likely ideated and designed a packaging solution. Mintel points to such innovations as lightweight PET containers, airless dispensing and directional spray features as those bridging the gap between disruptions and solutions. According to WestRock’s December 2015 Spray 43 bush, get to the point so men can make quick, enlightened purchasing decisions. However, the real white space opportunity for aerosols remains in bridging the gap between what consumers say is important to them in terms of what they want or expect from packaging, and what they say they are currently dissatisfied with—what Mintel calls the “innovation gap.” Today, in what has been called the postconsumer or sometimes the post-marketing era, consumers have access to more information whenever and wherever they need it. When consumers have access to more information, it means they also have more options. When they have more options, especially at the point of sale, where price and perceived product quality are the same, packaging must work harder to influence their purchasing decision. During the past decade, retailers, consumer packaged goods (CPGs) providers, design agencies and even packaging converters have been focused on “disruptive” packaging— packaging that stands out on shelf, often times only by screaming louder at consumers than their competitors with such traditional design elements as shape, color, text and graphics. Sometimes, “violators” (obtrusive visual elements) proclaim “new” or “improved,” but they often fall short of making an emotional connection with consumers. Spending dollars remain tight and a more well-informed consumer has come to realize they would rather have their needs recognized and catered to rather than ignored and discarded. They are shunning disruptive packaging innovations, those that in their own right are often unique but that fail to solve a problem or address a specific need. It’s that attention to consumer needs through the design, development and delivery of packaging solutions that create emotional, rational or practical connections to consumers. That is achieved by addressing those needs with solutions, rather than offering disruptions, those “gee-whiz” or “wow” packages that scream louder than competitors’. Solutionsoriented In the U.S., male-oriented packaging claims are only the 36th most used claim, resulting in an untapped opportunity for aerosol brands to reach male consumers. packaging bridges that gap between disruptive packaging innovation and the emotional connections that functional, hard-working packaging delivers. Disruptive packaging wows consumers at the point of sale, but most often it stops short of motivating the purchasing decision or fulfilling the use promise due to a lack of emotional connection or inability to address a need. Solutions-based packaging, on the other hand, must also “wow” at the point of sale. However, it makes an emotional, rational or practical connection with the consumer because the consumer understands how it will solve a problem or address a need, and this is where the “packaging litmus test” comes into play. “This package makes a consumer’s life ________.” You fill in the blank. If you can fill in the blank with a positive benefit, such as “easier” or “safer”, or if it makes the purchasing decision “more confident”, then you’ve Packaging Matters Packaging Satisfaction Index, the ability to easily spray or pump a product is of key importance to consumers. Anyone in the packaging industry can likely think of a half-dozen “disruptions” that earned more than their fair share of packaging trade press ink but fell well short of meeting consumer expectations, so there’s no need to call attention to their shortcomings here. On the positive, solutions side, however, a leading home cleaning brand’s new tube technology that both ensures 100% dispensing of the product, and calls attention to that attribute with a front panel violator, is certainly a solution. A leading consumer products company’s new cap technology, which dispenses the precise amount of concentrated household cleaner no matter how hard or how lightly the container is squeezed, also earn its stripes as a solution-based packaging innovation. The bottom line is it’s no longer enough simply change a packaging format from glass to clear plastic or from a carton to a pouch; or to introduce a new structure with a pinch waist or unique shoulder, base or neck profile; or to engage in a design refresh in which colors or romance copy are changed or a violator is added as a way to draw attention at the point of sale and sway purchasing decisions. To connect with consumers today, packaging—including aerosol packaging—has to speak to them on an emotional, rational or practical level rather than from a position of familiarity, price or even brand loyalty. Packaging has to demonstrate an enhancement to the user experience. To that end, retailers, brands, packaging converters and brand and design agencies, must transition from thinking disruptively to thinking about solutions. SPRAY
Spray December 2015
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