, and business environment of their clients, and the impact the global economy has on design.

On a micro level, they must be able to articulately communicate a clear design strategy behind an aesthetically pleasing solution. Communication skills, including writing, speaking, and critical thinking, have been significantly altered with the integration of new communication technologies. Although new ways to express ourselves have emerged, the ability to articulate effectively in an oral or written format will always be an essential and highly regarded value in our society. Young designers, in particular, should be given opportunities to witness great orators presenting or reading exceptional examples of business writing, and they should be provided with plenty of opportunities to practice these skills themselves.

You know a package design is really good when ... It drives an initial purchase, it serves as the key visual mnemonic of the brand, and it unifies all other brand communications. At the end of the day, it all comes down to engaging the consumer at the point of sale. Now, if a package can do this and elevate consumers· sensibilities at the same time, then the design is truly great 5. Losing touch with innovation and creativity and falling prey to the same design routine or a stale design process.

Too often, designers and design firms lose perspective on themselves and their work. They produce similar work for a wide variety of clients. Certainly, directors

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and peers are critiquing designers internally, and clients externally, but among external designers and design firms, there are few opportunities to share and receive feedback. The speed of innovation breakthroughs in the technology sector far surpasses any minute advances in our own profession. Designers need to change perspectives, turn processes around or even upside down, look at the designed environment from a new, younger [or older) perspective, and take risks. Common sense and pragmatism have been drilled into us over the years, and the sense of imagination, playfulness, inventiveness, and rule breaking that were hallmarks of childhood are lost to systems and rigid processes.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away," 6. Thinking that taking responsibility for the environment and humanity is their clients' issue.

Certainly for many designers, this issue has changed their process, business focus, and mission; however, creating lasting and positive change is critical for the future and direction of our design profession. We need to look at clients and designers as partners and share common goals in this effort. Information relevant to health, environmental and production considerations, alternative materials, technologies, and processes should be shared freely. One more thing: Designers should not let more violator labels-FSC [Forest Stewardship Council) or otherwise-infringe on the face of good design. Once these labels get into packaging design, it will be hard to get them off. Designs that are environmental friendly should live it, not wear it.

7. Devaluing their craft by participating in spec work.

Other than doing pro bono work, which in packaging design is a rare opportunity, doing spec work [free design work) cheapens our profession. Any designer willing to work without a guarantee of appropriate compensation should consider a career change. I have heard plenty of potential clients argue that viewing a project submission by a number of firms allows them to compare evenly. Can you imagine asking five painters to each paint one wall of a room to see who has the best approach? If a capabilities presentation, portfolio, and interview are not evidence enough, then the client is fishing for freebies.

Creative thinking is a muscle. The more you use it, the more you build it. It needs to be exercised regularly. Age brings experience, but not necessarily wisdom. There is much to be learned from people who challenge convention or see the world from a different perspective.

8. Taking themselves and their work all too seriously.

Comic relief-or at least a bit of wit-in our everyday environments is desperately needed. I truly believe that humour and wit [used with good judgment) not only sell but also add levity to tension-filled existences. What I am referring to is the visual marriage of ideas that communicate in a clever, visually interesting, artful

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way. Although there are psychological, social, and aesthetic differences in the interpretation of wit, using humour and wit in ways that are open to common interpretation by audiences of globally disparate perspectives can make for highly effective visual communication tools. Although there would be nothing worse than every design attempting to be funny, I believe that consumers are beginning to slow down and appreciate the nuances and expressions of creative thinking that witty designs communicate.

9. Designing based on an old set of rules and philosophies.

Design is about creating new experiences, not simply conforming to the competition or to pre-set parameters. Don't get so caught up in a project, a style, or a philosophy and forget to cultivate a new perspective, a new relationship, or a new approach to thinking about the world in which the design and consumers live. Reframing a problem and the approach can often make it more interesting and solvable. Designers should be encouraged to break away and break rules.

With the utilization of clear communication skills, based on innovation, designers can collaborate with clients on solutions that are part of a more meaningful consumer experience.

10. Thinking that anyone with any design background can do it well.

Packaging design is a focused discipline that takes education, experience, and a lot of hard work. It takes an extensive breadth of qualities beyond the ability to graphically layout a Product Detail Page (PDP) or create a three-dimensional structure. With all the requirements and functions that are integral to packaging designs, it is not simply about the what but about the how. Yes, it's about making people respond, but there is nothing simple about that.

And…..

Most designers probably don't know that ... Brand identity/package design generates the highest return on investment of any marketing communications effort, bar none.

Most designers might feel that this is true but not know how to prove it. Most marketers probably don't know this. Our goal as an industry is to prove to ourselves, our clients, and the general business community that [to quote Thomas J. Watson] "good design is good business." Only then will design and the design process has best practices. Only then will design consistently receive the proper time and resources required to do it right. Only then will design consultancies be able to justify proper compensation for their contribution to brand success. Only then will the design be respected for what it is the single most effective and cost efficient branding tool!

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MISTAKES DESIGNERS MAKE WHEN CREATING PACKAGING DESIGN - by CPPian 1. Stop listening.

Designers are so viscerally intuitive that they often get an immediate vision in their heads about the perfect solution before the client has fully explained the project. Great designers suspend their creative minds for a bit and use their analytical skills during briefs and design critiques. They listen while clients describe their issues, and they put them into a hierarchy. They ask questions, lots of them. They present alternative directions. With a good designer leading the discussion, clients often solve their own problems. And then, the designer can be much more efficient in giving them exactly what they want.

2. Giving them what they want.

OK, so after you lead the client to articulate exactly what they want, you just do that, right? Wrong. Great designers go beyond the expected and create effective solutions that also elevate consumers' design sensibilities. The objective of every brand identity assignment is to sell the product and build a long-lasting emotional connection with the consumer. However, every assignment should also seek to raise design literacy, literally teaching consumers to respond to better design.

3. Misunderstanding design research.

Regardless of how much you and the client both like your concepts, package design's first true test of success is qualitative and quantitative consumer research. If the designer is not involved in determining the methodology and the questions being asked, the results can be not only confusing but also misleading .

Research teams all too often want one primary valuation: purchase intent.

Would you buy this? They don't care as much about the reasons why. Research respondents, on the other hand, are biased by their relationship to the existing brand-or competitive brands-and what they remember from the store.

Optimizing package design research is a much larger issue-perhaps worthy of its own book-but designers must also look for and correct the trapping questions.

They must attend and help interpret research findings, and they must fight for the actionable insights that will improve their work.

4. Designing for themselves.

It's pretty rare that a brand's target audience is an exclusive group of highly evolved, elite visualists. Designers are not your brand's target market, so what appeals to you may be quite irrelevant to your audience. Think like them. Get into their heads and determine the visual cues that motivate their behaviour.

When we look at designers' portfolios, we want to see a high level of diversity, proving that they can design well beyond their own personal aesthetic.

5. Not managing expectations/Selling through/managing up.

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over. Designers need to be storytellers. You need to have an articulate rationale for every decision you make, and you need to be able to tie that story back to the brand. If you can justify your opinions, you'll have a much higher degree of success in selling a concept through an organization.

6. Limiting your influences.

Great designers get inspiration from everywhere, not only through the 'net and the competition entries but in the way that the wrapper of your buttered bagel is folded. Get your head out of the annuals and get into a supermarket, a drugstore, a big-box retailer and open your eyes. Inspiration is everywhere, and everything-literally, everything!-can be redesigned to be better. Reinvent the ordinary. Reject the jaded. Celebrate the unexpected.

7. Falling in love with your work/Knowing when to stop.

Don't get me wrong. Passion fuels great design. So fall in love with the process, but understand that design is a business. You need to be compensated for the value of what you do. Ambitious designers are often too close to their work. They present several variations of ten to twelve concepts and thereby completely confuse their clients. Each design should achieve each individual objective in a different and relevant way. This leads to fewer but more focused and powerful concepts. When in doubt, leave it out. If the client asks if you tried X, Y, and Z, you can then pull out those additional roughs and explain what worked, what did not, and why you abandoned them to concentrate on the most effective solutions.

8. Not telling a story.

An effective design presentation is a performance: It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You are not only there to simply verbalize what your clients can already see; you are there to delight and inspire them.

Tell them about your influences and what worked and why. Tell them the different emotions that will be evoked by each element of your work. Present several truly discrete and articulate solutions, but also have a strong and credible point of view.

Lead them to your recommended design strategies and engage their passions.

9. Not collaborating between disciplines.

Package design is the cornerstone of an integrated brand communication architecture.

While consumers might learn of the brand on the ·net or television or other commercial media, it is their engagement at the point of sale that’s the most relevant. They decide to buy the product because of the package.

They take it home. They interact with it whenever they are using the product.

The consumer engages the brand. And yet, package designers and advertising creatives and Web developers and social-network craftspeople rarely meet to share ideas and synthesize their efforts. Get out of your discipline and learn how brand communication design works. Invite these counterparts into the package-

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design process. Collectively discover the visual strategies that will synthesize every consumer touchpoint.

10. Overreliance on your tools Computer-aided design is a blessing and a curse. Yes, we are able to immediately gradate backgrounds and dimensionalize type, but we are losing design craftsmanship in the process. As a result, there are fewer and fewer designers who still have incredible hand skills. Dust off your airbrush. Hand-letter your next logo. Experiment more with cut paper and vellum. With credit to the amazing advancements in design technology, if you can’t communicate your solution with a felt-tip pen on the back of an envelope, you’re relying too much on your computer

You know a package design is really good when ... It makes you [and, more importantly, consumers) pick it up off the shelf. Getting consumers to even notice the package [does it stand out from its competition?) is a great first step. Then, is it intriguing enough to get them to pick it up? Is there an emotional connection or payoff? And, lastly, does it make them want to purchase it? As a designer, if your package design has accomplished those critical things, you've done your job. The rest is up to what's inside to make it a successful product. – The CPPian

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OW COVID-19, eComm ARE DRIVING DEMAND PACKAGING TO AN ALL-TIME HIGH

FOR

Before COVID, online shopping was on the rise, but once the pandemic hit, online shopping became a way of life for many. As a result, the demand for packaging so that products can be shipped to customers’ homes, rose sharply and today, it remains at an all-time high.

No matter the category, today’s brands live as much online as in-hand. And there’s no sales channel evolving more rapidly and more dynamically than eComm.

“It’s been a little over 18 months since the onset of COVID, and the shutdown started happening. People got used to doing their shopping online, and they’re still doing it, whether for convenience or because they don’t want to be out in the public space,” explained Kondaiah Chowdary P, Founder and Managing Director of Kondaiah’s Creative Print and Pack [CPP].

Beginning in the late 1990s, online shopping has grown to the point where today, people have—and still are— changing their buying habits. They have discovered that it is extremely convenient, they can find a bigger selection, more options, and better pricing online.

This has only increased the number of packages sent to consumers and has made a tremendous impact on the amount of packaging supplies needed to keep the supply chain moving.

As the online shopping trend keeps its current pace, Chowdary explained that its impact on brick-and-mortar stores has resulted in many of them closing and moving to an online model only. It wasn’t long before businesses discovered that they could utilize online sales to drive profitability and reduce overhead.

“We believe packaging is a critical medium for develop ing strong, trusted relationships with consumers; in fact, we see it at the centre of the marketing mix,” said Kondaiah Chowdary. “In a fragmented media landscape, the package is the only constant – it represents the purest form of brand communication.

Our new CPP structure and comprehensive services will help our clients successfully communicate with their customers in every channel and win every critical moment.”

As pressure and demand increase for online stores to meet consumers’ demands for goods, it also affects their suppliers, who are struggling to hire the number of workers they need to keep up with demand, not to mention growing.

When companies are unable to produce even the minimum the industry needs, it becomes a snowball that grows in size as it rolls downhill.

Those in need of packaging materials are hyperaware of the challenges in the current environment. Their suppliers are seeing shortages in raw materials used to make the products they rely on, which is exacerbated for small to medium companies who don’t

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have the purchasing power of large companies like Amazon, who get their orders fulfilled first.

When challenges come together this way, it also drives up prices. Added to that are the increases in freight charges due to greater demand and a shortage of labor.

“Prices have gone up significantly over the past year to year-and-a-half,” he said. “I anticipate an increase of anywhere from a 7-14% increase in Paper Board, 3-5% in adhesives, UV Products and films goes up about every two months and will be going up another 10% this month.”

Prices rising are due to this perfect storm of shortages in labor and raw materials together with an increase in demand. For those who are struggling to get packaging, especially branded packaging, Chowdary suggested using CPP COPS based packaging boxes with paper tape that has your company branding.

Regardless of which avenue clients choose, it is advisable to make sure to order packaging supplies as soon as possible.

Mr. Chowdary adding...CPP specialized in Concept Oriented Packaging Solutions [COPs]. “it helps to enhance your brand and it keep first row in the shelf.” And one more important thing to know about Concept Packaging will make your product pop. And jump off the shelf (into customer carts). Get a custom packaging design from CPP, and our packaging experts, will create something you’ll love it.

THE TRENDS RESHAPING PACKAGING Five major trends will change the game in the packaging industry and raise the bar for performance in the next five to ten years.

Much higher levels of innovation and agility will be required to deal with the pressure and potential disruptions emanating from these trends:  E-commerce everywhere. The rise in e-commerce could place an intense focus on increased packaging requirements, including for new products, along with last-mile-delivery innovations.

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Changing consumer preferences. Demands for much more personalization, convenience, health, and affordability are driving SKU proliferation to new heights.  FMCG and retail-margin compression. Further margin compression for FMCG companies and retailers, with pressure passed back up the line to converters, may intensify the threat of insolvency.  Sustainability. Requirements for sustainability are rising at every step of the value chain—with rising activist scrutiny.  Digitalization and Internet of Things (IoT). Digital efforts are being used both to drive down costs and, increasingly, to gain a competitive edge with consumers— for example, by generating greater customer value and service by integrating technology in packaging.

All five trends are approaching at varying strengths and speeds, with a special role for digital trends. The biggest increase in pressure is expected from e-commerce, which will move from early adoption to early-majority diffusion. The second rush of new pressure will likely come from digitalization. Initially, digital’s role will mainly be as a costefficiency booster via automation, and then, increasingly, as a source of customer-facing interactive tools, both to convey information and emotion and to collect data. The other three trends—changing consumer preferences, margin compression, and sustainability—are already having a moderate-to-strong impact, and they will increase in strength.

The overriding implications of these packaging trends differ according to substrate and will demand substrate- and channel-specific strategies. Despite the surge of sustainability pressure, the combined power of plastics’ attractive attributes with regard to cost, automation, and quality will likely buoy up rigid and flexible plastic substrates, if converters can increase recyclability and recycled content. Paper and board will continue to benefit from ecommerce growth and are ideal for integrating digital and IoT solutions (using quick-response codes, radio-frequency-ID tags, near-field-communication protocols, and so on). Paperboard will likely see more of the convergence of primary and secondary packaging, a shift in focus or buzz around the last mile (as will plastics), as well as more local or even captive converting operations to increase FMCG companies’ agility. Glass and metal have an uphill battle in this more omnichannel world, but their traditional strengths and sustainability profiles (recyclability and using recycled content) still offer ways to fend off substitution by other substrates.

Even with deep substrate expertise, most converters need to think through an array of moves and revamp their approaches accordingly, giving attention to five priorities:  investing in R&D and innovation to secure a portfolio of competitive options  handling SKU proliferation driven by consumer preferences—for example, through more flexible and agile processes to manage shorter manufacturing runs and through faster new-product-development times to market

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reallocating resources and assets and pursuing M&A—for instance, to achieve a global–local footprint  strengthening collaboration with FMCG companies and input suppliers, including technology suppliers  shifting the product mix (and processes) toward greater sustainability All the improvement levers that these five focal points imply offer some opportunities— the question is how to line them up or combine them effectively. While plans will have to be adapted as the journey proceeds, attention to these five elements now will provide the platform for building a winning formula. Controlled urgency is essential in all five areas. Overall, this is most needed in reviewing and revamping R&D and innovation programs within the next 18 to 24 months in order to have a portfolio of projects with horizons of a few months to two to four years. At the same time, “controlled” refers to using sufficient quality gates and milestones, with financial and market reality checks, and adapting projects as needed or exiting. This is not only about how to make the most of a company’s current strengths and relationships to secure growth and profits but also about developing an outlook on where the pockets of growth are located (even if currently unserved), where they will appear, and when to pivot and tap them.

The smartest thing I ever heard anyone say about package design is ... "A great package design is the fastest way to kill a bad product." A great package raises the consumer's expectations of the product inside. They may make the purchase once, but if the product doesn't perform to those expectations, they won't make that purchase again.

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e c n e i r e p x E Unboxing The

UTURE PACK-A-GING – MUST DO’S FOR PACKAGING AND BRANDING COMPANIES The point on innovation is not to go attract ten PhDs from and put them in Hyderabad or somewhere. It’s about finding what the biggest customer pain point is that he or she is not able to solve. Two, how do you solve it? But not alone—solve it in an ecosystem; solve it with a partner. Three, get your organization to act. Go do it. And when you fail, fail fast. It’s about getting your organization to be agile, to be “customer back.” If you fail, that’s OK. Learn from it and move fast.

We’re seeing a lot of packaging companies that are waiting for their customers to come and ask for something different. The challenge with that is, often, when these customers ask for something different, they’re going to a new converter. So, there’s a real opportunity for packaging converters to step ahead, understand how these trends are affecting consumers and therefore their customers, and come in with solutions. But Kondaiah’s Creative Print and Pack [CPP] and their team thinking always something different, so they design VIP concept based packaging solutions, and it defines Visual Identity Packaging. It helps to connect and build bonding between your product and customer. - David Feber [partner in the Detroit office, McKinsey] A great example people talk about is vegetable-based packaging. Think about it this way: you go buy a burger, and then you throw away the box. What happens if you can eat the box? What happens if you can heat up the box and put it into your soup? What if it’s algae based or if it’s protein based? Then you can reuse it but not reuse it as a package— but in a different application. You can end up eating it. Or your dog can end up eating it.

Those are the kinds of innovation I believe you’re going to see in the next five years, ten years, 15 years. - Nick Santhanam [senior partner in the Silicon Valley office, McKinsey] Going forward, there needs to be much closer partnerships with brand owners, with retailers, with upstream recyclers, and even downstream—with new types of customers, like e-retailers—to think through, “How is this packaging going to work in the value chain? How do you develop this to solve a pain point?” Going forward, I think more and more relocation of assets closer to customers—close by or even in house—will happen a lot. - Daniel Nordigården [senior partner in the Detroit office, McKinsey] HOW PACKAGING WILL CHANGE David Feber: Packaging is ubiquitous. It touches almost every person on the planet. It affects things that human beings need to survive: food, healthcare, personal care. All of that is packaged. Today, none of that has a lot of intelligence. But there are real concerns with a lot of those products. There are concerns of spoilage, there are concerns of authenticity (“Is this what I thought I was getting?”), and there are concerns of origin (“Where is this coming from?”). With different types of intelligence and sensing, those packages can be much more dynamic and can help in two ways. One way

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is, “Don’t throw this out, even though it’s past its expiry date.” Or, on the other side, “That yogurt container that you just bought that is supposed to last two weeks hit a temperature that caused it to spoil, and don’t consume it.” Those are the types of examples that we suspect we’ll see.

You could envision the packaging changing to you as a consumer having your own personalized container that can be reused over and over—that your Instacart shopper picks up from your house, fills with strawberries, and brings back to your house. We may see more micro supply chains set up in certain communities that have a higher demand for consumer personalization or [that have] requirements for packaging to be sustainable and personalized and reusable.

Nick Santhanam: You go to the supermarket. You decide to buy a jar of coffee. You buy it, and you say, “I don’t know what to do.” Instead, think about if the packaging on it is able to tell you one thing: how to make a strong coffee. Two, when you scan it, it tells you, “You can make a strong coffee, which suits you this way, because I know this is the type of strong coffee you like and make. Here are the two other ingredients you need to buy.” And you’re going to have it. So, it’s becoming a personalized assistant to you.

Daniel Nordigården: What is already being tested now is digital/offset print. How can I have my name on a mono carton? Or, when I buy a carton of innerwear or something, how can I have my name on it—or some kind of customized promotion? I think, especially for in-store sales, that kind of personalization will be important to drive the sale of goods.

Good design not only captivates an audience's attention, it makes them linger. Great design means that the audience will connect with the brand, want to engage with and then remember that package later on. This is often achieved by having a great idea at the start-and at the heart-of whatever you do. - The CPPian

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PACKAGING Major trends are reshaping packaging solutions—and that could open new opportunities for players that are prepared to move fast.

In the early 19th century, the French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs to the inventor who could create the best container for preserving food for Napoleon’s army and navy. That contest gave rise to the tin can. The number of packaging innovations that have surfaced since that time are too numerous to count. Just a few notable examples are gable-topped milk cartons, bubble wrap, and single-serve pouches.

Consumer products brand design is wrongly predicated on the notion that shoppers make rational, informed decisions. In truth, most are purely instinctive and reactive. Eyetracking studies show that consumers read on average only seven words in an entire shopping trip, buying instinctively by colour, shape and familiarity of location. Best sellers succeed by appealing to the reptilian brain, which decides before logic has a chance.

Instinctive reactions can be designed into packaging through the application of Biomotive Triggers. These are sensory cues that affect our subconscious, generating emotion and action before the conscious part of our brain can respond. There are lots of

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triggers, and we have identified few key combinations that are interconnected.

Understanding these primal cues can help brands connect emotionally with consumers, build defendable assets and sell more products.

To be successful, every brand must have a distinctive point of view and be able to express this clear and unique reason for being. Effective packaging makes it easy to understand at a glance, who I am, what I am, and why I am relevant to your life.

Naturally, the product has to deliver on its promise to ensure repeat purchase.

Effective packaging design understands consumers and allows them to satisfy themselves that they are making a rational decision, while still appealing to emotion, culture, and preferences. It is a lot to ask from simple packaging design, but brands know that design can mean the difference between a successful product and one that languishes on the shelf. Here are six essential elements of effective packaging design.

1. Stand out Packaging design does not necessarily have to shout the loudest from the shelf, but it must stand out by communicating the very essence of the product’s unique selling proposition. Shapes, colours, orientations, and textures all play a role. Even brands that pride themselves on understated or elegant packaging designs often make those designs so that they are different from others, and may stand out because of their understated or elegant nature.

You need to make your brand the consumer’s signpost to the category. Just covering the shelf and shouting louder than everyone else won’t cut it. You need a point of orientation on the package that draws a shopper’s eye and communicates the essence of the proposition. One way to do this is with cusps. Cusps are sharp, pointy shapes that trigger feelings of fear, danger and caution.

2. It Must Make the Brand and Purpose Clear and Simple Simple design is more effective. In a busy, visually agitated market, we so rarely experience moments of visual or auditory calm that we gravitate toward it.

Even the most generic budget brands make their product and purpose clear, or else nobody will buy them because nobody will know what they are. While the budget brand may simply state “Tomato Sauce,” other brands must make that clear as a baseline for all other packaging design considerations. People will not buy a product if they do not know what it is and what it does.

3. It Should Awaken Emotions with love Emotions are closely linked to memories, and brand packaging designs that provoke emotions are more memorable than those that do not. Precisely what those emotions are may vary. Some brands may appeal to consumers’ sense of nostalgia, joy, or aspiration, for example. Marketing that plucks at people’s emotions is more effective than marketing that simply touts features and benefits. That is because the emotional parts of the brain are key to forming long-term memories.

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If you can describe your brand to a five-year-old, send them into a store to find it, and actually get it, your packaging creates an iconic connection. Consumers will come back week after week looking for it. The key to this stickiness is a distinctive brand mark. For example, you could tell a five-year-old, to get the salt pack with the girl in a yellow coat with an umbrella on it; she will come back with Morton Salt. Similarly, ask for the blue pack with the big black and white cookie splashed in milk, and he will return with a package of Oreos.

4. It Should Strive for “Iconic Assets” The best packaging creates a series of visual equities, a sort of tool kit that can be transferred to every form of consumer communication. Think of brand icons that are recognized the world over. Jockey, Nautica, Columbia, Apple, pTron, Mansion House, and etc. are just six examples. Not every brand will achieve iconic status, but packaging design should strive for it. The more iconic a brand’s design or logo, the easier it is for people to spot in newer contexts (such as new flavour offerings).

5. It Should Capture and Call Out Benefits “Cartoning” is hot right now. It means that labels offer clear, concise information about the brand and product, including health benefits, company values, and packaging sustainability. If your packaging is biodegradable or easy to recycle, the design should say so. If your product is low-sugar, organic, or plant-based, likewise, it should say so clearly. People care about unique product attributes.

6. It should be designed for its Target Audience and Trigger emotional engagement Consumers act when a brand makes them feel something. When someone looks at you, you’re compelled to look back to determine the nature of the attraction. That’s your survival instinct at work. For this reason, there’s nothing more powerful in packaging than eye contact. The next time you’re in an aisle, notice how many packages bear photos of people that don’t make direct eye contact; they’re looking away, or slightly past you.

You would not put a photo of a dog on a bag of cat food. While designing for the target audience is not always this straightforward, it is important for brands to learn to whom, exactly, their packaging designs appeal. Testing could show, for example, that a particular packaging design gives the impression of being “for women,” “for older people,” or “for trendsetters,” and you should know this. If your packaging design does not align with your target audience, it is probably time for a refresh.

Packaging design must not only contain products adequately and safely, it must include required elements like ingredient and nutritional information, as well as barcodes and other necessary elements. At the same time, it must appeal to consumers, often amid dozens of competing items. Packaging design should never be an afterthought because it is such a crucial element of the marketing strategy. Brands that ensure their packaging fulfils all the key elements consumers expect from packaging designs gain an edge over their competitors, whether they are sold online or in physical retail stores.

At a time when many consumers messages, the surest place for

actively screen out marketing Business Heads/CMOs to make

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a bigger impact is at the point of consideration. This can be done consciously when Biomotive Triggers are designed into packaging. The creativity conversation shifts from subjective likes and dislikes to the science underlying attraction, which allows design to be accountable for quantifiable sales uplift. That way, manufacturers and retailers can make more informed choices that make more money.

Kondaiah’s Creative Print and Pack [CPP] is world’s first concept-oriented packaging company, is always on the forefront of new concept oriented branding and packaging initiatives.

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UNBOX YOUR IDEA

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