By 2025, up to 97% of the world population growth by 1,5 billion inhabitants is expected to occur in developing countries. The biggest economic growth is expected in developing countries either. On the contrary, experts forecast stagnation rather growth for the advanced economies. This suggests that competition is about to get fierce and the focus will shift on values. Moreover, the market is splitting. The millennials should constitute nearly 30% of the European market by leaving another 30.7% for those who will be over 60 years old. These two consumer groups have quite different values and seek for the meaning; thus, precise targeting becomes crucial in order to compete successfully. Therefore, packaging comes forth as a competitive tool that creates value and increases store sales.

Tech-savvy millennials tend to try new things and share their stories and experiences on social networks. In relation to this, label personalization becomes a perfect tool for creating experiential packaging and building product and/or brand advocates. Advanced digital printing technologies create automated designs. As a result, the product can be easily customized to specific consumer interests, hobbies, personal or external characteristics, national or international events or festivals. Likewise, a consumer can discover themselves in a packaging and identify with it. As a result, a brand and/or product becomes more attractive and big brands, as well as small ones, become more competitive.

Perhaps everybody can agree that good food taste depends on a good presentation. In order to attract the attention of a millennial consumer, aesthetics highly matters. The more packaging is attractive, the less time a consumer will need to spend on making a decision. Advanced printing technologies, such as Full HD Flexo challenges gravure printing offering photo-realistic flexible packaging at a reasonable cost. Innovative printing such as extended gamut printing, can simulate any amount of Pantone colors out of 7 printing colors. It retains HD printing quality and cuts down the costs even more. Extended gamut printing helps to manage product variations in decreasing flexible packaging print runs. Accurate printing and color management can fulfill expectations of the older generation too because good readability and visual identification helps them to choose the product easily.

Furthermore, these contemporary printing methods, extended gamut printing, in particular, make manufacturing of flexible packaging more sustainable which, therefore, applies to a millennial consumer‘s high interest in nature preservation.

The packaging which evokes emotions is also highly important. Emotion-evoking packaging can not only improve its packaging communication but also contribute to a good post-purchase experience since millennials prefer shopping online. Tactile labels and/or holographic can enhance the emotional aspect of a product or brand. Depending on the design of a label, the purpose of the product, and its target groups, conventional flexographic printing can create the impression of soft touch, paper, sand or water.

In his book “Persuasive Copywriting: Using Psychology to Engage, Influence and Sell” Andy Maslen said: “Big brands need to invest now in storytelling and emotional marketing because in the human brain, and in its decision-making capacity, in particular, emotion beats reason.“ Therefore, color-yourself flexible packaging invites consumers to be creative and makes them the part of a story.

70% of sensory experience comes from the imagery. To leave a stronger visual impact on technology-minded millennials the digitalization of packaging is rapidly developing. If implementation of digital innovations such as NFC/RFID into the packaging is too costly and time-consuming, there are various solutions to make millennials’ life more enjoyable by spending less time and at a lower cost. For instance, combining elements that are seen in daylight and those that are seen only in UV light is an option. To trigger curiosity visuals can also be enhanced with fluorescent or scratch-off elements. Meanwhile, special printing can make life easier for an older generation which prefers easy-to-use packaging. For example, instead of reading consumption instructions, thermochromic printing on labels can visually show when the product is chilled or defrosted enough for consumption.

While millennials tend to shift away from a brand, it remains significant for the older generation. In order to ensure the authenticity of the product, various anti-counterfeiting means are applied, including costly branded holograms or digital RFID/NFC tagging. However, in many cases, printing can contribute to brand protection. For instance, label design can contain a unique micro text which appears as a line for a human eye. A unique extremely thin line pattern incorporated into the label design can also serve as a fingerprint of the product. Micro embossing makes the created unique patterns impossible to be scanned or redrawn. Likewise, special marking can ensure the authenticity of the product.