PACKAGING CHALLENGES: THE TRANSUMER TREND

Here at PI, our plastic packaging design team faces unique challenges all the time. As consumer trends and priorities change with the times, packaging companies like us need to adapt and stay versatile. That’s why this month, we’re focusing on some of the biggest and most recent challenges faced by today’s packaging design industry. We’ll be looking at what consumers like, what they need and what a packaging company has to do to keep up. Our first entry is focusing on a consumer trend that’s reshaping plastic packaging—literally.

What are Transumers?

It isn’t a name you’re likely to find in the dictionary, but it’s one making a big impact in the packaging design industry: The “transumer.” Transumers are consumers on the go—people in a hurry, traveling, commuting, and doing traditionally-stationary activities like eating while they’re on the run. They prize convenience, particularly when it comes to pre-portioned and highly portable food packaging and snacks.

So what does it mean for a plastic packaging company like PI? Thinking small and getting creative. While size has always been a critical consideration for any serious packaging company, new and increasing demand for small, disposable and easily transportable packaging designs has made it more complex—and necessitates new kinds of creativity.

The Sustainability Challenge

While plastic packaging designed for transumers is on the rise, designers and manufacturers like PI face another challenge: Retaining sustainability. Packages created for the transumer demographic have short shelf lives as far as the consumer is concerned—one-time use packaging almost always does. But with the presumably-higher volume of consumption, sustainability becomes a bigger concern. Instead of portioning out one large plastic package of fruit into reusable containers to pack in a lunch, for example, the transumer may simply purchase a set of pre-portioned fruit cups in disposable containers.

Our philosophy has always been to do right by the environment, which in the case of the transumer trend means focusing on highly recyclable options. Environmentally friendly plastic packaging is the best solution for catering to transumers without sacrificing a commitment to reducing waste—if other packaging companies invest in this technology as well, we can meet more than one packaging challenge at once.

Check back soon for another look at one of today’s biggest packaging challenges!

Source: http://goo.gl/SzkiI9