Staying up to speed with consumer preferences for ingredients and flavors can be hard enough, but what the most important issues that food companies need to keep in mind when making packaging decisions today?
Food Dive attended Pack Expo 2013 last week, and we spoke with HAVI Global Solutions Consulting Solutions Director Jill Ahern about the food trends that are redefining packaging.
From the increase in digital media to the globalization of food, the way consumers eat is changing and—as a result—food packaging is adapting to their new needs.
Take a look at what she had to say:
1. INFORMATION IS SPREADING
The advent of the Internet, smartphones and social media has broken down barriers in mass communication. "One of the main drivers, and one of the things that's really changing food and food packaging," Ahern said, "is the increase in digital media and the amount of information that consumers have."
For example, consumers today shop with their smartphones in hand, meaning they can search for new products and analyze ingredient lists. "When you think about consumers' experience with food, it's changing dramatically," Ahern noted. "Thus, packaging has to change along with it."
2. FOOD IS BECOMING GLOBALIZED
One of the more recent trends to penetrate the market is that "consumers suddenly have ethnic flavor interests," Ahern noted. "Millenials especially are very, very comfortable with global flavors."
As a result of the increase in products with ethnic flavors, the packaging has to change as well. For example, the product may need to be moved a further distance than in the past. "You have to be able to protect your product that is being made elsewhere and is now being sold globally," Ahern said.
The design of the packaging, too, plays a major role in appealing to consumers' palates. "The packaging has to convey the sense that you're eating something that's truly authentic," Ahern said.
3. CONSUMERS DON'T NEED TO COMPROMISE
Consumers' expectations are rising, and today's marketplace gives them the opportunity to buy whatever they want.
"We're seeing this consumer drive to get what I want that's exactly just for me," Ahern told Food Dive. And packaging helps visually differentiate products so that consumers can literally see this product is or isn't for them.
As a result of consumers' high expectations and a marketplace willing to meet them, "consumers don't want to make a trade-off anymore because they really don't have to," Ahern noted. Whereas previously someone might have said I want to eat organic or eat my food on-the-go, consumer today can have organic products on-the-go.
"Now I can buy something, put it in my purse, take it with me and I can still eat organic or gluten-free because the product is designed to fit my lifestyle," Ahern said. "Packaging enables experiences in that way."
4. LIFESTYLE DETERMINES PRODUCT CHOICE
"When a consumer interacts with a product, the first thing they're seeing is the package," Ahern said. "So how does that package say to the consumer that this fits their life?"
If a customer wants a certain type of food—whether it be gluten-free, low-fat or high protein—the packaging communicates that to the consumer. The messaging tells the consumer, "this product fits your lifestyle," according to Ahern.
For example, flexibles are a huge growth market as "they're portable and appeal to sense of sustainability," Ahern said. The consumer isn't throwing away a lot of waste if they're using a sustainable package. Think of Campbell's Go Soups: "It hits all the spots. It's flexible, portable package. It's got global-influenced flavors and appeals to millenials," Ahern suggested. "It really reinvented a category like soup."
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