Color helps packages connect with consumers

This is an excerpt from the session "Meet the Press: CPG Perspective on Packaging Trends" that Packaging Digest directed at Pack Expo 2010.

PD: What trends do you see in the use of color and printing in packaging?

Rich Hollander, vp, packaging services, Pfizer: We've done a lot of work with respect to the use of color to help differentiate brands and, within a particular brand, across the varying strengths. We're moving forward with an improved package design using five different formats around the world and just two colors out of a palette of, I think, just 64 that our designers can choose from.

We've taken a good cut at reducing complexity by coming to five standard design formats for upwards of up to 24,000 SKUs in our pharmaceutical business. We're estimating that it will be a pretty significant cost savings, as well, just by reducing the number of colors.

Joe Keller, packaging section head, Procter & Gamble: At P&G, we continue to look at color and decoration and those things as a way to enable what we call the First Moment of Truth. With the fragmentation of advertising avenues, we have to be more focused on how do we attract the consumer at shelf and how do we close that sale there. It's been important for us for a while and you're only going to see more focus on it with the obvious inputs of harmonization and trying to get global scale and things like that. It's going to continue as a big trend for us.

Michael Okoroafor, vp packaging, H.J. Heinz: We just went through a packaging refresh with our frozen meals. We want to stand out in the store. No question about it ... You can't do that with just structure. It's got to be structure and color. Why is that important? To have that emotional connection with the consumer. 

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