For food and beverage brands, the biggest packaging decisions are often made too late when costs are locked in, flexibility is gone and compliance risks are harder to manage, according to one industry expert.
Packaging can no longer be treated as a final step in product development, rather these decisions need to be made much earlier and far more holistically, according to Greg Lawson, managing director of packaging consultancy firm Aura Global.
The most important packaging decisions happen during the conceptual and early design stage, when formats, materials, claims and data requirements are first defined.
Yet, in many companies, packaging decisions are often determined after product details are completed, rather than woven in as a key design element during the product development process.
“Because packaging is treated as a downstream execution task … risk only emerges later when timelines tighten, costs rise and compliance pressure forces compromises,” Lawson elaborated.
Instead, brands must implement packaging “upstream” during the product planning process and treat packaging as a strategic system that touches every part of the business, according to Lawson.
In practice, he says, this earlier planning means “turning complexity into clarity upfront: Aligning brand impact, sustainability ambition, evolving regulation and operational reality before specifications, suppliers and costs get locked in.”
From there, companies can build a clear and realistic packaging strategy, grounded in their own priorities (i.e. branding, efficiency, risk mitigation or sustainability) which will help weigh the appropriate trade-offs.
‘All packaging components need to be considered as one’
A central part of this holistic shift is thinking about packaging as a connected system, rather than a set of individual components. Too often, brands prioritize the primary pack first (what the consumer sees) and leave secondary (grouping or display elements) and tertiary (shipping and bulk handling) packaging decisions until later, Lawson said.
By then, Lawson notes, “the die is cast, literally.”
The result is missed opportunities to optimize across the value chain.
“All packaging components need to be considered as one: How they interact and impact each other and their relationship with the value chain,” he said.
Holistically planning packaging is particularly important for sustainability. Although many brands’ sustainability goals are core to the product development process, they don’t always translate to final outcomes, according to Lawson.
He points out that internal processes still “focus on the commercial product and packaging unit cost in the first instance, as opposed to the total cost of goods and other impacts that aren’t so easily measured.”
Without a broader lens, sustainability goals risk being diluted as products move toward launch.
A data-centric approach to compliance
A core element in packaging design and strategy revolves around an increasingly evolving and complex regulatory environment, coupled with global tensions impacting material costs and availability.
Between Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks, recyclability and recycled material requirements, restrictions and consumer scrutiny around transparency, brands are increasingly accountable for what the packaging is made of and where it comes from. Even requirements like digital product passports, which store details about the product and its packaging, are further shaping compliance.
Navigating this complexity requires a much stronger data-centric approach, according to Lawson.
Brands need accurate, detailed visibility into their packaging components to understand performance, sustainability metrics and regulatory exposure across markets.
As Lawson puts it, the challenge for global brands is “staying compliant and working to mitigate these fees and enabling the right packaging choices.”
This is where platforms like Aura Global’s e-halo come in, providing “visibility of packaging components, performance, regulatory exposure and sustainability metrics across markets,” that allow brands to move from “reactive compliance” to clear, actionable insights, Lawson said.
“Move upstream – because that’s where you can still shape outcomes,” Lawson advised.
With earlier clarity, better data and a more connected view of packaging as a system, brands can make informed decisions before “their complexity, cost and compliance exposure are locked in,” he added
