Online Exclusive: What’s Next?
Market researcher and futurist Judy Galloway of G-group Market Research previews five trends that will impact packaging in the new beauty year.
By Judy Galloway

Annually, each January, I research and publish a trend report called the G-Ometer Report. The report takes the temperature of the characteristics, contours and contradictions of the culture. The trends I project are my synthesis of what will affect consumers and in turn businesses in the future. I use a four-prong approach: market research, scanning or competitive review, strategic planning techniques and futuring methodologies.

Judy Galloway

Because all aspects of the world, the environment, technology, science, geo-politics and economics are changing at a frightening pace, our horizon is narrowing. The future is just around the corner and barreling towards us at a ferocious speed. There are also more options available and more innovation than ever existed before. When my hypotheses are set, I look at multiple categories through the prism of the G-Ometer Report. Here, I want to give you a preview of five of my 2012 trends and one piece of advice that is very clear from my research.
Let’s discuss the advice first. When you are looking at future concepts, materials and designs, if at least 30% of what you plan to do does not scare you, then you are not taking enough risk for what’s next. Times are “a-changing” and fast!
What are the cultural trends that will influence packaging?

Believe it or not there is much more evidence than not that our environment is changing and there will be a day of reckoning sooner than we think. What is truly important is that consumers across the country and around the world believe it. Recyclable, biodegradable, environmentally friendly are requirements consumers expect. Not just nice to have but required. Why produce anything else. Along with environmental safety and conservation comes a desire, a realization, that we each need and can afford less “stuff.” The “stuff” we do have, and yes, we still love acquiring “stuff” must allow us to better organize and live our lives. We will continue, particularly the young who are in an acquisition mode, to

The Global Eco Movement is one packaging trend.

be more mobile and to have less space. Therefore, organization and component stories built on organization and eco-friendliness will be important.

In the same vein, for the third year in a row we are touting smaller sizes. It is about consumers moving more often, having less space, and avoiding waste as well as the constant desire to try, but not necessarily commit to new products. Increasingly, absolute price is more important, with many consumers only able to afford smaller, lower priced products. Small works for all of these reasons and should be included in all design groups. The contradiction is that large volume size commodity packages will grow in importance as well. By commodity, I mean those products, regardless of price, that one uses regularly. This is driven by economic considerations as well as the consumer’s sense she has less and less time to shop and needs to “stock up.”

Of course, it is absolutely official—we are a global marketplace. Markets seek the lowest labor costs, including transportation, and the best, most innovative, unique and attractive designs. It is about cost, originality, ethnicity and very importantly story telling. Global sources and designs have an exotic interesting built-in story to tell. Every packaging statement we develop must have a “story,” a reason to be. A purchaser may very well change it and develop their own story, but presentation, innovation and imagination are required.

Life is hard. Everything is complex and everything is changing. Plus the worldwide increase in aging consumers along with the fight for space and the eco-challenge of waste all cry for functionality. That is package designs that “do something,” that are clever. For starters, packages must be easy to open but not leak and dispense perfectly. That’s step one. You need at least 10 more functionality improvements. Maybe it’s a new refill strategy or new multi-use options or a new component inter-changeability strategy. It may be driven by design, utilitarian considerations, application or price. Most assuredly, it will be, in some part, about component weight as materials travel long distances at what will almost assuredly be higher energy costs. Make packaging functional and, of course, make it beautiful, too.

The U.S. is migrating to two categories of wealth—luxury and all else. We will continue to grow more different than more similar. The Internet, of course, brings the whole universe into view and it takes more and more to get our attention. Already, extremes are emerging. There is little demand for average. Not that all designs should be very decorative or over designed, there is a clear place for exquisite simplicity. My research predicts design is moving to both extremes in every arena.
These trends are the tip of the iceberg; we haven’t even started talking about the impact of technology on packaging.