Packaging Digest Magazine – Moving Downstream Intelligence Upstream to Increase Speed to Market
October 2011
Moving Downstream Intelligence Upstream by Gary Chiappetta, President & Managing Partner
Designing with the end-in-mind reduces production bottlenecks, decreases time-to-market and disrupts the market in the process.
In today's crowded markets, differentiation is increasingly important to stand out and get noticed. When a retail product has a proprietary formulation (i.e. Coke) or patented design feature (like Swiffer), it's much easier to capture market share, and in some cases, create a whole new category. This form of intellectual property not only gives brands an edge in the market, it creates a barrier for "me too" products with legal protection with a design or utility patent.
But there are plenty of everyday retail products on the market without patents, ubiquitous products that have become commodities like toilet paper, dish soap, or even chewing gum. However, manufacturers have been reluctant to invest marketing dollars in products that are considered commodity, value driven products. Margins are thin and volume drives the market. But there are ways to differentiate here and raise the reservation price point (what consumers are willing to pay) and increase margins. But to accomplish this goal, brand marketers and designers need to learn to partner with engineering and manufacturing at earlier stages of conceptual development.
There needs to be more action and less talk about working together. If you want to make big things happen, there needs to be big change. The change may have to begin with a paradigm shift in thinking, by designers, about the value of getting ideas from the production and manufacturing teams. Recently, I participated in a large creative ideation session that included engineers and production staff (design implementation). Some of the most interesting idea builds came from those same people, but not because their ideas were better or they had better insights. Their ideas were valued before the session even started (by just inviting them) and the builds came from a perspective that didn't exist prior. Done right, it's magic and everyone wins.
Collaboration and Co-creation from Ideation to Manufacturing
Marketing, design and manufacturing working in parallel not only promotes a healthy discovery process, but the partnership can lead to disruptive design insights that create a unique point of difference. Working together eliminates the typical stage gate process (and the project "hand-off") and lets ideas evolve quickly, with buy-in from all stakeholders. That evolution allows the most effective ideas to emerge giving the entire team confidence and enthusiasm to push their limitations with new achievable results. Collaboration and co-creation have become the buzzwords in the world of fast moving consumer packaged goods.
One obvious benefit of downstream collaboration is reducing costly bottlenecks in production; a critical time that is most likely already compressed and strained (marketers cannot afford to miss go-to-market deadlines at the 11th hour). Losing a week or two in timing a product launch could cost a company millions in lost sales opportunities, not to mention costs associated with advertising and promoting the launch. Getting a product to market quicker also makes it more difficult for the fast followers to steal market share.
Most packaging design projects face similar difficulties in regards to timing and budgets. So how can these collaborative teams create better design solutions that are more cost effective and do it in less time? By allowing teams to work in an environment that embraces iterative ideation, iterative design and iterative prototyping. Changes in technology, material specifications, manufacturing and printing have created complex challenges and diverse opportunities.
Iterative design and rapid prototyping takes the subjectivity out of an idea and creates a concrete framework for feedback. This can be done concurrently with structural packaging design, brand packaging graphics and visual identity. Like the changing images in a kaleidoscope, brand, color, form and function must align synergistically to be effective functionally and elicit an emotion. Sometimes, the packaging innovation itself is the catalyst for new revenue streams and differentiation.
Market Makers and Trail Blazers
Oscar Mayer is a great example of a "market maker." One of the most powerful ways to bring products to market faster is to create a new category. Oscar Mayer's introduction of the Lunchables™ was the first food product of the time that incorporated moist and dry food packaged together. This revolutionary packaging design created an immediate barrier to entry for the competition due to the technology of the packaging.
Similarly, Oscar Mayer was one of the first to introduce lunchmeats that were vacuum formed and could be hung in the refrigerated section of grocery stores. This innovation took consumers out of the deli meat line and enabled quicker and easier access to deli products.
Other brands rely on effective design communication and unique structural packaging to capture the attention of the consumer. For example, Method was the first to create a structurally revolutionary bottle as a primary container for its hand soap line. This innovation has given birth to many fast followers and copycats but Method will always own the equity as the first brand to leap from the ledge of standard hand soap packaging.
Whether a brand is launching a new packaging structure or a bold new design for their products, it is critical that strategy, ideation, design, production and manufacturing be a voice in the process from start to finish. Without this 360-degree development of the new product, the window for launch and inevitably a product's competitive advantage go out the window.
Using Design as a Visualization Tool, Not a Solution Tool
In many cases packaging designers are creating solutions that align with a creative strategy while staying within the guidelines of a brand. A designer is tasked with solving one problem while inherently and unknowingly, creating another. Designers cannot be expected to be IT experts just because they work on a computer as much as they cannot be expected to be production experts just because they are designers.
Another constraint for designers is digital output as proof of concept.
Although there are many various forms of output (inkjet, thermal, laser jet, etc), none of these technologies offers the ability to print specialty inks or specialty stocks. How can a designer envision a design alternative on foil stock using transparent inks and custom color matching? How would they even know to ask unless they are trying to mimic a look or effect that has already been produced? Iterative color proofing cannot only solve potential downstream problems early on in the design process; happy accidents can occur that can alter the design thinking. In other words, the collaboration allows for ideas to evolve and align with the end in mind.
Concurrently, random proofing and consulting with a separator can be a great help in understanding how print order, SWAP color, custom colors need to be addressed to meet print specifications. This also extends to the production process of the packaging. Having design sales samples on hand to share with the manufacturing teams increases communication and packaging expectations between the design vision and the manufacturing implementation. Getting the right colors and forms to shine through on the first try drastically reduces machinery downtime and production costs.
Like brand packaging designers, structural designers also face similar and at times, more complex challenges. And, at the same time, structural ID teams are expected to be experienced in manufacturing and deliver beyond design intent. This is why engineering and prototyping is a structural designer's best friend (or should at least be embraced).
If clients, brand packaging designers, print production specialists and manufacturing work together, problems become opportunities.