In our world of flexible packaging, we constantly stress the concept that your product’s package is truly the voice of your brand.
It’s that mini billboard that catches the attention of shoppers and visually communicates an important message about your company and product within a matter of seconds. The artwork that appears on the outside of the packaging allows brands to represent themselves in the marketplace, differentiate their products from the competition, and express their vision to customers while tying in educational, informative text in a creative way.
Consumers like having options, and they enjoy listening to stories rather than hearing a stale sales pitch or seeing overly promotional advisements. Product and packaging design allows today’s businesses to reach customers on a deeper, more emotional level, and this has been achieved in incredible ways thanks to the rise of digital printing.
Bridging the gap between product and packaging design concept to consumer is an area Charanjit Hayre specializes in. Hayre has played a key role in innovating the world of flexible retail packaging by listening to consumers and providing inventive new solutions to help brands stand out in their industries.
Hayre sat down with David Marinac in an all-new, on-demand webinar to discuss how digital printed prototypes have shaken up not only the packaging world, but consumers’ expectations as well. Modern customers, he explained, crave new and inventive products. This opens up several unique challenges for today’s brands, and packaging companies work with forward-thinking businesses to create solutions that fill a need in the marketplace and go above and beyond what people expect.
“We love that innovative approach to a problem that the customer has,” he said.
Digital printing has allowed his company to offer truly unique packaging prototypes and finished pouches to a wide range of consumer goods companies. Traditionally, flexographic printing has been used to apply artwork to containers. There’s a massive difference, he explained, between flexographic, rotogravure, and digital printing in terms of lead times, quality, and process. The gap has gotten smaller between the different styles within the last decade, however, and when consumers are looking for a design that really pops, digital printed pouches are the surefire winner.
Rotogravure printing produces much more vibrant, photo-realistic images on a product’s packaging compared to flexographic, but it’s still a very expensive process in North America. Digital printing, on the other hand, has been around for many years but has only recently evolved from small labels to larger surface areas like that of a stand up pouch. While many packaging suppliers utilize digital printing for mock ups and packaging prototypes, some have 30-inch web width capabilities, which can produce fully printed 5-to-10 lb. bags. When there is a need for immediate, high-quality printing, digital printed prototypes serve as the perfect solution. They allow brands to create seasonal, promotional, highly personalized product and packaging design, as well as launch new flavors in functional flexible pouches.
Lead time is a big concern for brands looking to get their products packaged using the highest quality, most advanced pouches on the market today. Digital printing, Hayre explains, makes it possible for small to medium-sized businesses to produce mininum runs as low as 1,000 while waiting only 15 days for their artwork to be digitally printed on their functional, structurally sound stand up pouches, flexible box bags, or stick packs. If any mistakes are spotted or designs need to be changed on the packaging prototypes, digital printing makes it easy to fix and reprint without worrying about plates or going back to the drawing board. The industry, Hayre says, is moving to digital, and it’s truly the future of product and packaging design.
In this free, on-demand webinar, you will learn more about the future of digital printing, packaging prototypes, and product and packaging design from a leader in innovative flexible packaging solutions.
Hayre’s biggest piece of advice to CPG companies looking for the most modern, impressive packaging is to think creatively, ask a lot of questions, and don’t shy away from pitching ideas to their packaging partners. The more you ask, he says, the more options you give yourself. Today's packaging companies are enthusiastic about coming up with brand new structures and functions, and these ideas are driven both by consumer desire and concepts from companies both large and small. The No. 1 goal of his team of consultants is to help brands make money, and this is achieved by taking realistic steps to bring their imaginative ideas from concept to consumer.
