When easy-open isn't easy to open - the finale

Nearly there… a genuinely easy-open pack should not be a rare occurrence, much less receive the attention a post on social media inevitably receives. The technology and processes are readily available to make effortless, easy open packs an everyday event, everyone needs a high five ‘of course it opened properly, that’s the point’. This may seem a weird hill to die on, however people are so often impressed with the way a package has opened, that it positively influences their decision to repeat purchase before they have actually sampled the product inside. Conversely people will curse a product and vow to never buy again after a bad opening experience, such is life, people find it markedly easier to find complaint rather than praise.

If a post receives a lot of attention, positive or negative, it will affect your brand. Combine a quality product with quality packaging and you’ve completed the other half of the sale; buying well and marketing effectively being the first half. Quality isn’t always expensive materials or shiny graphics, but well-designed and thoroughly tested processes and packs. An extra process in manufacture may mean a little extra on unit cost, but the positive effect of potentially increased sales should be considered when designing a pack – a smaller piece of a bigger cake is preferable to no cake at all.

Time pressures, and launch deadlines can mean that the solution for the pack is one that is known to fulfil the basic functions, or the resource may not be available to fully trial the customer experience. This does not have to be a barrier, packs can be reassessed after launch and tweaked where necessary, maybe as a range, maybe one pack at a time. The knowledge gained on one pack can usually be applied, with testing, to other packs in the same or similar formats. There are packaging and machinery suppliers, as well as agencies, who have labs and dedicated testing areas and people who can help in existing product development from a packaging perspective, and can apply scientific methods and measurements to testing, to give meaningful, repeatable results.

If any pack needs opening with a knife or pair of scissors, it is an incomplete pack. If any pack purports to be easy open but attacks the consumer in some way, by dropping bits of itself into product, or sending product onto the consumer, it has failed. If Granny can’t open it without resorting to violence it has failed…

Make your packs genuinely easy to open, convenient, with fully intact, smoothly removed openings and delivering a mundane, uneventful experience. We have the technology. Let’s use it!