"Multi-Sensory Properties Are Nowhere Near Exhausted"

The packaging market is booming. But what distinguishes a successful folding box from others? Steffen Schnizer, Head of Marketing at CD CARTONDRUCK AG, provides answers. The Southern German business specializes in high-quality folding boxes and has won several packaging awards for them.

Mr. Schnizer, you have won a lot of international awards with your folding boxes. What determines packaging worthy of an award?
Schnizer: We have to offer something really new and not just produce things that already exist more elaborately. This can be an innovative packaging material, for example an environmentally friendly cardboard to replace plastic. Or, it could be a new coating technique, like partial flock coating, which we used on a perfume packaging for the first time worldwide in order to create a velvet effect.

What are the customer advantages of such elaborate effects?
Schnizer: Even though some innovations are more expensive to implement, the fundamental question has to be asked: what does our customer want to accomplish with the packaging? Particularly with products like perfume, with multitudes of brands that cannot all be sampled by the consumer, unique packaging is essential for a perfume to be distinguishable and to sell well. The customer achieved this goal with innovative packaging. The design caused a sensation. For ideas like this, we win an award now and then.

What about the consumer? Is functionality neglected in the process?
Schnizer: Successful packaging has to fascinate and to work. Nothing is more annoying than packaging which cannot be opened and closed easily by the consumer, regardless of whether it is used for cosmetics, food or medicine. That is why functionality is growing increasingly important, especially when considering the demographic development. Here I mean primarily age-appropriate packaging, for example for older people who cannot see or move their hands and fingers so well anymore. Our hinge packaging proves that innovative design and user friendliness are not mutually exclusive: here the content, in this case a bottle, is simply pulled out from the side.

Matt-gloss effects, Iriodin, lamination - everywhere you look things are shining and glittering. Does that not lead to an overkill of sensory impressions?
Schnizer: No, on the contrary. The multiple sensory properties are an instrument of differentiation which is nowhere near exhausted. We are therefore developing this area very strongly. For example, we laminated a folding box with original book binding linen for the surface feel. The customer wanted a very special natural effect for their perfume packaging. And not just from the look alone - the material is blue - but also through a surface with an original fabric structure. The challenge was to laminate the linen without bubbles and then to print the text precisely in a small-dot size using offset.

What other trends do you see?
Schnizer: For one, even more can be done with scent. For example, we can print encapsulated aromas from which scent unfolds by rubbing. This technique can be used for perfume samples in magazines or promotion packaging. Sound is also really interesting with folding boxes. Especially on luxury items, a full sounding click when opening or closing the packaging gives the consumer a feeling of quality. A solid sound, which the customer actually does not associate with cardboard at all, can be created with invisible magnets embedded in the cardboard or with a special fastening construction with snaps.

What role does sustainability play?
Schnizer: Sustainability and environmental protection are a basic responsibility of society and industry today. We use cardboard as the primary product for our folding boxes. This is almost exclusively made of new fiber material, since our customers have very high expectations for the look and processability. We were recently FSC certified. The fresh fibers of some types of cardboard that we use stem from sustainable foresting, which allows us to print the FSC logo on packaging upon the customer's request. More and more customers are asking for this. In addition, we are working on using inks with binding agents made from renewable resources or laminating foil made of starch. In this way, luxury packaging is produced from sustainable resources.

You work very closely with your clients - usually already during the development phase. How do you make yourself indispensable?
Schnizer: We increasingly try to put ourselves in our customers' shoes. We want to understand what their needs are in order to be able to sell their products successfully. For this purpose, we also work with trend researchers so that we can anticipate future developments. Then, if the customer has a clear concept for the packaging or puts a dummy on the table for us, we advise them how their ideas can best be realized technically and economically. So, in other words, we explain which materials, effects and technologies are suitable. In theory, almost everything is possible, but alongside aesthetics, profits and processing are also important. That is why we also produce pre-series runs for "fill" or market tests. Packaging must not just look good, it also has to meet the customers' technical requirements on filling equipment.