By 2025, the biggest economic growth and 97% of population growth is expected in developing countries. On the contrary, experts forecast stagnation rather than growth for the advanced economies. This suggests that competition is about to get fierce and the focus will shift on values. Moreover, the market is splitting. The millennials should constitute nearly 30% of the European market by leaving another 30.7% for those who will be over 60 years old. These two consumer groups have quite different values. Precise targeting and cost control become crucial in order to compete successfully. Therefore, packaging comes forth as a competitive tool that creates value and increases store sales.

Advanced printing technologies, such as Full HD Flexo have been challenging gravure printing recently by offering photo-realistic flexible packaging at a reasonable cost. Now Equinox expanded gamut goes even further by making flexible packaging captivating and cost-effective. It is the equivalent of digital printing with a fixed palette of 4, 5, 6 or 7 inks, only on a conventional press. In expanded gamut spot colors are recreated by adding Orange, Green and Violet to CMYK. It is estimated that up to 95% of pantone colors can be converted to expanded gamut.

With Equinox expanded gamut packaging designers can use even more spot colors in their designs than there’re printing stations on the printing press. In terms of printing quality Equinox retains HD printing quality and can even improve the image because images can also be converted to 5, 6 or 7 colors instead of normal 4 color process. In the result extended gamut printing helps to manage product variations and to cope with decreasing flexible packaging print runs per item. Due to elimination of ink changes and custom ink printing Equinox printing can reduce ink consumption from 20% to 30%. Ink waste comes to 0 when printing is done in expanded gamut only. Faster changeover results in reduced incoming materials and printing waste. Therefore this contemporary printing method makes manufacturing of flexible packaging more environmentally friendly which applies to a millennial consumer‘s high interest in nature preservation. 

Tech-savvy millennials tend to try new things and share their stories and experiences on social networks. In relation to this, label personalization becomes a perfect tool for creating experiential packaging and building product and/or brand advocates. Advanced digital printing technologies create automated designs. As a result, the product can be easily customized to specific consumer interests, hobbies, personal or external characteristics, national or international events or festivals. Likewise, a consumer can discover themselves in a packaging and identify with it. As a result, a brand and/or product becomes more attractive and big brands, as well as small ones, become more competitive. 

The packaging which evokes emotions is also highly important. Emotion-evoking packaging can not only improve its packaging communication but also contribute to a good post-purchase experience since millennials prefer shopping online. Tactile labels and/or holographic can enhance the emotional aspect of a product or brand. Depending on the design of a label, the purpose of the product, and its target groups, conventional flexographic printing can create the impression of soft touch, paper, sand or water. 

In his book “Persuasive Copywriting: Using Psychology to Engage, Influence and Sell” Andy Maslen said: “Big brands need to invest now in storytelling and emotional marketing because in the human brain, and in its decision-making capacity, in particular, emotion beats reason.“ Therefore, color-yourself flexible packaging invites consumers to be creative and makes them the part of a story.

70% of sensory experience comes from the imagery. To leave a stronger visual impact on technology-minded millennials the digitalization of packaging is rapidly developing. If implementation of digital innovations such as NFC/RFID into the packaging is too costly and time-consuming, there are various solutions to make millennials’ life more enjoyable by spending less time and at a lower cost. For instance, combining elements that are seen in daylight and those that are seen only in UV light is an option. To trigger curiosity visuals can also be enhanced with fluorescent or scratch-off elements. Meanwhile, special printing can make life easier for an older generation which prefers easy-to-use packaging. For example, instead of reading consumption instructions, thermochromic printing on labels can visually show when the product is chilled or defrosted enough for consumption. 

While millennials tend to shift away from a brand, it remains significant for the older generation. In order to ensure the authenticity of the product, various anti-counterfeiting means are applied, including costly branded holograms or digital RFID/NFC tagging. However, in many cases, printing can contribute to brand protection. For instance, label design can contain a unique micro text which appears as a line for a human eye. A unique extremely thin line pattern incorporated into the label design can also serve as a fingerprint of the product. Micro embossing makes the created unique patterns impossible to be scanned or redrawn. Likewise, special marking can ensure the authenticity of the product. 

Presented by: Label and packaging manufacturer Aurika
Please feel free to contact us Lina.Raulinaviciene@aurika.lt