Intelligent Packaging Offers New Life for Products
Packaging's "digital layer" empowers food and beverage companies to extend their brand
By Sasha Ilyukhin, Vice President, Services & Industry 4.0 Solutions, Tetra Pak - Americas
Packaging has the primary mission of keeping products safe from contamination, but with intelligent packaging, the game has evolved to do so much more.
Intelligent packaging streamlines supply chains and gives products a secondary purpose, empowering organizations to further extend their brand while boosting transparency and customer engagement.
Intelligent packaging, sometimes referred to as connected packaging, uses various technologies to communicate, inform, and engage. Beyond describing what’s inside, intelligent packaging can be used to track production and supplies on the back end while creating unique experiences and branding opportunities.
Creating the “Digital Layer” of Packaging
Tetra Pak cartons are composed of six physical layers, including paperboard and aluminum, which keep the product safe from light and contaminants. Intelligent packaging has become an additional digital layer, providing a virtual systems connection of people and industry in ways that go beyond the physical object.
The new digital layer adds three benefits to traditional packaging:
1. Intelligent packaging makes everything traceable.
Retail giants like Amazon and Walmart are already using traceable technology to make their supply chains more efficient. They don’t just store everything in one big warehouse; instead, the actual supply chain becomes the warehouse. The different items of your order might come from multiple cities across the country, but the next day, you receive everything together on your doorstep. How does that work? The disparate items of your order are unified because every package has a unique digital identity. Intelligent packaging adds granular specificity to data management. This empowers retailers to trace a package all the way to its origin, from raw ingredients to production, from truck to retailer, and from shelf to consumer.
2. Intelligent packaging increases quality and quality control.
Traditional packaging offers a broad but limited way of managing stock and conducting quality control. With traditional packaging, you only get approximate information about what happened in production and transport. If there’s a quality issue, you may get a window of time when something happened. With that limited information, the day’s entire batch may be quarantined with whole pallets opened, searched, and inspected.
With intelligent packaging, however, brands can understand precisely where packages are and where they came from with a click of a button. Managing inventory and production becomes surgical and precise because everything can be traced back to a specific package.
3. Intelligent packaging gives consumers unique, engaging experiences.
More than ever, consumers care about how their products are created and what’s contained inside. Physical packaging space is limited, though, so brands have to briefly summarize their brand value, food origin or how the product impacts the environment.
With intelligent packaging, brands can use a unique digital code to provide a way to communicate information and unlock new experiences for the consumer. Brands can offer an augmented reality experience, show a video, or make more information about a product available simply by inviting the customer to scan a code printed on the package.
Some brands have been quick to embrace intelligent packaging as a way to connect with customers. Burger King, for instance, has eliminated plastic toys from their kids’ meal and are instead recommending “digital experiences” such as games and cell phone-centered entertainment. Chocolatier Toblerone as well is using QR codes on packaging as a way for consumers to send personalized videos to the person receiving the chocolate bar.
The digital layer of packaging has unlimited potential to drive consumer engagement and brand awareness. As consumer demand for information continues to increase, brands must respond. Intelligent packaging provides a savvy way for brands to share their values, refine their strategy, and deliver enhanced customer experiences.
Learn more about Tetra Pak’s connected packaging and the digital life of products.
