In the June issue of Shelf Impact!, a panel of package designers and design managers lamented the challenges that the realities of their jobs place on achieving effective package designs. This month, we balance those views with one perspective from inside a retailer.

“My two cents on surviving package design realities is that packaging managers need to act like a United Nations translator. We need to be able to speak and understand three or more languages: ‘Businessese,’ ‘Designese,’ and ‘Productionese.’ We need to translate the business needs to the designer, then translate the design vision back to business, which then needs to be translated to production.

“To be successful, you must be able to wear many hats and understand all aspects of your corporation.”

—Mark Maxwell, Director of Packaging Development, Kmart Management Corp.

Key qualifiers: service and cost efficiency

“Services and cost efficiency are the crucial factors when choosing your board supplier,” says Michael Ludwig, Packaging Development Manager at Dr Scheller Cosmetics AG in Germany. “We don’t have the right equipment for testing board grades. We depend on the technical service of suppliers.”

By qualifying suppliers, Dr. Scheller Cosmetics selected the right board in redesigning some of its packaging to resonate with consumers. In the process, it decreased board weight and production-line down time, and achieved an internal goal by reducing its packaging costs by 7% per year over the past four years.