The Age of Uca: a new era of packaging innovation
As we enter the year 2023, the world is returning to normal after a three-year epidemic, but we realize that there is "no going back" in both life and work. Our familiar living and consumption habits, rules of the game, and business models are quietly undergoing great changes, Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous, people call it the VUCA era. In the VUCA era, the competitiveness of enterprises from equipment, channel change to products and innovation, from "what I have" to "what the market needs", from "selling products to the hands of customers" to "selling positioning in the minds of customers". Innovation has become the first power to lead the development of enterprises, packaging companies must strengthen their own independent innovation hard power, solid "innovation toughness", empowering customers to help customers grow and get their own growth. Become a reliable and respected innovation chain partner in the hearts of customers is the core of the future competitiveness of enterprises.
Small-dose packaging: the main theme of packaging under lazy health care
The young people who are deep in health anxiety, the new generation who are not willing to spend time on health care, the youthful health care group who are afraid of trouble and expect convenience/quickness/hassle-free, these are the collective labels of the people who are expanding in this era, in addition to "pleasing themselves", they also want to "take care of themselves". "These are the collective labels of the expanding population in this era. Products to snacking, light food transformation, 25-50 ml of small bottles of drinks because of its convenience quickly popular, light, slim, convenient small packaging, to help the brand to cater to a group of consumers younger, healthier, more diversified requirements. Future packaging should be innovative in multiple scenarios, and cater to the consumption propositions and habits of specific groups of people.
Taste Restoration: Packaging Change under the Consumption Downgrading Trend
"Childhood flavor", "memory flavor", "mother's flavor", consumers expect products to maintain the quality, nutritional premise, pay more attention to the taste of the product restoration and packaging emotional attributes. Whether it's Jiang Xiaobai, Wenchuang ice-cream, or the recent "Mother" brand instant hot new rice and Taiyao soft drink from Yangshengtang, "memory" and "emotional" marketing has become a "positioning" strategy for more and more brands. "Positioning" strategy for more and more brands. In this new context, enterprises should focus on "taste reduction" and "emotional memory" to tell a good packaging story, and do a good job of process innovation and form change.
Flexible plastic bags instead of glass bottles: more than oral liquid
Glass bottles have always been the preferred packaging for oral liquids. Increased demand for convenience, easy adjustment and measurement of dosage, stability of materials, cost reduction and resource saving, innovation and personalization have pushed the soft plastic pouches to accelerate the replacement of glass bottles in the dominant position in the oral liquid kingdom. Not just for oral liquids, in the field of wine packaging, several leading international companies have launched bag-in-bottle solutions that combine the environmental advantages of pulp moulding with the potential of flexible plastic bags in terms of cost and personalization. Innovation should focus on both peer competitors and dissimilar competitors.
Excessive packaging governance: from explicit excess to implicit excess
Excessive packaging management from excessive materials, excessive cost, excessive layers, etc. gradually began to pay attention to the process of excessive, functional excess, etc., does not produce direct consumer value of excessive decoration, flashy diversified functions, hidden and excessive packaging form needs to be emphasized. The governance of excessive packaging may not only trigger less material and more minimalist structure, but also deep changes in the direction of innovation and innovation logic of the whole industry.
Inkless Printing: Redefining Green Packaging
Inkless printing technology adopts laser and electronic means to replace traditional ink and paper, which is innovative and subversive to traditional printing. With the advancement of the global greening wave, inkless printing will continue to make breakthroughs in key technologies such as substrate materials, radiant light sources, and fast and efficient wide-format processes. At present, the domestic industry has formed a matrix of inkless printing technology innovation represented by a number of innovative enterprises, and the relevant products have been applied in the fields of Wanglaoji Jijian cans, Procter & Gamble FMCG packaging, and e-commerce express packaging. The "potential rivals" to disrupt an industry are often outside the industry.
Whole plant sources: packaging can be planted
Consumers are keen on environmentally friendly products to promote the application of all-plant source materials in the packaging industry, plant extracts from academic research formally into industrialization. The successful application of pulp molding in coffee capsule packaging, the batch application of mycelium in industrial packaging, and a series of moves to make consumer electronics packaging 100% plastic-free are all sending a clear signal: all-plant sources. Whether it's FMCG packaging or industrial packaging, all-vegetable sourced solutions are becoming the new hot spot in the industry.
High Barrier Coating: Microwaveable Milk Packaging to Look Forward to
During the Asian Games, internationally renowned leading packaging companies launched aluminum foil-free packaging, replacing aluminum foil with barrier coatings of innovative technology to meet the requirements of aseptic packaging to block water, oxygen and light. The new milk packaging contains only two components: paper and plastic, which makes it easier to realize physical recycling, improve recycling quality and reduce carbon footprint by 30%. In addition, because of the replacement of the aluminum foil layer, microwaveable milk packaging is expected to become a reality. It is not necessarily milk that will change human breakfast habits, it may just be that 0.5 micron layer.
Shifting and restructuring: viable solutions to packaging functionalization requirements and green transformation
The key challenge for recyclable flexible plastic packaging is to standardize materials and structures, which contradicts the diverse and differentiated functional requirements of products for packaging. A globally agreed and feasible solution is to transfer the function of the material to the coating, and develop coatings with diverse functions to meet the needs of different products. Relying on the combination of functional coatings and base materials to reduce the requirements and dependence on the performance of the base material, becoming the core competitiveness of future packaging enterprises.
Waterless molding: the next wind in pulp molding
Pulp molding has been from industrial packaging into consumer packaging, coating technology breakthroughs make high-barrier pulp molding has become the new darling of FMCG, constraints on the large-scale promotion of pulp molding is the core of the cost, relying on the liquid to drive the flow of fibers into the mold mold molding of the traditional process will be subverted. To anhydrous molding technology as the core of a new generation of pulp molding process, equipment will become the new wind mouth in this field.