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Why Designing the Flexible Package Is An Exercise in Form and Function Today, packaging is regarded as a strategic marketing tool to better position new products, stimulate flat sales of traditional products, and reinvent mature brands. More often than not, when designers and marketers consider new package formats, flexible packaging is put on the table in the mix of options. Increasingly, flexible packaging is being chosen over traditional formats. A trip to the local supermarket reveals that the shift to flexible packaging is taking place in every aisle. Cartons and canisters are being replaced or partnered with standup pouches with reclosable zippers. Retort pouches create value-added line extensions for tuna, “wet” pet food, and other products traditionally marketed in steel cans. Frozen foods in convenient, graphically rich flexible packages enjoy improved visibility and marketability in lighted upright freezers. Innovations in flexible packaging offer benefits of both form and function for well balanced design. Standup pouches, side gusseted “quad seal” bags, single-serve pouches, and pouches with separate compartments for multiple ingredients are all examples of solutions that provide a broader range of product development alternatives for the packager and a higher level of convenience for consumer. A host of ingenious new features—reclosable “slider” zippers, hang holes, handles, tear notches, laser scores, and spouts, to name a few—add convenience, build brand identification, and improve the dynamics of the product-package-consumer interface.
Can Be “Brutal” Out There Packaging veteran Bill Lewis, a consulting editor for Packaging Strategies, outlines the steps needed for a solid entry into flexible packaging design. “Designers should acquaint themselves with the basic principles of proper material selection, seal methodology, and printing technologies, as well as the limitations of these elements,” he says. “The package you design must travel under difficult and unpredictable shipping conditions, endure hot and cold temperature variations, and survive a brutal distribution channel to reach the retail shelf. There it must sell itself to consumers, delight them through the entire consumption cycle, and then invite them back to buy it again.”
Bob Hogan, vice president of Minigrip Zip Pak, agrees that satisfying the end user is the sine qua non of flexible package design. “Consumers not only expect to have the ability to reclose a flexible package, they demand it,” he says. “They also are much more astute as to how the zipper actually performs. It is no longer an exercise of just adding a zipper profile to provide perceived convenience, but to incorporate an application-specific zipper design to suit the product, meet consumer expectations, and provide total satisfaction.” Easing the Transition Wander Reijnders, president of IPN USA, a supplier of specialty spouts and fitments for liquid applications, believes that the inclusion of familiar convenience features in flexible solutions is encouraging consumers to accept the change from rigid to flexible forms of packaging. “The addition of zippers and spout closures will continue to add a high level of functionality to the design aspect of flexible packaging,” he says. “Consumers are well acquainted with spouts and zippers, and industry cooperation has dramatically improved the commercialization of these popular convenience features in the market.” Obviously, the selection of the proper substrate is a critical element in the design of any flexible package. Modern flexible packaging substrates can be custom designed to provide precise levels of barrier protection for a broad range of applications. “Depending on the product, packaging properties can be adjusted to increase barrier, increase puncture resistance, and optimize shelf appeal while meeting critical cost parameters,” notes Scott Lamerand, product manager of Pechiney Plastic Packaging, a maker of flexible packaging for the food and healthcare markets. One supplier that has built its success on tailoring flexible packaging solutions is Curwood, a division of Bemis. Curwood has pioneered the development of barrier films to make flexible packaging a reality for many products with highly specific protection requirements.
“The ability to cost-effectively provide a single-serve size that is not only convenient, but can maintain freshness with each individual serving has revolutionized the way many novel products, including yogurt and puddings, are consumed today,” Hackinson says. “The possibilities are limited only by the package designer’s imagination. In some instances, the package is becoming the product itself.” Dean Hoss, president of Pyramid Packaging, another flexible packaging supplier, recommends taking a “systems approach” to flexible package design. “It is important to approach the subject from the very fundamentals of how the package is going to be used, to whom the package is going to be marketed, and in what way the package is going to be presented in the market,” he says. “It is important to look at the total solution, not just the primary package.” Power of “Visual Enticement” Appearance is a powerful factor in the design of flexible packaging, notes Joseph Fiore, vice president of sales and marketing for packaging solutions provider Nordenia USA. “Clients realize the power of packaging and the positive effects of visual enticement. This is the ability of the graphics and photo imagery to get the consumer’s attention and then get the sale. “We have clients that have increased their sales over 130 percent with just slight packaging enhancements and greatly improved printing,” Fiore says. Durability is another key ingredient of successful design, according to Jim Bradley, vice president of development for Cello-Foil Products, a manufacturer of flexible packaging. He says that the designer and packager must consider “the entire process in which the package will be handled through distribution channels to be sure that it gets to the consumer safely and with good integrity. Proper barrier protection and structural package integrity are as important as the ethics and functionality of the package.” Law Burks, marketing manager of Pechiney Plastic Packaging, urges designers not to forget that the marketing of a flexible package may vary depending upon the outlet being targeted. “Positioning your product at convenience store or supermarket level will be different than at the club store level,” Burks says. “Price point, package size, and the features you include in the design may be influenced by many factors. As a result, your design planning should take in consideration distribution, marketing, and consumer demographic issues. Also consider how your design can evolve as technology changes.” |
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© 2004-2008 ST Media Group International. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without consent from publisher.
DECEMBER 4, 2008
1:00 PM EASTERN
This special 90-minute webinar will feature up-to-date insights into the market forces affecting package design and sustainability. Registration is FREE for the first 100 participants. An $89.99 fee applies for all subsequent registrants. Attendees will receive a copy of Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design (a $49.95 value) by Wendy Jedlicka.
Keynote Address by:
MINAL MISTRY
Project Manager, Sustainable
Packaging Coalition/GreenBlue
COMPASS is an online software tool for packaging designers and engineers to compare the environmental impacts of their package designs.
