Consumers will drive sustainable packaging design

Dorothy Mackenzie, packagingnews.co.uk, 10 June 2009
Dorothy Mackenzie, chairman of creative agency Dragon Rouge, argues that consumers' desire for more sustainable packaging should prompt a new wave of manufacturer-led product and pack innovation. 

Consumers, particularly in the UK, have expressed concern about packaging waste – to a level often disproportionate to the real impact of packaging and at the expense of concern about other aspects of products' sustainability performance. This has encouraged retailers to launch a packaging crusade with commitments, such as Wal-Mart's target to reduce packaging by 5% over the next four years.  

Retailers grabbed the initiative on packaging, leaving many manufacturers standing on the sidelines trying to deal with conflicting retailer agendas, such as weight reduction versus recyclabilty or use of recylcate versus biodegradability. It has appeared as though retailers were calling all the shots, exhorting manufacturer's brands into minor packaging changes that may have offered some incremental improvements, but which were largely missed by consumers.  

Some companies – notably Unilever – have been introducing innovative consumer packaging with a noticeably better environmental footprint, but many others have been slow to act in a way that consumers recognise, although they may have been achieving worthwhile changes in transport or outer packaging. This represents a missed opportunity for building positive engagement with consumers. Consumers are likely to be positively influenced by innovative packaging that delivers environmental benefits, provided of course, that it also offers convenience and other performance benefits.  

In some areas, the need for consumers to modify their behaviour, to adapt to the new packaging format, can offer a good platform for interaction and dialogue. It provides some interesting new content for brand communication and some opportunities for inspiring on-pack messaging.  Refill packs are being explored again, for example by Dairy Crest, and while this will be far from an automatic and easy switch for consumer, it does add some interest and excitement to an otherwise generic and routine purchase – and something to talk about.  

To achieve significant improvements, however, it will often be necessary to consider the product and pack together, rather than focus simply on changing the pack around the existing product. We have already seen examples of this with concentrate detergents and there will be more. The desire to reduce the impact of the packaging stimulates a "why does it have to be like this?" review of the product as well. This could be a more productive starting point for innovation than focusing on packaging alone.  

This more holistic approach, considering product and packaging together, also gives manufacturers an opportunity to take a step beyond where retailers can go by building sustainability into the brand and product itself, rather than just looking for amendments to existing systems. This approach will require a close partnership with the packaging and product supply chain, to unleash their deep levels of knowledge to speed up the innovation process. It will also demand a good understanding of consumer insights to know what is possible. 

Dragon Rouge has joined forces with Cook Business Consulting to deliver new product and packaging ideas, for brand owners and retailers, that are more sustainable and commercially attractive.