Packing lollies for millennials and everyone else

Packaging generates brand identity and sets trends, and it is particularly significant in point-of-sale items like confectionery and snacks.

Whether the relevant point is aesthetics, functionality, protection or sustainability, packaging that convinces through its design is what counts at the point of sale.

The significance of the packaging design as a means of distinction has increased strongly over the past years, along with the incredible variety of lollies on the shelves.

Presenting the brand

Premium brands strive to appeal to the senses directly from the shelves — a clear design, haptic characteristics and striking embellishments are frequently part of the packaging. However, in today's era of sustainability and transparency, visual appearance is long since not everything.

"Today's consumers display high awareness for wellbeing and the environment," confirmed LuAnn Williams, Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights.

It is thus no surprise to her that the consumers are placing more importance on the intelligent usage of resources, for instance in the form of biodegradable and renewable packaging.

The desired goal is a closed loop across the value chain, and some of the innovative packaging already achieves this.

The thinner and lighter, the better

Lightweight folding boxes are just one of the ways of minimising raw packaging material consumption. Foil solutions are increasingly joining the ranks of sustainable packaging solutions while market experts are expecting the global demand for plastic pouch packaging in the food section to increase up to around an average of 4.2% per year by 2025.

This trend goes hand in hand with the strong demand of consumers for products that are packed in a practical manner with easy-opening characteristics. Intuitive handling when opening and closing the packaging is just one aspect that the designers have to consider.

From this point of view, doypacks are one of the especially dynamic growth segments. They are resealable, compact, lightweight and non-breakable. They are already used to pack snacks such as vegetable chips and nuts and are also being used with filled chocolates and seasonal items.

The consumption of fossil-sources raw materials is being reduced since the introduction of biobased foils, in which the polymers are made from sugar cane ethanol or milk proteins.

New customising technologies and intelligent packing material combinations are also being introduced. Doybacks made without the use of aluminium and which can be produced from a digitally imprintable paper compound are now available.

Individuality is in

The more individual the packing, the more likely the young consumers are to pick up the product at the point of sale and inspect it more closely. Mass-produced goods are out as millennials choose snacks and sweets which suit their personal lifestyles.

Digital printing means that small and medium-sized confectionery manufacturers can design their products much more creatively. High-performance digital printing machines can be used on site to produce smaller and medium-sized volumes of high-quality folding boxes that rival those made on offset machines.

If you want to be absolutely up to date with every facet of the confectionery industry, you must go to ProSweets 2019. Held in Cologne from 27–30 January 2019, ProSweets will have on display a comprehensive covering of packaging for every snacks and confectionery market trend.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/karlevana