Just when packaging was making major marketing inroads, along comes sustainable packaging. While terms such as shelf impact, "First Moment of Truth" (FMOT), and sustainable packaging are not mutually exclusive, they are not in total alignment either.
With brand messages moving from media-driven to consumer-driven advertising, the focus on shelf impact and terms such as FMOT is getting stronger and more important. Procter & Gamble coined the term First Moment of Truth and defines it as the 3 to 7 seconds a consumer takes to notice a product on a store shelf. How important is FMOT
becoming? P&G has assigned 50 people to focus on it exclusively.
But now Wal-Mart and a few other forward-thinking retailers are pushing for enhanced sustainability. These initiatives include packaging that reduces environmental impact and enhances social and economic drivers (i.e., the triple bottom line). Following are some areas that brand stewards need to address in any sustainable packaging effort:
• Source reduction
• Material elimination
• Energy reduction
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction
• Increased recycled content
• Use of renewable resources
• Shipping and distribution efficiencies
Most of these factors could potentially decrease shelf impact and make it more difficult for consumers to distinguish products in the store at a time when the typical grocery store carries 35,000 to 40,000 SKUs.
The challenge is tough for brands to balance shelf impact and sustainable packaging. But a new package from Unilever, on the market for a few months, may give you ideas:
All Small & Mighty is a concentrated detergent in a smaller package that has good shelf impact with the aid of a colorful, full-body shrink sleeve. At the same time, significant energy reductions and material savings make
this a worthwhile sustainable package. Here’s how: From a product perspective, the 32 oz of extra-concentrated liquid inside the bottle clean as many laundry loads as a 100-oz bottle.
From a packaging perspective, the smaller bottle requires 64% less water in the formula than “regular” All, saving 500 million gallons of water. The smaller, sustainable package also saves 25 million gallons of diesel fuel through enhanced case, pallet, and truckload configurations, 150 million pounds of HPDE, and 750 million sq ft of corrugated board. Retailers benefit because the 32-oz bottles require less shelf space than an equal number of 100-oz bottles.
A key tenet in packaging’s future will be to understand the implications of shelf impact and sustainable packaging and to work to deliver game-changing, successful solutions that sell. In order to do this, packaging will need to be considered early in new-product and redesign efforts that are more collaborative.
- By Michael Richmond, President Packaging & technology Integrated Solutions
