Even a cursory study of the packaging printer workflow reveals the deep integration required to manufacture. The package printer knows the market; knows the creative process involved in packaging; knows the use profile of protection, preservation and end usage. Most of all, the package printer knows their value to the companies that use packaging as an integral component in their business.

The package printer’s sales staff are problem solvers, solution providers, manufacturing experts. They know the language of the creatives, the challenges they face in realizing their ideas. Creative design in the packaging sector requires the designer to have extensive information about what can be done. The designs they create are meant to be different enough to stand-out and possible to manufacture. This is where the package printer plays, adds value, participates in the creative

Mauro Porcini and the PEPSI logo evolution over 125 years

A recent conversation between Mauro Porcini, the Chief Design Officer of PepsiCo and Bennie Johnson, Executive Director of AIGA is where the challenges facing creative designers were discussed.  Not only is there need to stand-out with design, but equally important, the requirements to fit in.  

 PepsiCo wants to participate in ecologically important initiatives, reducing plastic in the packaging is a place to start. Creative designers wanting to change a design must consider how reducing plastic or exploring alternatives will effect the safety and preservation of the product, its ability to be manufactured, the impact on shipping and how it will appear on the shelf in the retail environment. As Porcini emphasizes, “A simple change that adds just a gram of weight or millimeter of size can end up costing millions more in production. If a proposed design requires extensive retooling, is it feasible to produce?” These points raised by Porcini are the essence of why the packaging manufacturer must sit at the table where these kinds of design and marketing decisions are made.   

No, they will not drive the process. The package manufacturer is the tether to the realities of the possible and the restraints of budget. In other words, value. And at that table, at that moment when the discussion is taking place, is the time to prove their value.   

If PSPs outside of packaging can learn something from this model, it must be the lesson of value. This may in fact require a restructure of what the existing business model is. Adding marketing and design knowledge and skills in the creative department. Re-tooling the sales staff to those that sell value, not 'lowest price and donuts' on Fridays. Indeed, to excel in tomorrow’s market, the transition from Print Service Provider to Marketing Service Provider is likely the path to follow. Businesses that market their product or service are motivated by a hierarchy of needs: promote the brand, increase sales. Meet those needs effectively and reap the value-add margins your business will generate.  

 Perspicacity is the insight, the acuity that differentiates a business that survives from the one that succeeds.