Millennials & the Flexible Packaging Industry
Millennials & the Flexible Packaging Industry
WIll Shorter Print Runs Takeover?
Millennials are the sole target market for many brands, which is a difficult audience to reach. Unlike previous generations, millennials are not loyal consumers; they do not use the brands their parents and grandparents consistently swear by. Millennials want different when it comes to brands. They do not want the same packaging as every other product; they do not want the same flavors they have always had.
With millennial attitudes in mind, brands everywhere are changing their packaging and moving toward shorter print runs, even brands that have been around for more than one hundred years. The Coca Cola Company, for example, has been around since 1886 and recently rebranded one of their most popular products.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Coke revealed that it has completely changed their Diet Coke packaging to look more modern. They have also released four additional flavors to their Diet Coke mix. That is a lot of different packaging that has to be printed.
"Millennials are now thirstier than ever for adventured and new experiences, and we want to be right by their side. We’re contemporizing the Diet Coke brand and portfolio with sleek packaging and new flavors that are appealing to new audiences," explained group director for Diet Coke, Rafael Acevedo.
For years, Coke and Diet Coke products have looked the exact same; Coke was bright red with white letters and Diet coke was silver with bright red letters. Not only did their staple packaging continuously stand out, but it also was easy to print because it used long print runs.
Now, with new labels AND new flavors, Diet Coke will move to short print runs due to the differences in design and color on each individual flavored product.
Is this foreshadowing the future of printing consumer products?
If short runs are the future, then printers are in luck! ESI’s EB Web Offset is the perfect solution. With EB Web Offset, you can cut costs, boost quality, minimize start-up waste, and reduce changeover times while printing shorter runs. EB Offset is great for consumer products, like food and beverages, because there are no photo initiators, no extractables, and no odors. It is also ecofriendly with no solvent capture or destruction.
Cutting costs while getting better quality AND being ecofriendly, EB Web Offset printing is the best option for shorter print runs, making it easier for consumer products to change their packaging as frequently as they want for their millennial consumers.