Viktorija Gnatoka, global packaging analyst at Mintel05.04.15
Combining technology with packaging promises great opportunities for brands to elevate the experience with the product and improve safety. Beauty brands can benefit from embracing smart packaging solutions to sustain the growth of their brands and use these packaging solutions that add value beyond entertainment or an aesthetically beautiful pack.
The author, Viktorija Gnatoka
Diageo recently partnered with Thin Film Electronics to create the Johnnie Walker Blue Label smart bottle, which for the first time leverages NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, a solution different from QR codes.
NFC, unlike QR code that needs to be scanned using an app, is already embedded into smartphones. On the consumer end this means a simple tap on a device to enable or activate the content.
The Johnnie Walker packaging includes OpenSense technology from Thin Film that includes a printed sensor tag. The tag provides smartphone-centric NFC readability before and after the product opening. Each bottle can have a unique identifier, thus allowing instant access to the status of the product during the supply chain. Diageo sees the potential of smart tags to provide product security (sensor tags can show whether bottles have been previously opened and assure consumers of product authenticity and quality). Another application is to enhance consumer engagement since tags will allow Diageo to send consumers personalized communication that can contain any type of marketing content.
The Johnnie Walker smart bottle is a great example of how technologies are adjusting to consumers’ lifestyles where everything is being accessed via a smartphone. Mintel’s trend Futures: Access Anything, Anywhere speaks about the way technology changes the way we live. Smartphones originally aimed at accessing people, today are increasingly being used to access information. Packaging is not an exception, and novel technologies connect consumers with brands via packaging.
Beauty care products could benefit from packaging solutions similar to OpenSense.
According to Mintel report Beauty Retailing - US, January 2015, 46% of U.S. consumers who purchased beauty products in the last 12 months say that price influenced their purchasing decision. Price is also referenced as the No. 1 purchasing factor. A wide choice of products available online does not guarantee authenticity and there are no packaging solutions beyond tamper evidence that provide brand or product protection.
How Beauty Brands Might Utilize the Technology
Just like Diageo found the smart label application to ensure authenticity and engage with consumers on a new level, beauty brands can embrace the same technology.
NFC-enabled labels could not only help brands to prove the authenticity of products to consumers but also do it in a discreet way, because despite the practical applications of novel packaging solutions in beauty care products, it is equally important to focus on the aesthetics. In the case of the smart labels developed by Thinfilm, the NFC chip is embedded under the main label and does not interfere with the rest of the packaging design.
Packaging innovation that ensures product authenticity can also be implemented without the need for consumers to use a smartphone or any other electronic device to get access to content or to verify their purchase. While development in packaging solutions that can ensure product authenticity has been limited, there is one application developed as a result of a partnership between researchers at the University of Michigan and South Korea that seems to have potential application in the market in the future.
The label uses a new nanoscale printing technique, which creates kind of a ‘watermark’ on a variety of materials including plastic, fabric, paper and metal. The image is invisible until breathed upon, which reveals the hidden security print. The novel film is currently in the process of getting a patent and is also seeking commercialization opportunities to bring the first products to market. At this stage it is hard to say whether the film will be easy to replicate once it is available for mass production. It also might cause concerns around hygiene - it’s unlikely that consumers would like to buy and use a product that could have been breathed on by many other people in a store.
However, it might find application in primary packaging, i.e., the authentication process will happen in the consumer’s home after opening the pack. The novel film can also be applied to a number of packaging design elements that consumers encounter while using the product. For example, the new film can be used instead of a foil that serves as a protection layer under the lid of a jar of cream. It would not only ensure consumers that the product has never been opened before, but also an image revealed upon breathing on the film would confirm the authenticity of the brand.
The author, Viktorija Gnatoka
NFC, unlike QR code that needs to be scanned using an app, is already embedded into smartphones. On the consumer end this means a simple tap on a device to enable or activate the content.
The Johnnie Walker packaging includes OpenSense technology from Thin Film that includes a printed sensor tag. The tag provides smartphone-centric NFC readability before and after the product opening. Each bottle can have a unique identifier, thus allowing instant access to the status of the product during the supply chain. Diageo sees the potential of smart tags to provide product security (sensor tags can show whether bottles have been previously opened and assure consumers of product authenticity and quality). Another application is to enhance consumer engagement since tags will allow Diageo to send consumers personalized communication that can contain any type of marketing content.
The Johnnie Walker smart bottle is a great example of how technologies are adjusting to consumers’ lifestyles where everything is being accessed via a smartphone. Mintel’s trend Futures: Access Anything, Anywhere speaks about the way technology changes the way we live. Smartphones originally aimed at accessing people, today are increasingly being used to access information. Packaging is not an exception, and novel technologies connect consumers with brands via packaging.
Beauty care products could benefit from packaging solutions similar to OpenSense.
According to Mintel report Beauty Retailing - US, January 2015, 46% of U.S. consumers who purchased beauty products in the last 12 months say that price influenced their purchasing decision. Price is also referenced as the No. 1 purchasing factor. A wide choice of products available online does not guarantee authenticity and there are no packaging solutions beyond tamper evidence that provide brand or product protection.
How Beauty Brands Might Utilize the Technology
Just like Diageo found the smart label application to ensure authenticity and engage with consumers on a new level, beauty brands can embrace the same technology.
NFC-enabled labels could not only help brands to prove the authenticity of products to consumers but also do it in a discreet way, because despite the practical applications of novel packaging solutions in beauty care products, it is equally important to focus on the aesthetics. In the case of the smart labels developed by Thinfilm, the NFC chip is embedded under the main label and does not interfere with the rest of the packaging design.
Packaging innovation that ensures product authenticity can also be implemented without the need for consumers to use a smartphone or any other electronic device to get access to content or to verify their purchase. While development in packaging solutions that can ensure product authenticity has been limited, there is one application developed as a result of a partnership between researchers at the University of Michigan and South Korea that seems to have potential application in the market in the future.
The label uses a new nanoscale printing technique, which creates kind of a ‘watermark’ on a variety of materials including plastic, fabric, paper and metal. The image is invisible until breathed upon, which reveals the hidden security print. The novel film is currently in the process of getting a patent and is also seeking commercialization opportunities to bring the first products to market. At this stage it is hard to say whether the film will be easy to replicate once it is available for mass production. It also might cause concerns around hygiene - it’s unlikely that consumers would like to buy and use a product that could have been breathed on by many other people in a store.
However, it might find application in primary packaging, i.e., the authentication process will happen in the consumer’s home after opening the pack. The novel film can also be applied to a number of packaging design elements that consumers encounter while using the product. For example, the new film can be used instead of a foil that serves as a protection layer under the lid of a jar of cream. It would not only ensure consumers that the product has never been opened before, but also an image revealed upon breathing on the film would confirm the authenticity of the brand.
