These are the first words we said in the morning of February 28 when, on the stage of Enabler’s event, we started telling other companies about the future of packaging.
Three different areas, apparently without anything in common, that in our vision share the same goal: to understand an always changing world and to help companies dealing with it in the best way.
The world changes. This is not something new, as Charles Darwin has taught us before anyone else. People change too.
What is new is that for the first time in the history, those changes are driving us (as citizens, person, consumers) toward a new consciousness. We told to the Sealed Air’s guests how this change is asking them to switch to a new era.
Today people want to be conscious and partecipative. Today people know they have the power to change the world with their decisions. Even when they buy a product. Especially when they buy a product and choose, with this action, to support a company for the values it’s based on, being this values the ethic and sustainability of its business model or the communication the company promotes.
We are in the era of marketing 3.0, as anticipated by Philip Kotler. And era where decisions are taken not only considering economic and emotional aspects, but taking in account spirituality. People today understand that for a company providing quality goods at the right price is not enough: the company need to be able to raise emotions and respect a set of shared values.
Also, technology is changing in a similar manner. Technological evolution offers us an ample spectrum of opportunities, and some of them has been shown at this event by other speakers. Technologies like RFID and NFC can track the product from the “farm to the fork”, letting cunsumer know the entire history of every single product distributed on the market.
We don’t lack data and we have tools to analyze them. This is the present.
During the presentation we’ve tried to answer a simple but pivotal question: how the future will be shaped?
This isn’t just a catchphrase. It’s something that came out while talking with Sealed Air’s guests during these days. Today’s technologies are based on semantic, on a set of data too limited and incomplete to adapt to the new needs that are driving consumers’ demand.
This is why we decided to give our solution: the future lies in a new language that skips superficial values, in order to understand the primordial meaning of words.
We thought this was the ideal situation to show what we have done during last years to imagine the future and to give the world a new tool to build our future together.
That’s why we gifted Sealed air and its guest with a worldwide exclusive: we publicly announced Tootoom, showing the trailer of this project.
Now it’s your turn. It’s our turn. The world is changing.
Enabler’s guest list has underlined the fact that the revolution going on is not just a spot, a slogan. We’ve seen innovation, research and especially sustainability and attention towards the consumer.
Vision and strategies in perishable food e-commerce inside Sealed Air Food Care and Sealed Air Product Care divisions
Luca Cerani (EMEA Vice President Maketing & Portfolio, Sealed Air Food Care)
Gerd Wichmann (EMEA VicePresident and General Manager, Sealed Air Product Care)
For companies operating in the food sector, the new challenges are all about innovation. Today people feel the need to order food (processed or not) online and to receive it undamaged. That’s not something trivial for companies that create packagings. These companies have accepted the challenge and managed to protect food during conditions that there unthinkable of only a few years ago. Now the world is asking for more traceability and for a better unboxing experience.
Online Food Market forecast for 2022
Christophe Lavialle (International Sales Manager, IGD)
If the actual forecast will turn out to be right, the online food sector will grow exponentially during next 5 years.
There are two aspect that need to be underlined. First one, the growth won’t be uniform. In places like Italy, where food is stil linked to traditions, online market will be marginal for some years more.
Secondly, Christophe Lavialle in a slide stressed the fact that consumers are driving the change. This is not something unheard: the companies that will prosper tomorrow are the ones that started listening today.
E-Packaging and compliance with logistic
Stephane Perrin (Managing Director Enterprise Accounts, UPS Europe)
UPS is a global leader in logistic and expeditions, a leader that’s facing the challenges of a changing world. Once again, the people needs make the difference.
The delivery times that in the old economy were acceptable are now considered too slow. The absence of a same day or next day delivery make clients look for a better e-commerce site. Once again, the changing environment drive the companies’ strategies.
Packaging for a sustainable e-commerce
Ed Roberts (Regional Sustainability Director EMEA, Sealed Air Food Care)
Sustainability is a trending topic for both consumers and brans, but the scenario is still incredibly complex and and the same time fascinating. Ed Roberts, Regional Sustainability Director for Sealed Air, has expressed an intriguing point of view: you can’t judge the sustainability of an object for what it is. You need to understand what it does.
For example, a biodegradable packaging could have an bigger impact on environment than a “normal”one, because of the energy required to make it, or because to make it biodegradable you need to make it bigger, more expensive to transport.
We should reflect on this holistic approach to the sustainability.
A complete supply chain from farm to fork: the Sun Basket case
Susan Bell (Global VP Strategy, Business Development and M&A, Sealed Air Product Care)
This case study revolves around the evolving needs of consumers: from the farm to the fork, represents a new way of approaching to the food distribution. The producer, in this case, send the goods directly to consumers, without any intermediary.
Sun Basket case try to distinguish from its competitors thanks to its “green” attitude, which is evident in the eco-friendly packaging, which is engineered to be as clean as possibile for today standards. Sun Baskets also sells meal kits, that includes the food and all ingredients needed for specific recipes. Obviously, especially in the latter case freshness and preservation are extremely important and the packaging must preserve the goods from deteriorating.
The state of the art of temperature monitoring
Lee Curkendal (CTO, TempTRIP USA)
Food waste is a global issue. As we said during our presentation, the food we waste every year could feed 1 billion people. One of the reason for this is the uncontrolled temperature of the food during transport, that could make food unsafe.
TempTRIP is working on sensors capable of monitoring constantly the temperature of the goods and their packaging in order to guarantee the freshness and to find out eventual problems in the supply chain.
RFID for fresh food deliveries – improving the efficiency and reducing the waste
James Stafford (Market Development director, Avery Dennison RFID)
RFIDs are low energy transmitters used in many kind of applications. They are used in the food supply chain to improve its efficiency. It’s just for people who work in the sector? Of course not: customers can use the to read information about the good with their smartphone.
How e-commerce can drive the export of food to China
Florent Courau (General Manager, International Business Expansion, JD.com)
JD is the biggest chinese supermarket chain, both offline and online. Recently it opened up to the occidental market and started importing goods from France, showing that Chinese customers are interested in imported food, especially luxury ones .
In this situation it’s pivotal to understand the change: the key is to be found in very short and reactive supply chains (at JD you can order fresh fish and decide if take it from the store or have it delivered).
Amazon and Mercado de la Paz: a successful alliance
Gonzalo Campo (EMEA Fish marketing manager, Sealed Air food Care) per conto di Guillermo del Campo (Director of Mercado de la Paz)
Mercado de la Paz is on of the most renowned traditional market in Europe and, probably, in the world. After an unlucky period lasted until 1980 it has ben, it went back to the old days but the consortium which is managing it is still looking forward to shape it around the mutate needs. The collaboration with Amazon and the Prime Now service has been a logic step, because of Amazon was looking for a partner capable of delivering high quality goods.
Despite the difficulties of managing manu different small realities, each with different needs and working hours, the objective has been reached, showing that anyone can adapt to the change, if he wants to.
Talking Things – Complete IoT packaging platform for connected products to enable digital transformation
Jacek Terski (Global Sales Manager, Talkin’ Things)
One of the challenge of the future is tu apply the Internet of Things solution to the packaging. Talking Things has created a platform that let users get information about a product just by nearing their smartphone to it and receiving data thanks to the sensors installed on the label. This information can be integrated with other coming from the supply chain.
A case study for one of the most important perishable foods producer – Seachill
Steve Canham (Business Development Controller, Seachill)
The Saucy Fish Co is a brand that during the last years has manage to obtain a good commercial success and an impressive amount of acknowledgments.
Two are the key factors for this results. First is the investment in the presentation of the product and its packaging, that made the brand immediately recognizable.
Secondly, the company has considered the importance of listening to the people, to the potential customers, in order to understand their need and promote goods that could fulfill those expectations
This ability in listening is reflected in marketing: The Saucy Fish Co. made a great use of the social media, collaborating with starred chefs, bloggers, influencers and keeping a sarcastic tone of voice, an approach that pleased the younger generations.
From smartphones to hybrid reality: Barilla’s experience in virtual shopping. Virtual and augmented reality in the food sector
Paolo Zazzi (Customer and Shopper Marketing Director, Barilla)
It’s some time Barilla is trying to keep a dialog with its customers trough the Barilla Customer Collaboration Centre, an institute that was created to listen and understand people’s needs and costumes.
A winning idea: the best way to increase sales and margins is to satisfy customers expectations. But when a change is undergoing, you need to surf it. That’s why Barilla has elevated innovation to another level by using virtual and augmented reality to experiment, verify, share and test the customer journey. This process is applied to all the phases, from the packaging design to the shelf positioning.
During Enabler one thing has emerged: change is in progress, for everyone. We need to know this in order to evolve and improve. Yesterday frontiers tomorrow will be a thing of the past. Are we ready for change?
