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The packaging professional redefined

Packaging professionals are too often pigeonholed as being specialists on the Supply side of the integrated value chain and nothing more.

Pw 6048 Wagner

While we’re highly regarded in such areas as design, engineering, specifying, purchasing, and other “technical” aspects of packaging, we’re viewed as being not so strong when it comes to marketing and advertising, consumer insight, awareness of distribution channels, or any of the other skills that occupy the Demand side of the integrated value chain. It’s almost as if we’re recognized as a necessary but unfortunate part of what it costs to go to market.

I think a change is in order. It’s not that we should abandon our roles as specialists who excel on the Supply side of things. But our profession is in need of more leaders with knowledge and expertise across the entire integrated value chain, not just the Supply side.

Brand managers who are part of the marketing department don’t have the kind of big-picture awareness or background to pull this off. These brand managers—some of them directors and vice presidents—are often educated with marketing MBAs. But our research has found that there are no MBA text books with more than three pages on packaging. In terms of consumer insight methods, most “experts” focus heavily on product and brand issues. To their credit, they bring both quantitative and qualitative analysis to bear. But less than 5% of consumer-insight experts understand the subtleties of packaging. Maybe that’s why 80% of new products fail.

Given that marketing and consumer insight experts don’t have the knowledge needed to make good decisions about packaging, it’s up to packaging professionals to take the lead. Many of our packaging friends appreciate this perspective but don’t know where to start. We suggest starting with the consumer. The word “user” may be more accurate where non consumer products are concerned, but for the purposes of this argument, let’s stick with the word “consumer.” In the consumer’s mind, the “product” is a combination of many elements, including everything from product to package to brand equity to experience to services to sustainability. Consumers may hardly be aware that all these elements play a role in their decision making. But trust me, they do, even if it’s at a subconscious level. We need to better understand how these elements influence consumers as they stand in the store and make their 5-second decision about what they’re going to pick from the shelf.

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