New Year. New Innovations. New Opportunities.

January 12, 2018

Pick up any trade publication and you will read a lot about trends & predictions as we launch into the new year. Global packaging trends notably affect a brands portfolio, the way retailers respond, the way consumers shop, and the success of manufacturers.

Three trends we see rising strong and gaining momentum again for 2018 include a movement toward e-commerce, unique packaging formats (think flexible packaging and sustainability) and personalized packaging. We’ll cover more on those topics later this year, but for now ask yourself: ‘What will innovation look like for in my company this year? Who will introduce it? How will it be championed? How will I recognize true innovation vs. a creative expression?’

Innovation may begin with a creative idea that is expressed as a paper/substrate choice, a new container shape, or a response to a consumer trend – something that expresses a change for your brand. But what are the odds that the initial creative idea will gain momentum, inspire your team, and make a significant impact on your brand’s packaging? Our innovation process helps you identify where inspiration and innovation come from within your organization, we’ll help you champion your packaging innovation to build trust, stay ahead of the changing marketplace and your competition. Our innovation process will help guide your initial ideas toward an innovation that adds value and has the potential to fuel future growth for your brand.

Four thoughts that power our innovation process:

• Innovation is collaborative. Our innovation process gets us collaborating. All of us. We’ll walk through a series of questions with you so that we can target our efforts on what matters most to you; including objectives of purchasing, packaging engineering, brand managers, and marketing. We all have to be honest enough to define what packaging innovation means to each entity in the collaborative partnership, level set the expected outcomes and commit to achieving those goals.
• Innovation is knowledge-based. The broader the reach of the Inland team the broader the knowledge base, and the exposure to the assignment and our experiences. This broad reach helps us get ideas to market quicker, avoid false starts, and identify key drivers for successes and failures. We’ll make sure we have the right team gathered for our innovation brainstorming session.
• Duality can add value to innovation. Our belief is that opposing views create contrast, not conflict. It pushes us to develop and deliver ideas that are fully thought-out and appropriate for your brand. With our diverse team and 20+ years of innovation experience, we can challenge the status quo, for the better.
• Speed to market + pace of change = your success.  Sometimes it’s about simplifying the unnecessarily complex and having an open mind to change. Our innovation process is flexible and we can work with you on ideas for specialty/promotional campaigns as well as sustainable long-term campaigns. Working together, we can bring innovative packaging solutions to market at an expedited rate and a lower risk of failure.

If you are looking to make a powerful, positive impact with your packaging in 2018 consider collaborating with us.

Download our Innovation Process here.

Click here if you’d like the Innovation Spotlight to come directly to your inbox next time!