The Future of Convenience Packaging

Summary
By focusing on the convenience-oriented features and benefits of package design, and the consumer value added, this report provides guidance to packaging designers and marketers seeking to understand how consumers define convenience and how to turn technical features into marketable consumer benefits.


Synopsis
- Evaluate a package design for convenience using detailed checklists of convenience features.

- Identify new ways to market a product based on convenience attributes and alternative ways to position a product to attract a new segment of users.

- Understand recent trends and advances in convenient package design, and identify opportunities to update and improve your packaging.

- Understand the “hassle factors” in packaging which turn off consumers (and deter repurchase).

Reasons To Buy
- What are the latest innovations in convenient packaging, how do they benefit consumers, and how do they contribute to brand value?

- Where are the biggest opportunities for consumer packaged goods manufacturers to seize and adapt these innovations for their own brands?

- Why has waste reduction become an important convenience attribute for consumers and how are brands addressing this growing demand?

- How much of a price premium might my product command if I invest in more convenient packaging?

- Which packaging technologies offering consumer convenience benefits have made the biggest inroads in consumer packaged goods in the past few years?

Key Highlights
From a materials and technology standpoint, specific forms of packaging stand out as offering significant improvements in convenience. First, airless containers for cosmetics hit on the convenience attributes of storage and dispensing. Second, cook-in-pack designs are delivering healthier, better-tasting food with less consumer time and effort.

Flexible packaging has already made such strong inroads that it is poised to replace cardboard boxes, aluminum cans and plastic bottles in many FMCG categories over the next five years. Such innovation will need to be positioned to consumers as more convenient first and more sustainable second.

Successful innovation in convenient packaging does not always mean a major redesign. Sometimes a simple change that removes an existing hassle factor can be very impactful. One example of this is the shift in closures used on flexible packaging, from plastic zipper closures to hook-and-loop closures and peel-and-reseal adhesives.