12 minute read
Moving Consumers Toward Sustainability
4 PACKAGING DESIGN STRATEGIES THAT WILL MOVE CONSUMERS TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable packaging options can take many different forms. From more efficient workflows and packaging reductions, to using greener materials, inks, and substrates. There are so many innovations happening for sustainable packing, it’s becoming essential for brands to closely consider all avenues. But what about consumers? Studies have found that globally, consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging. In China, it was 8 out of 10 respondents; in Italy, South America, United Kingdom, and Germany, it averaged 70%. These results are significant and indicate that consumers are the most powerful driving force for brands to pursue more sustainable packaging. Which means that if a brand’s packaging speaks, consumers will listen—they just need to hear the right notes. We examine four design strategies brands can implement to motivate consumers to connect with more sustainable packaging long-term.
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Simplify Visual Indicators
We know brands are committed to sustainable packaging. We also know that consumers are willing to pay more. But sustainability is viewed as a huge topic, one that can be overwhelming for consumers, designers, and brands. Additionally, even many experts are not aligned on what is sustainable and what isn’t. This creates a significant barrier for consumers to understand how to identify which packaging is more sustainable, preventing those pursuits altogether. Even 35% of US consumers say that would buy more sustainably packaged products if they were better labeled. Brands design teams must help consumers navigate the challenges around clarity. Rather than allowing consumers to struggle for answers while browsing the shelf, brands should make sustainability solutions as clear as possible through visual cues in the form of structure, graphics, or colors. Green is the most common indicator of environmental friendliness, but brands should be open to using other visual characteristics such as package size, shape, and graphics, as well the product itself to imply sustainable packaging. One example is the redesign for Seepje liquid laundry detergent. The brand is already known for using environmentally friendly ingredients, so their packaging needed to further reflect that position. Designers focused on circularity with a refillable bottle cap, optimized material reduction, and compostable materials. These features retained the original design features but amplified its sustainability, creating simplified visual cues for the consumer, and making their choice for sustainability easier.
Enhance Digital Communication
Studies found that if consumers had clearer labeling and communications on packaging about sustainability, they would buy green products more often. Consumers only have a few seconds to see a package and determine if it’s sustainable, so from a design perspective, brands must evolve their packaging to clearly communicate sustainable credentials and make it easier for consumers to spot at the point of sale.
The challenge designers often have is that is so much content must be communicated on a pack, prioritizing details like benefits, descriptions, and ingredients. Unlike label standards, there is no consistent way to communicate sustainability. This is where amplifying digital solutions is key to improving transparency with consumers.
The pandemic saw an increase in consumers scanning QR codes, so if brands have a sustainability story to share, they should lean into this valuable technology. QR codes provide brands with flexibility in their communication strategy around sustainability. Not only can brands tailor the content to suit the legal requirements in specific markets, but they can make their sustainability content more engaging, educational, and inspiring through various formats of branded media.
Mars recently launched a QR code for its Galaxy® Chocolate brand so they could communicate their sustainability journey and social responsibility with consumers. The QR code appears onpack and in-store, and links directly to the page that details their various global initiatives.
Amplify Appeal
Some eco-friendly materials can be unappealing to the point that consumers will select a more attractive, less sustainable product. For example, brown cardboard is a common indicator that a package is better for the environment. But while consumers recognize it to be sustainable, they also find it unattractive. There is so much onshelf competition that the only way to overcome this challenge is for package designers to strategically combine sustainability with desirability.
Creating desirable packaging is equally as important as communicating its sustainability, so the two should be addressed in unison. A brand’s pack could use the most sustainable materials, but if it’s not picked up by consumers because of its design, then sustainability won’t be viewed as competitive in the market. Sustainable packaging should not mean lower quality—it should mean a higher standard of competition and unlimited possibilities for the brand. The Packadore Collective has created a Temptainability Matrix to ensure each design is both circular and desirable. The designs must meet at least one of the circularity benchmarks (Recyle, Renew, Reduce, Reuse, Rethink) for at least one of the consumer touchpoints (In-store, Online, Unpacking, In-use). By applying this methodology, brand packaging designers can ensure that sustainability messaging is retained, and desirability is amplified.
MARCEL VERHAAF Executive Creative Director SGK AMSTERDAM
Think Outside the Box
Consumers are used to designs that grab them with flashy features and bright colors because it’s considered more effective for grabbing their attention to the shelf. But those flashy designs are not always the most sustainable, and sometimes consumers need innovative packaging to direct them toward more sustainable choices.
One great example of innovative sustainable packaging design is for OMO’s laundry detergent. Ink reductions and specific ink selections are one of the easiest ways to make a pack more sustainable, so designers chose to experiment with inkless packaging that relied on easy-to-read embossing to communicate with the consumer. During the research process, designers found that the white box served as shortcut for the brain—from clean beautiful white box to clean, beautiful white laundry—without the use of any inks or substrates, making it desirable, engaging, and highly sustainable.
What is especially exciting about OMO’s design is that the brand holds a significant place in the sector, so if they can successfully transition to more sustainable packaging design without the risk of alienating existing consumers, then they could lead real change throughout the market. In this moment, consumers expect brands to pursue bold commitments toward a better and more sustainable future. They want packaging that syncs sustainability with desirability, where the two work symbolically and are treated equally. So, as brands address their design challenges, it’s important to keep these two pillars at the center of their briefings, while putting in the time, knowledge, and investment to getting their packaging on its most sustainable path.
Marcel Verhaaf
Marcel is responsible for the creative vision and design effectiveness of SGK’s work across brand and packaging design and is the driving force behind SGK’s sustainability innovations and designs executions. With a career spanning 30 years, he has been recognised by the industry with numerous accolades including international awards from The Dieline, Pentawards, Red Dot and ADCN in the Netherlands. Marcel has experience working with both global and local brands including Unilever, Nestlé, Heineken, Danone, Pladis, Ahold, AkzoNobel, Douwe Egberts, Pepsico, Pernod Ricard and Friesland Campina.
Arthur Brandenburg van den Gronden
Arthur is responsible for the brand and design strategies behind our sustainable and creative design executions, as well as for the growth and development of SGK’s Amsterdam studio. Having managed the Unilever account for 30 years across Europe, Arthur has a proclivity for solving large complex portfolio challenges including brand architecture and range navigation. Arthur’s strategic vision and leadership has contributed to the success of many FMCG brands including Knorr, Cup-aSoup, Unox and Conimex.
Agritalia has been recognized by Whole Foods Market as a winner of the grocer’s ninth-annual Supplier Awards, taking home the honor of Supplier of the Year with Special Recognition. The Whole Foods Market Supplier Awards distinguish 42 companies that raised the bar in 2020 across all product categories.
The company, a three-time winner of the award in 2011, 2019 and 2020, has been conferred with the Special Recognition among those “that go above and beyond in helping Whole Foods Market grow and drive business as well as inspire and delight customers”. In fact, Agritalia has an extensive expertise in selecting and providing the finest products picked from the assortment of over 100 qualified suppliers located across Italy and European Union, being able to consistently maintain the rigorous quality standards required by Whole Foods Market.
For the Naples-based company this is a twice as valuable acknowledgement considering that an average of 90% of suppliers of U.S. primary grocery retailers are local, regional or at national level. Also, Agritalia has been able to stand out for its reliability even during a critical year like last year, when several U.S. supermarket chains had to manage serious problems of shortage of goods due to the pandemic.
Sergio Massa , CEO, Agritalia
In synergy with sister companies Agrilogistica and Agrusa, the company was able to put in place a timely, efficient contingency plan to avoid out of stocks despite the unfavorable situation. During 2020, the Covid-19 global emergency has exponentially boosted sales for large-scale retailers across the USA leading the volumes of Agritalia to the new continent up to +37% compared to the previous year. At the same time, the pandemic has been a major driving force also for the medium and small manufacturers that work in partnership with the group that have significantly increased their productions to ensure products’ availability even in the most complicated peaks of the emergency, proving great sense of cooperation and willingness to contribute. “Agritalia opens the doors of the U.S. market to smaller or niche producers who alone would not have the strength or expertise to land in America,” says CEO Sergio Massa. “We are the only ones to offer such service, and we are proud ambassadors of the Italian specialties, always discovering the new excellences our land has to offer and bringing them to the shelves of U.S. supermarkets.”
In fact, Agritalia specializes in private label programs for food and non-food items for some of the biggest retailers of the American grocery scenario. With over 30 years of experience, the company represents a privileged showcase for many small and medium-sized Italian and European producers. On the other hand, for retailers interested in including overseas specialties in their catalog, the company offers turnkey solutions: from the identification of the most suitable manufacturer for each program, to distribution and reordering on shelf.
The company has more than 700 products in its portfolio, ranging from pasta, pasta sauces, balsamic vinegar of Modena, couscous, frozen foods (mainly pizza and Italian ice cream), and last, but not least, extra virgin olive oil of which Agritalia manages 5% of exports from Italy to the United States. Pasta, extra virgin olive oil, and vinegars have surely been Agritalia’s flagship products since the beginning, as well as the most exported Italian products over the last three decades.
The pandemic has certainly favored a further growth in exports: between March and August last year, pasta recorded a 60% increase in turnover (compared to 2019) while vinegar, a category that includes both balsamic vinegar of Modena and wine vinegars, by 45%. Increases likely due to a greater inclination among consumers to try new recipes and more complex preparations during lock-down. Despite the trend of home-made preparations, the category of ready meals however witnessed an interesting increase in sales compared to the previous year, in particular frozen pizza (+70%) and meal kits (+66%).
The most interesting development is the boom of the organic segment, which grew by 48% compared to 2019, suggesting that - during a health emergency - consumers somehow changed their consumption habits and have resorted to organic options. "The year of the pandemic has certainly given an acceleration to our business," Massa explains, "also because in the United States the large-scale retail channel has suffered less from the lockdown and, if possible, has increased turnover thus leading to an increase in our work not only in terms of turnover but also in terms of suppliers".
Last year, over 3,000 containers optimized up to 50 different items per single container left from the hub of Nola, a logistics platform of 60,000 square feet equipped with advanced technologies, allowing Agritalia to guarantee continuity of supply to its customers and increase sales by +37%. Agritalia’s success is built on the Automated Replenishment Program (ARP), an advanced logistics solution based on the innovative Cloud Sourcing Intelligence (CSI), a proprietary software that makes the supply chain more efficient by analyzing sales data to plan suppliers’ workflow, consolidate and optimize the containers leaving every week for USA guaranteeing products always fresh and in stock. Thanks to this system, Agritalia can provide a “just in time” solution that allows suppliers to have greater control over production and customers over purchases. "Our vision - explains Leo Nucera, Sales and Marketing Director of Agritalia - includes smart logistics that avoid all inefficiencies and make sure that each product, before arriving in the homes of consumers, follows the shortest and quickest path possible from the time of production to consumption, reducing costs and providing a sustainable service. This applies as much to North America as it does to future projects in Europe or Asia."
The most recent, but no less important, step in Agritalia's journey towards an eco-friendly supply chain is the collaboration with the UK-based University of Sheffield, with the aim of developing new certified standards of sustainability for the entire group. Through this partnership, the company has joined one of the latest sustainable-based projects sponsored by the European Community: ProCEedS (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018), which is a research consortium that aims to study the eco-sustainable implications of different distribution models, including that of Agrilogistica, and the consequent reduction of environmental impact, food waste and carbon dioxide emissions in the retail sector. The theme of sustainability will continue to be a priority for Agritalia, which is also committed in pursuing with goals 9 and 12 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sponsored by United Nations.
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