I’d like to also mention foodservice products that actually educate the consumer in addition to telling them that their food is expired, like saying you can pair this with such-and-such food or including additional recipes for your leftovers.
Quick-serve menus seem to becoming more mature lately. Is there room for luxurious improvements in packaging, too? Wendy’s has designed a pretty nice salad. Let’s take that for example. They could come up with sort of a decorator line, say, for a dime more you can buy all these salads for entertaining. You could come up with a bowl that could go with the salads for entertaining that could go right on the table and might be in fashion colors. The same thing for licensed products, it might be a Disney bowl or cup for kids. I know they’re doing some of that, but maybe extending it beyond the typical cups. … They could be used in a more upscale presentation. You’d encourage people, “Don’t make your salads. Come have ours. It’s ready to serve.”
Also, making a statement like when you walk around with your Starbucks cup in your hand. People are willing to pay a premium for that, so you could tie it in with something like a fashion line of tableware almost. I mean if you have a burger and it’s all wrapped up then you have to do something with it. Put it on a plate. Make it so that you have a nice little paperboard clamshell that you could take straight to the table.
How is the green movement going to play into packaging? Women are more concerned about that issue than others. Whether they’re going to push that issue, I don’t know. But you do need to look at eco-friendly alternatives if they are available and a lot of foodservice people are offering products in environmentally friendly alternatives, particularly in plastics. It’s tied in with women’s purchasing power, and if women are thinking green then the purchasing power that they’re going to spend is going to be more aligning itself closely with green. How strong that will be, nobody knows.
What trends do you see taking off in the future? All the major food companies now have signed some sort of pact about nutrition and packaging for children. They’re supposed to tell exactly what’s going on in the product. That’s not going to go away. That’s only going to get more enforced. Consumers want to be more informed about what they’re eating and increasingly where it’s coming from, after increasing contamination issues and products coming out of China.
- How does this play out in fast food?
- Will these kinds of luxury upgrades discourage the all-important 18- to 25-year-old male demographic that doesn’t have to worry about a family or entertaining?
- Customers are demanding a customized product these days. Is there a point where this becomes inefficient in terms of packaging?
- What advice would you give a company that’s looking to change its packaging?