Millennials transform packaging landscape

As the first peo­ple to have nev­er known a world before the inter­net exist­ed, mil­len­ni­als are a unique gen­er­a­tion. Iden­ti­fied by mar­ket research firms as dig­i­tal­ly native, nar­cis­sis­tic and indi­vid­u­al­is­tic, the fac­tors that influ­ence their con­sump­tion habits are trans­form­ing the pack­ag­ing land­scape.

A desire to “expe­ri­ence” the things they buy dis­tin­guish­es mil­len­ni­als from the sta­tus-crav­ing spenders of old­er gen­er­a­tions. Inter­act­ing with prod­ucts on an emo­tion­al lev­el gives them more sat­is­fac­tion than own­ing a pre­mi­um brand. And a high­er regard for the state of the plan­et means a company’s social respon­si­bil­i­ty is impact­ing pur­chas­ing deci­sions at an unprece­dent­ed lev­el.

These evolv­ing demo­graph­ics are chang­ing the way brands pro­duce and mar­ket for con­sumers, dri­ving new pack­ag­ing inno­va­tions that serve lifestyles dom­i­nat­ed by smart­phones, social media and a need to express envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness.

“The mil­len­ni­als are chang­ing the world and gen­er­a­tion Z are set to fol­low the same path,” says Tim Eaves, chief exec­u­tive and co-founder of Quad­pack, a leader in cos­met­ics pack­ag­ing. “Their social net­works are their lifeblood and it’s impor­tant to under­stand the intu­itive ges­tures that are sec­ond nature to them. They lean towards sus­tain­able con­cepts like refill­able pack­ag­ing, recy­cled mate­ri­als and reduced pack­ag­ing con­tent, and see through green­wash­ing.

“Pack­ag­ing that draws on these habits will be a nat­ur­al fit. Fixed process­es will be uproot­ed and pack­agers must learn to be flex­i­ble, act fast and offer more options than ever, while act­ing in an envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly respon­si­ble man­ner.”

Beau­ty brands are rac­ing to imple­ment smart pack­ag­ing solu­tions that sat­is­fy the self­ie habits of mil­len­ni­als, mean­ing small­er sizes and leak-proof pro­tec­tion for porta­bil­i­ty, as well as inte­grat­ed appli­ca­tors and con­ve­nient two or three-in-one packs. Mean­while, prod­ucts that incor­po­rate an inter­est­ing ges­ture, a skin­care rit­u­al, a fun shape or eye-pop­ping aes­thet­ics increase con­sumer engage­ment.

We are ready and pre­pared for what is sure to be an excit­ing future

The desire for self-expres­sion is also pro­pelling demand for per­son­al­i­sa­tion in beau­ty pack­ag­ing. Retail stores increas­ing­ly offer per­son­alised skin­care for­mu­las that are mixed in front of cus­tomers fol­low­ing on-the-spot skin­care tests. In online stores, con­sumers can cus­tomise prod­ucts with texts and select unique designs, while mod­u­lar pack­ag­ing con­cepts enable cus­tomers to build their own colour palettes.

Quad­pack is work­ing to address this new world of pack­ag­ing with a flex­i­ble busi­ness mod­el that meets the indi­vid­ual needs of each seg­ment of the beau­ty indus­try. “We work on dif­fer­ent approach­es to per­son­al­i­sa­tion,” says Mr Eaves, “devel­op­ing ways to print packs indi­vid­u­al­ly and offer­ing mod­u­lar sys­tems, such as eye colour com­pacts that can be stacked in the same way as LEGO bricks.”

The com­pa­ny has an in-house design team which tracks trends and iden­ti­fies smart solu­tions that antic­i­pate demand, aid­ed by its skin­care, make-up and fra­grance spe­cial­ists. Its man­u­fac­tur­ing divi­sion gives the design­ers the capa­bil­i­ty to exper­i­ment with con­cepts in plas­tic mate­ri­als at Quad­pack Plas­tics, its injec­tion mould­ing plant, with new dec­o­ra­tion tech­niques at Quad­pack Impres­sions, its dec­o­ra­tion facil­i­ty, and with wood designs at Tech­no­traf Wood Pack­ag­ing, which Quad­pack acquired in 2013. It also works with man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ners to enhance its prod­uct port­fo­lio.

As wood, when man­aged cor­rect­ly, is the only end­less­ly renew­able mate­r­i­al, Quad­pack is a pas­sion­ate advo­cate for its use in beau­ty pack­ag­ing. In 2001, Tech­no­traf was the first com­pa­ny to use wood for a per­fume cap. Its PEFC and FSC-cer­ti­fied fac­to­ry uses wood from sus­tain­ably man­aged forests, and all man­u­fac­tur­ing waste is reused for ani­mal bed­ding, bio­fu­el and chip­board.

Mean­while, Quad­pack is tri­alling rail trans­porta­tion as a low-car­bon alter­na­tive to air freight. And last year it formed the Quad­pack Foun­da­tion, a char­i­ta­ble arm ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing social, edu­ca­tion­al and envi­ron­men­tal pro­grammes with an empha­sis on inte­grat­ing young peo­ple from under­priv­i­leged back­grounds.

“With a robust plan for busi­ness growth, an in-house ‘design fac­to­ry’, our hybrid man­u­fac­tur­ing-sourc­ing set­up, our sec­tor-focused approach and our cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­i­ty pro­gramme, we are ready and pre­pared for what is sure to be an excit­ing future,” says Mr Eaves. “Busi­ness­es are not sep­a­rate from the world and each one should play an active part in help­ing to make it a great place to live, work and play.”

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it www.quadpack.com