The Future of Packaging
A Micro Perspective
“Predicting the future is a fool’s game”
•"The telephone has too many shortcomings
to be seriously considered as a means of
communication.”
Western Union internal memo, 1876
•"The Americans have need of the telephone,
but we do not. We have plenty of messenger
boys.”
Sir William Preece, chief engineer of
the British Post Office, 1876
Packaging impacts the whole of
society
… with many elements
•Multi-national global business strategies
•Shifting societal norms and customs
•Sustainability
•Technology
•New materials
•Energy conservation/efficiency
•Retail branding
•Geopolitics
•Regional regulations
•Shifting market channels
•Food and pharmaceutical safety
•Theft prevention
•Product protection throughout the
supply chain
•Shifting global economic strengths
A Material-Related Design Trend
Flexible Packaging
“The tonnage for the global consumer
flexible packaging market is projected
at 18.1 million tons in 2011 and is
forecast to reach 22.5 million tons by
2016.”
Pira Study
24% increase in 5 years!
Flexible packaging is maturing in
North America and Western
Europe… but not elsewhere.
•Asia is the fastest-growing market with a
forecast compound annual growth rate
for 2011-2016 of 7.9%.
•The region is forecast to represent 55.0%
of total world flexible consumption
growth during the period 2011-16.
India and China are the fastest-growing
national markets for consumer flexible
packaging according to Pira, together
accounting for 44.0% of world flexible
packaging consumption growth during
the forecast period.”
Energy conservation/efficiency
and Sustainability
EcoCradle™
Product protection throughout the
supply chain
Product Design + Package Design
+ Pre-Shipment Testing
= SUCCESS
More bad predictions…
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military
value."
Marshal Ferdinand Foch (supreme allied
commander in World War I), 1911
"It must be accepted as a principle that the rifle,
effective as it is, cannot replace the effect produced
by the speed of the horse, the magnetism of the
charge and the terror of cold steel."
British Cavalry Training Manual, 1907
Technology
RFID – What is its place?
Vision Systems at the grocery store = no more barcodes?
What about 2-D codes?
•DotCode
•Dot Code A
•USS Code One
•Maxi Code
•Data Matrix
•Aztec Code
•QR Code
•Datastrip 2D
•Grid Matrix
Technology
Track & Trace Tools are The
future of safe food and
pharmaceuticals
Nanomaterials have a great
future too, but are they safe?
I’m glad I didn’t say this…
“Computers in the future may weigh no more
than 1.5 tons.”
Popular Mechanics Magazine, 1949
“Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?”
Harry Warner, Warner Brothers Studios, 1927
Sustainability and the Business of
Packaging
“No such thing as inherently ‘sustainable’
packaging… There can only be a more sustainable
way of manufacturing a certain product.”
Is the driver social commitment
or just cost reduction?
Proctor and Gamble example:
By 2020:
•Replacing 25% of petroleum-based materials
with sustainably sourced renewable materials in
products
•Reducing consumer use packaging by 20%
•Providing 30% of the power to plants from
renewable energy
•Reducing manufacturing waste to less than .5%
of total waste to landfill
Packaging has become a strategic
tool!
Just two more…
"We don't like their sound and guitar music is on
the way out."
Decca Records rejects the Beatles, 1962
"Everything that can be invented has been
invented.”
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner,
U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
Where does the Packaging
Professional Fit in the Future?
Better Packaging means packaging development
that accomplishes:
•well-preserved and more nutritious food
•clean drinking water
•secure pharmaceuticals and over the counter
medications
•undamaged products that arrive in the
consumers’ hands
Education Is the Key to
“Better Quality of Life
Through Better Packaging
For More People”!!
The Future Is Bright!!!
According to Pira:
the packaging sector will likely be
more than $800 billion USD in
revenue by 2017.
In my opinion, revenue
could easily top $1
trillion by 2022
•Educate yourself
•Discover the unexpected
•Apply the new idea
•Find uncommon success
“The best way to predict the future
is to invent it”
Alan Kay