A project fails simply by not achieving its objective(s) within its specified limits of scope, cost, and time. A project can fail to the point of being abandoned, however most failures are less spectacular. Packaging projects fail for a variety of reasons, but those that I’ll discuss here have evidenced themselves time and time again.
Late start. For a new launch in particular, the start of a packaging project should coincide with that of the product. For the most part, thankfully, industry has progressed beyond sequential projects, i.e., product development completed, followed by package development. A packaged product, by definition, is composed of two components: product and package. The interdependence of the two should be acknowledged at the concept stage, which precedes project work. At that stage, references about the packaging need not be detailed, but sufficient to allow personnel to start visualizing and brainstorming.
