[ packaging & design ]
THE
DANGER
IN TRENDS It’s that time of year when all eyes are on what’s coming. High season for trend-watchers and the soothsayers of marketing, their words clung onto for sign of what’s hot – or at least likely to be in the year ahead. In case you missed it, here’s the condensed version of what’s predicted for FMCG packaging. Sustainability, obviously, but in an overt way. Bright colours as an antidote to Covid-induced gloom. Latching on to topical political and social trends like identity and mental health. And the importance of presenting well online as sales move that way. There are a few other riffs on those main themes and they’re all well and good. But here’s the catch. In a world saturated with information and analysis, everybody’s reading – and cross referencing – the same reports. Everything will be backed up by impressively presented data.
Data which of course can only measure what has happened, not what’s going to happen. Spot the irony? This means we are going to see loads of packaging that dutifully follows those trends. In other words, predictable groupthink. If your brand isn’t differentiated in a competitive market, you might as well pack up shop and go home. So the question about trends is this: do you follow them or avoid them? At brotherdesign.co.nz you’ll see packaging design that has set trends rather than followed them. It’s how we intend to do things again in 2022. By Jenny McMillan, Business Development Director, Brother Design www.brotherdesign.co.nz Ph 021 1932141
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LOOK OUT FOR NEW MULTIPACKS ARRIVING IN STORE The Bluebird Foods team is relaunching multipacks across multiple brands in March 2022 to better meet consumer needs. Look out for the new multipacks arriving in store for Bluebird, Sunbites Grain Waves, Delisio, Doritos, Cheetos and Copper Kettle. The existing small multipack portfolio (10s/8s/6s) will be replaced with 5s and 6s in single flavours, offering consumers greater choice with a multibuy promotional mechanic as they will be able to choose the flavours they want, and there will be more flavour options available. The team has invested significantly at their manufacturing site to enable the move to the new multipack format, which means the new packs are more efficiently packed to reduce plastic and unlock shelf space savings to allow for innovation, improved availability and a better range of flavours and products. The new packaging can also be recycled via the soft plastics recycling scheme. 34
FMCG BUSINESS - FEBRUARY 2022
The new multipack portfolio has been redesigned to enhance shopper navigation and highlights product benefits on front of pack, based on insights from shoppers around how the category is shopped. The launch will be supported by a significant investment to communicate the change to shoppers.