headline press information

Date 12th July 2012 / www.procarton.com
Title A plea for packaging
Text Frank Rehme, Head of Innovation Services at Metro Systems GmbH, sees shopping experience as the key for the future of the stationary trade. He propagates the further development of the Shopper Experience and the emotional component of its central element: the packaging. Pro Carton interviewed him during the ECR Congress in Brussels.  
  Mr Rehme, how do consumers react to digitalisation?
Consumers are no longer a homogeneous group, but have differentiated into many smaller groups, each with their own needs. And consumers have become quite professional, for example, by comparing prices worldwide before buying as well as demanding transparency from suppliers. Simply selling - those days are over.

How should the trade react?
The digital change is taking place fast. The question is not: how much does it cost? But rather: how much does it cost doing nothing? But one should not overestimate the online component either. 80 per cent of decisions are intuitive, both in shops and on the Internet. The difference is the Shopper Experience. Online it takes place at home - of course the packaging pays a slightly lesser role here, the experience in the shop is far more intensive.

Is the stationary trade at risk?
The stationary trade will always have an advantage over online shopping, because only the shop can deliver that "Moment of Truth", when you hold and examine the packaging. However, the "Shopper Experience" in the store needs to be planned even more carefully in future. We are working quite intensively on this and are already more advanced than the USA.

No advertising slogan can be as emotional as the Point of Sale: the multisensory experience, smelling, touching, listening, and possibly tasting are all made more intensive by applying neuro-scientific insights. The show and experience are the most important shopping elements in stores, not only for classical impulse buying. But even in the specific buyer segment one should not underrate the effect of impulse, here too, show and experience play a major role.

What role does packaging play?
With Internet sales the protection of the packaging plays the prime role, online shopping is not as emotional as buying in a store. At the POS packaging and presentation play the decisive role. Here, the experience is dominated by feelings, we encounter tactile and olfactory features, emotions, and all this has to do with packaging. Ideally it should appeal to all the senses at the POS. It is all about emotions and specific situations which are impossible to recreate in front of a monitor. For example, the "reward products" category plays a far greater role here. But of course, the brand owner decides on the extent of upgrade for his products, as this also costs money and at the end of the day the consumer has to be willing to pay for the product.

Thank you for the interview!
Frank Rehme, Head of Innovation Services, Metro Systems GmbH
Frank Rehme, Head of Innovation Services, Metro Systems GmbH

 

 

 
   
Further
Information		 Suzanne McEwen +43 1 218 6918 mcewen@procarton.com
Background Pro Carton is the European Association of Carton and Cartonboard manufacturers. Its main purpose is to promote the use of cartons and cartonboard to brand owners, the trade as well as designers, the media and politicians as an economically and ecologically balanced packaging medium.