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How package development projects fail

There are more than a few ways package design projects can end in failure. But most can be avoided by planning ahead and avoiding these common pitfalls.

Often, an internal leader has to keep the faith alive on a new packaging format like this, the VBlast Gator Pit Energy Formula.
Often, an internal leader has to keep the faith alive on a new packaging format like this, the VBlast Gator Pit Energy Formula.

1. Not fully thinking through requirements up front. This is a perennial complaint from professionals on all types of packaging projects. Two areas that are particularly vulnerable are the label and the closure, simply because they’re too often an afterthought. In one case, a CPG company had a container distributor develop tooling for a custom package, but didn’t explicitly specify the label type. The container distributor supplied a predecorated container, only to find out the CPG company wanted to use labels that wrinkled when applied to the chosen container. Another example is not anticipating a mismatch between a container and a specialty closure such as a trigger sprayer. The neck finish might match, but the barrel on a foamer that sits inside the bottle can reduce fill capacity inside the bottle. Ignoring that small fact can result in a container with, in this case, insufficient fill capacity for the intended product size.

2. Saying “yes” to an idea that can’t be produced. The disconnect between what marketing wants and what engineering and production can produce can be quite large. When a project is planned that is substantially different from what’s been done in the past, make sure to budget extra time up front for cross-functional meetings and due diligence by all parties before a “go” decision is made.

3. Forcing suppliers to meet aggressive timelines. Sometimes suppliers are forced to comply with extremely short deadlines from CPG companies, resulting in insufficient time for the necessary steps. This is true of new technologies that take time to adapt to as well as consumer research. For example, when developing a custom container, CPG companies may ask to skip the unicavity or prototype mold that is ordinarily used to flesh out the design. By rushing right to the creation of the production tooling, unanticipated flaws could creep into the final design that should have been caught and corrected at the prototype stage. Examples include how a package feels in the hand, both filled with product and empty, how a label fits or looks, or even the finished package color. For custom packaging, build in a timeline of sufficient length (typically greater than six months) to develop tooling while allowing the necessary time for validation and quality control.

4. Making faulty assumptions based on past projects. Don’t assume that one packaging component that’s been successful in the past, even for an identical product, will work for a new product. In one case, a pressure-sensitive label construction was picked up from one deodorant package and reused on another. Once in production, frantic phone calls were received from the plant that the labels were peeling off. It turns out that the colorants and anti-stats in the new package were incompatible with the old pressure-sensitive label construction. Doing your homework up front rather than simply repeating something from another project can prevent such disasters.

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