The pressure is on for brands to start making their packaging more sustainable with recent research for Marketing magazine suggesting that 56% of consumers have decided against buying products that had too much packaging.
But there is certainly a balancing process to bear in mind in ensuring that reducing packaging does not dent the appeal of brands to consumers.
Do consumers see think packaging means lesser quality? The argument could be that this is indeed the case – lightweight champagne bottles and disposable milk bags are risking turning customers off.
Brands are however under increasing demand from consumers to become more “environmental” and are also facing political pressure to refine packaging along sustainable lines. Many major brands are already beginning to take up this challenge in reducing packaging whilst maintaining a shelf presence.
The likes of Persil’s Small and Mighty detergent and many own brand soft drinks cordials are already doing this successfully with smaller packaging that retains existing branding but others have rushed into poor decisions, such as using recycled card sometimes containing toxic chemicals from newspapers.
Clearly the first step is not to rush into decisions about sustainable packaging and carefully consider the options and long-term impact on the brand. Drinks giant Diageo for example published its sustainable packaging guidelines before Christmas which committed to reducing the weight of its bottles by 10% by 2015. It may not be a seismic shift to the paper wine bottle but nevertheless Andy Fennell, chief marketing officer said: “Our new guidelines will be adopted throughout our business to ensure we drive year-on-year improvements.”
Taking a holistic approach enables the entire brand process to be taken into account when adopting a sustainable approach, from aesthetic design to safety and functionality through to marketing and communications. The challenge from a communications perspective is not to create this change in packaging but to communicate to consumers that the value, quality or indeed safety of the product remains the same. To find out more about Pelican’s specialist packaging team click here.
