Industry experts hosted a discussion entitled “Breaking Boundaries: How Emerging Label Design Trends Will Impact Your Business,” on September 2, 2015, at the TLMI Technical Conference in Chicago, IL, USA. Dan Muenzer, vice president of marketing at Constantia Flexibles, Michael Chevalier, new business development manager at FLEXcon, and Bobby Congdon, assistant director of The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design & Graphics, explored various areas of the label and packaging industry, including the new trends.

The panel focused on materials that can create a better shelf presence, such as White, metallic, foil, holographic, gloss/OPVs, 3-D effects, among others. They also looked at flexible packaging solutions outside of the label, including such items as refillable pouches and shaped cans.

“In the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, they raised their sales by 7-8%,” said Muenzer. “They took the promotion to Israel and did 3.5 million unique sleeves. Every single sleeve was different; every single sleeve had a unique code on it. The consumer could then take that unique code, log onto the Internet and purchase customized Coke products with their design. They combined digital printing with the Internet.

“This is something we need to be aware of,” he added. “We don’t need to be scared of it, but we need to be aware of it.”

Muenzer described innovative packages like alternative water containers, milk sticks, canvas containers and thermoform trays. The three presenters included information about these products, but each sub-section delved deeper into the topics. They include the following:

Evolutions in product decoration
Muenzer engaged the audience with a presentation about “Competing Product Decoration Technologies.” In addition to new trends in pressure sensitive labels and shrink sleeves, the TLMI chairman looked at enhancements in foil, printed electronics and sustainable solutions.

As in every industry, manufacturers are finding ways to reduce costs and make products more sustainable. In the case of shrink sleeves, Muenzer stated that seaming has been eliminated, which has resulted in a 30% price savings. Other traditional options like foil have increasingly seen their uses expand, such as for security purposes. Other possible technologies include the labeling of cans, direct digital print and paper bottles. Muenzer also touched upon experimentation with bottles constructed entirely out of PET materials.

Non-traditional options are poised to hit the label industry, as well. Augmented reality, printed electronics and Bluetooth labels are all smart solutions for the future of labeling. “For printed electronics, printing with conductive inks is easy,” said Muenzer. “The question becomes, ‘how do you get the power source?’”

Bluetooth labels are expected to include customized personalization. “It’s printed electronics and the consumer, through a Bluetooth, can write their own message on the bottle,” Muenzer said. “You literally program the bottle based on Bluetooth.

Finally, many brands–Smirnoff, for example–are using RFID for security reasons. The packaging can be tracked for authenticity and its open/closed state.

Winning at the shelf
Chevalier discussed “Shopper Marketing and Self-Adhesive Films.” Walking into a department store or supermarket can provide an overwhelming shelf space. According to Chevalier, the average supermarket has 30,000 SKUs and a store like Target will have north of 100,000. Walmart receives approximately 140 million customers per week while a Walgreen’s receives 40 million shoppers. Brands subsequently need to explore how they can use new inks, colors and films to capture the customer’s attention at the shelf.

Studies show that a customer’s attention is divided into 4.7 seconds at the shelf, with 45% (or 2.1 seconds) of the attention span going to the fact tag and 20% (or 0.94 seconds) going to product demonstrations. The rest of the attention span is broken into call outs, displays, categories and other.

Two developing trends include watermarking and online sales of CPG. Digital watermarking is defined as an imaging technology that embeds machine-readable images within the graphics. In this case, the barcode is embedded directly into the packaging.

“There are a lot of products vying for our intention,” said Chevalier. “Television, traditional media, is not what it used to be. We’re flying through the commercials there. Think about where your printing goes. It’s where the shoppers go, and that’s pretty powerful stuff.”

Brands want to make their impact with consumers in their home, in transit and on the shelf. The products must stand alone, considering the packaging will only capture the shopper’s attention for roughly five seconds. Marketers want a brand experience all the way to purchase, and the process starts in the home.

Converters might consider packaging “with unique substrates” such as glitter, texture, and materials like brochures and booklets. Asset utilization, including the use of space in advertising, can be used for brand promotion. The brands ultimately want to transform the shelf environment to stand out to customers.

“Designers are using visual recognition technology–or the sciences–to make sure the label that we are creating really works,” he adds. “We’re trained as shoppers to not only look at the package, but at the shelf and tags that are surrounding it. Shelf tags are doing more now than they ever have before.”

Tracking science
Congdon detailed various studies, research methods and experiments designed to analyze how packaging affects the customer. Supplementing Chevalier’s presentation, Congdon described studies in which consumer attention and reaction was tracked. Eye-tracking studies were conducted to see what captured a shopper’s attention and how long they spent looking at the packaging.

The eye-tracking biometrics featured EEG, GSR and facial recognition. The data told Congdon where customers directed their attention and for how long.

“One of our focuses at the Institute is eye tracking,” explained Congdon. “When we design a package, how is it going to perform on the shelf? You’re going to redesign something and the whole point is to sell more. We want to see if consumers react to it better than before. We put products in the context that they’re going to be in the store, and then have consumers look at it. We then use a number of different biometrics. We’ve got these really cool glasses with cameras tracking people movements and track where you’re looking on the shelf. It can map your gaze to the shelf.”

In addition, Congdon discussed direct printing, prototyping, experimenting with various inks and packages, and using 3-D models. Although not designed for the road, Congdon detailed a car prototype that was created using a 3-D printer.

For more pictures, click here for the slideshow.