The Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) recently organized an event in New Delhi on 30 March 2018. The ‘Brand Owner’s Perception of Labels in a Changing Scenario’ event addressed the need for printers to enhance their decorating capabilities for improving shelf impact and brand security.
The speakers at the event included Barun Banerjee, head of packaging (South), Nestle India, Rahul Bhargava, vice president – packaging, Sun Pharma, Kousik Saha, associate-director – head packaging commercialization, PepsiCo, Amiya Pradhan, AM Packaging Division, Dabur India and packaging expert Deepak Manchanda.
Ameya Pradhan of Dabur shared his perspective on the changing packaging scenario. According to him, labels lend a certain brand identity to packaging products and their major attribute is to make the product eye-catching. Pradhan showed survey data and graphs highlighting customer preferences while buying the product.
Kousik Saha of PepsiCo spoke about the brand owners’ expectations of labels as a substrate. He spoke about the First Moment of Truth, which essentially means visual engagement of the consumer with the packaging and explaining the product through the packaging. The label along with the pack plays a vital role in driving the FMOT.
Packaging expert, designer and environmentalist Deepak Manchanda spoke about the challenges of putting more and more information on the label to make it marketable side by side with the regulatory requirements. Speaking about sensation transference and buyers’ perception, he said that packaging conveys many hidden cues by means of design and aesthetics that can go well beyond basic brand communication, which add up to sensation transference. Sensation transference can also be defined as the unconscious assessment that a customer makes about a product based on its appearance rather than the actual product.
Towards the end of the discussion, LMAI talked about a new portal called LMAI Advantage which is still under development and will be available only for LMAI subscribers. It will contain options for the easy listing of raw materials, machines and marketing opportunities.
