In packaging news this week, UK supermarket Waitrose has pledged to reduce its packaging waste by 100-tonnes over the next three years.  It’s aiming to do this by replacing plastic trays with flow-wraps on its meat product ranges, printing directly on to fruit labels thus eliminating the need for labels, and reducing the width of the packaging sleeves on certain products. All the new designs were created by the retailer’s in-house team.

These clever initiatives announced by Waitrose shows the UK’s firm commitment to recycling, and in particular, food packaging recycling. Many people believe this is becoming firmly ingrained in the population’s consciousness as the UK regularly exceeds the mandatory packaging waste recovery and recycling targets set by the Landfill Directive and the Waste Framework Directive in 2011. And with the EU ready to review its Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive across the continent, Waitrose should be applauded for its move.

It’s worth noting how much recycling we currently do as a nation already. Last year, it’s thought British householders and businesses recycled 640,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, which is a great effort. But this will have to increase to 1.2m tonnes by 2017 to comply with new regulations due to come into effect.

Other notable efforts to reduce packaging waste include Nestle’s reduction of plastic in its packaging by 34% since 1991, and the Co-op’s clever use of moisture-controlled packs for tomatoes that keep the fruit fresher for longer.

Big brands spend a lot of time and money in coming up with their product design and packaging. The success or failure of a product greatly depends on how professionally it is presented to its consumers.

Many factors have to be taken into consideration before designers can come up with a unique and different packaging design. For people to try your product and its features they need to be attracted towards your product in the first place and this can only be done by designing attractive packaging. The big brand companies spend a huge amount of money on advertising their products via the popular media channels, but without an engaging packaging strategy matched with an eye catching design, the attention of consumers will be lost.

Over the years, many products have come and gone, some of them being a great hit while others failing terribly. Many products fail not because they are bad products or useless products but, they fail because they fall short in grabbing the attention of the consumer, principally because they are contained in poor packaging which does little to self itself of the shelf.

One of the main functions of packaging design is to make sure that your products can reach customers without any damage. Therefore, your products packaging should be very carefully designed to meet this purpose and you must choose the right packaging material depending on the product that you are selling.  Whilst considering which packaging materials to use it is vital that upon disposal you minimise any risks to the environment.

The next important function of product’s packaging is to win the trust of consumers.  Today, there is severe competition in every industry and no product can afford to get to centre stage if it is not a first class product. Often customers perceive the quality of the product from the packaging more especially when the product is new to the market. Therefore, for all your marketing efforts to bear fruit, and with products stacked high on supermarket shelves, you must make sure that you create stunning, designs which clearly define your products unique attributes and sales proposition in order to attract consumers.

With excellent packaging design, you will be able to turn most products into a huge market success. You should also ensure that your product is of the highest quality and that it does exactly what it says it will do.  The marketing company that you choose to design your packaging should have a thorough knowledge of the market sector you intend to sell your products to and they must also be able to adhere to any legislation which is applicable to your market sector; for instance if selling “over the counter” medicines then packaging designs should comply with the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority.  They should also employ a highly creative team that can come up with impressive designs which ensure your products (as opposed to your competitors) fly off the shelf.