Flexible Packaging Holds Its Ground: Why Structure Still Drives Usability

Flexible packaging has established a firm position in the field, and brands have converted their various package formats into pouches. Innovation has also appeared: old-fashioned Mason-jar-shaped pouches that help preserve historical brand equity, peel-off spouted pouches, and many pouches with different handle shapes. While pouches are increasingly used across categories and in innovation, form factor still leaves room for progress in fit-for-purpose innovation. Gel soap, dry granular baking ingredients, and liquid cooking soy sauce are packed in pouches with nearly the same fit. If the industry gave more attention to the rigid products that flexible packaging contains, how would flexible packaging develop? What if the flexible packaging industry decided product structure? Below are three strategies for how product structure can improve flexible packaging usability.

Give packaging a mission first. Packaging should not only make a product stand out on the shelf, but also deliver a better and more memorable user experience. Consider the baking products shelf: the typical frosting jar is no longer the only option. Many frosting brands have launched squeezable pouches, but only one brand went a step further. BettyCrocker’s frosting pouch uses a unique attachment similar to a traditional frosting tip, somewhat like the cookie decorating tools used in bakeries. The package is no longer just a container; it has another function: improving the user experience and, in turn, increasing BettyCrocker’s brand equity.

Adopt new performance next. The rapid decline of the baby food shelf is one of the most fitting examples of packaging adopting new performance. The classic jars used for baby food have almost disappeared, and many brands have switched their packaging to ready-to-eat pouches, covering products from Stonyfield yogurt to Motts applesauce. Now parents have a fast, portable snack option for children who are not yet ready for cups, bowls, and spoons.

Know the customer too. Discovering consumer insights and understanding the interaction between products and consumers’ lifestyles is a key path to innovation. Perimeter has engaged with more than 10,000 consumers on a variety of topics, including a series of one-on-one meetings focused on protein powder. This research led to a unique portable packaging solution it recently launched, which Perimeter calls BlenderPak. Protein powder is at its best when freshly mixed. Consumers using portable protein powder had to pack the bottle and the protein powder together in a small bag. Even so, dirty cups were still produced. Consumers considered the mess caused by making protein shakes, drinking a poorly mixed shake, and scrubbing protein shake bottles to be the biggest daily pain points, and these would prevent them from buying the products they liked.

Giving packaging a mission, adopting new performance, and knowing the customer are just three structures that can bring innovation and improve the usability of the flexible packaging industry. From this it can be seen that even in the world of flexible packaging, structure matters a great deal.

This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (news.pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-372742.html. All rights belong to the original author; this article is for industry exchange and learning only.