Quality in Packaging is a term that has a different meaning for every person involved in the process. The Consumer looks for a certain Quality and the Researchers make every effort to detail it so that the Packaging developers could work towards it.
The Designer looks for quality but does not want to compromise on the aesthetics, thus tries to push his/her design concept, so what if it leads to a slight deviation from the specified Quality. The Engineers look for Quality but do not want to lower their machine speeds or capacities, thus want features to be build in which ensures their high productivity while packing. The Material Buyers are looking for quality but also want reduced costs and crashed timelines, thus recommend standardisation. The Brand Manager wants Quality in no way inferior to competition but has a finite time and depleted Budgets. The Suppliers want to deliver quality but often miss out on development steps and thus want approvals on deviations.
The Challenge for the Packaging developers is to anticipate all such Quality expectations and still be able to innovate and carry a meaningful Packaging to the consumer. A very methodical way could be an agreement of all the stake holders involved and a buy in on the Specifications. This itself , often is a complicated process and may take a significant amount of time and effort to arrive at a conclusion.More often than not the development work goes on even as the stake holders decide , to not to agree for whatever reasons.
The reality is no amount of systems or project softwares can solve such issues , infact they often add on to the complexities and communication nightmares.
The competitive pressures start building up and the Brand needs to get into the Market, ultimately many waking up and asking ' But who asked for quality ', lets get into the market and keep improving as we go along.
The question that we all need to answer is that ultimately did the Consumer get the quality that he/she was looking for.
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I must say that inspite of thousands of pending jobs on my table, I feel compelled to pen down my thoughts on such an interesting article... primarily because I feel that me and my consultancy is in the midst of this battle. Every bit written is 100% reality and I think the only way to bring to market, a TOP - CLASS product, is when a consumer demands for it. I am a keen observer of shoppers in a departmental store and have often noticed that most consumers, dont even read.. before picking up an item.. ONLY PRICE. A particular brand maybe offering 450gms. of a product in a tall slender bottle for Rs. 50/- and another one offering 500gms for Rs. 55/-... The customer immediately picks up the first one without a second glance to read its contents etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to convey with the above observation is that we, as consumers, have no yet woken up to QUALITY. We often demand the BEST from the manufacturers, but are not willing to pay a premium for it. Thus, the manufacturer has no other choice but to fight on the PRICE front, while lowering the bar on quality... after all.. he has to sell his product.
If we as consumers promise that we will pay more for the right quality... I think we have a solution for the problem. Marketing will demand for it from Packaging development. PD will develop the best and commercial will have to pay for it. ALL CUSTOM BUILT, FOR THE CONSUMER.
Thanks,
Rajat Kedia
Mphinite, Packaging Design and Consulting