Key trends highlighted by Packaging and Converting Executive Forum
Collaborative innovation, globalisation, a changing distribution model and sustainable development. These were the four major trends influencing and impacting today's packaging arena highlighted by the successful ninth annual Packaging and Converting Executive (PACE) Forum, held earlier last week in Brussels.
Michaël Nieuwesteeg, Managing Director NVC Netherlands Packaging Centre, chaired the event. He presided over a packed agenda of visionary keynote speakers that included Marta Pazos (Decorative Finishes & Materials Senior Scientist, Procter & Gamble), who discussed low volume/high margin product packaging development, Arno Melchior, (Global Packaging Director, Reckitt Benckiser Group), addressing the ROI of sustainability and Aline Clavellina (Marketing Vice President, Grupo Bimbo) who detailed successful ways to fund innovation.
From these discussions, four trends could be pinpointed: collaborative innovation, globalisation and flexibility supported by workflow management and digital printing, the changing distribution model and sustainable development. As a global theme, the event was all about interaction, with brand owners, packaging and technology suppliers, sharing and finding ways to collaborate and innovate effectively together.
Mr. Nieuwesteeg commented: "Globalisation is making packaging design more challenging. Regional differences and regulations must be dealt with, however at the same time the internet exposes any mistakes or inconsistencies immediately. Managing brand consistency and quality standards has become extremely complex, creating the necessity for cloud-based intelligent graphic workflow management."
The session on how to build a brand using exciting integrated cross-media and packaging campaigns touched on the much-publicised Coca Cola campaign in Europe that used personalised labels and a discussion of Heineken's customer engagement strategy. All suppliers of digital printing equipment, including HP, Océ and Mimaki pooled their resources in a workshop on the future of digital printing, sharing a vision of delivering more agility to retail and their packaged products suppliers together.
As for changing distribution models, keynote presenter Aline Clavellina, Marketing Vice President Grupo Bimbo presented unexpected success following a promotion campaign with Justin Bieber eating one of their snacks. As the Justin Bieber global fan base started ordering their hero's snack, Grupo Bimbo did not have a distribution channel in place and turned to Amazon.com to fill the gaps. The lesson is that packaged product manufacturers have to prepare for Web Retail Packaging (WRP) ensuring that they can meet global online demand also via new distribution channels.
The final trend identified was sustainable development in packaged products: "Recyclability of the empties package is important but how often can packaging materials be recycled and at which cost?" asked Mr Nieuwesteeg. "Today we don't think long term enough. We try to recycle once, but what happens next? It is better to think about sustainable development from conception all through the entire supply chain."
Mr. Nieuwesteeg also facilitated a highly valuable networking experience that saw senior decision makers from the world's leading FMCG manufacturers interact with each other and with experts to more effectively address industry challenges as they arise.
"The interaction with the brand owner community presented by this networking forum was highly valuable," commented guest speaker and 7th year in the row delegate Arno Melchior, Global Packaging Director, Reckitt Benckister. While first time attendees Nicolas Egri, Senior Packaging Engineer, Godiva Belgium, was particularly interested in hearing about the new products on the market and Laura Catala, R&D Research Technician Packaging, Gallina Blanca, took the opportunity to learn more about the challenges and trends in packaging and to search for new solutions to optimize her business and make it more profitable.
Mike Horsten, Marketing Manager EMEA Mimaki, was another first time attendee. The company is looking at the opportunities presented by the packaging market and how to build more visibility and brand recognition: "These kinds of events are perfect launch platforms to get acquainted, explore and discuss new application possibilities," he concluded.
