The trend towards specialization continues in the packaging industry. The four packaging manufacturers are among the leaders in their fields.
Leader companies.
Model Holding AG, Weinfelden- Cardboard packaging.
- 24 companies in Europe. Annual sales 468.2 million Swiss francs (2002). Group-wide 2500 employees.
Innovation: Emotion display for Milka chocolate. Thanks to the newly developed technology, the carton display always looks full to the consumer.
Drawing unusual perspectives
the focus of customers.
Vetropack AG, Bülach- Glass packaging
- Five glassworks supply beverage and food manufacturers in 16 countries. Annual turnover: 428.5 million Swiss francs (2002), 2800 employees.
Innovation: bottle for the new Active02 mineral water from bayerische Alpenquelle GmbH, the
contains 15 times more oxygen than normal water. The design of the
bottle impresses with its straightforwardness and reduction to the essentials.
Pago AG, Grabs - Labels, labeling systems
- Annual sales: CHF 121 million in 2002 (Switzerland only) with around 461 employees. The globally active Pago Holding employs over 1300 people.
Innovation: Self-adhesive wrap-around labels make it possible to use neutral plastic bottles for different products.
Loose package inserts and folding boxes can be dispensed with.
BMW-Vogel AG, Aesch- Blown plastic and tinplate packaging
- Belongs to the Crown Cork & Seal Group. The global player in packaging has 200 plants in 50 countries and employs around 11,000 people. BMW-Vogel in Aesch has 100 employees on its payroll.
Innovation: milk bottle made of polyethylene, for the Aargauer Zentralmolkerei dairy, among others. Thanks to innovative stabilizing grooves, the bottle is around 25 percent lighter. The bottle's grip, the screw cap and the special spout set new standards in the convenience sector.

This status quo-oriented mainstream milieu is dominated by the desire for a harmonious family life in secure circumstances and integration into the social environment.With 16 percent of Switzerland's customer potential* and almost 9,700,000 people, the middle class is the largest milieu in Switzerland. It can be found in all language regions and can be described as the modern, moderate center of Swiss society. What is striking about this milieu is the pronounced desire to maintain the status quo. People strive for a quiet and harmonious life in secure material circumstances, while the desire for advancement and a career is only secondary. It is not surprising that this milieu is less willing to deal with new developments. The long-term tried-and-true is preferred to the new; in some cases, people even feel insecure in the face of an overly modernized and globalized world. The declared goal in life is a happy and contented family life within a manageable framework. Prestige and status in consumer behavior are comparatively less important. The middle class thus combines traditional values with a moderately modern, rather conventional lifestyle: The middle class is always prepared to adapt to the prevailing conventions and to integrate into the respective social environment. Regional identification is also more important to this segment than a national or even cosmopolitan orientation, especially in French-speaking Switzerland.
Leisure time is also contemplative: "playing with children" is the most common leisure activity, followed by handicrafts and DIY, gymnastics, knitting and tailoring. In addition to skiing, the favorite sports of the middle class include cycling and hiking. The age focus in this target group is between 30 and 50, with women accounting for around 60 percent The middle class typically lives in households with four or more people. The segment includes many employees and civil servants, but also housewives. Financially, the middle class lives in secure circumstances: The monthly net household income is usually between CHF 4500 and 7800.

According to Media Focus, gross advertising expenditure in Switzerland fell by 2.8% in May compared to the same period last year, the smallest loss so far this year after a comparatively small decline of 2.9% in April. Across all five months, the decline amounted to 4.4 percent. In May, television (6.1 %), radio (2.8 %) and cinema (25.2 %) recorded gains. The latter two are up significantly so far, while TV posted a larger profit for the first time and still generated 2.1 % less overall than in the previous year. Trade journals (-11.8 %), posters (minus 7.9 %) and daily newspapers (minus 5.0 %) had a poor May. Consumer magazines also lost 1.7 %. Internet advertising reported the highest result of the year at CHF 998,000.

Supplements With Haifaif, Südostschweiz educates young people to read the newspaper This target group definition still takes some getting used to: "The newspaper for the living" is what Südostschweiz Presse AG calls its new supplement called Haifaif. The "living" target group is primarily 15 to 25-year-olds. Haifaif is part of the High5 marketing concept, with which the Chur-based publishing house aims to secure its own young readers. Anyone wishing to become a member of the High5 Club does not have to be a reader of Südostschweiz. The approach is exactly the opposite: young people are to be introduced to the newspaper by enjoying High5 promotions and events.
The link between the club and the newspaper is Haifaif. The supplement is published every second Friday as the fifth bundle of all regional editions of Südostschweiz and the Bündner Tagblatt. Club members who do not subscribe to a newspaper receive Haifaif by post. According to Thomas Kundert, responsible for the sale of Haifaif at Publicitas, this is around 4000 people. The total circulation reaches 74,000 copies. With this distribution, Haifaif is also suitable for national advertising customers, Kundert believes. After all, according to Mach Basic 2002, 15 to 25-year-olds make up around 13 percent of the readership of Südostschweiz and Bündner Tagblatt.
However, national customers are difficult to find in the current advertising market. However, one cooperation is already underway: the retail chain Media Markt provides CDs and video games, which are reviewed by the editorial team under the company logo. "We are very open to this form of mixing advertising and editorial content and are ready for a wide range of special forms of advertising," comments Kundert on this concept. Nevertheless, Haifaif is currently unable to cover its costs with advertising revenue. As an investment in the future of the newspaper, the youth paper is financed from the marketing budget.
Stefano Monachesi

The creative, individualistic youth milieu is spontaneous, open to diverse cultural influences and new experiences. Experimentalists are always on the lookout for intense experiences and unhindered self-expression.experimentalists represent a target group that is on the lookout for experiences and adventures: individualistic, creative and keen to experiment. Life is primarily about discovering new things and creating freedom. Freedom that is necessary in order to live life to the full - be it in terms of personal development, artistic or professional activities. The varied and excessive life of experimentalists does not allow for long-term security - you can always worry about retirement later. Experimentalists are open to a wide variety of lifestyles and cultures. They are open-minded, sociable, communicative and tolerant. They follow new trends and developments with interest and prefer to stay ahead of the times: instead of adapting to fashion, they often create their own new style.
In their free time, experimentalists can be found in discos and clubs, playing video games or at the movies. Their favorite sports in this segment are football, handball, tennis and water sports.
The main age group of experimentalists is under 30, and both three- to four-person households and one-person households are overrepresented. Middle and higher education qualifications predominate and, in line with their age, many Experimentalists are still in school or vocational training. Above all, the job must be fun for the Experimentalist and fit in with their own interests. They often work as simple or managerial employees or freelancers. The income spectrum is broad, with a slight focus on the class between 3200 and 3850 francs. The Experimentalist milieu makes up six percent of the population*; the target group therefore comprises around 360000 people, evenly distributed across the three language regions.

Commentary Tamedia's departure from magazine printing and the upmarket magazine Du signal an internal cultural change, writes Oliver Classen With the radical overhaul that Martin Kall has prescribed for Tamedia's magazine division, the CEO is achieving two milestones in his uncompromising restructuring plan. Firstly, by gradually discontinuing magazine printing, he is finally fulfilling the company's promise of "Content for People" and consistently focusing the Zurich-based media company on content. Kall's demand for more attractive internal printing conditions had already hit a brick wall with his former employer Michael Ringier, whom he also served as head of magazines. On the other hand, the Bertelsmann-trained CEO is continuing to trim Tamedia, which has been listed on the stock exchange for almost three years, for profitability. The most prominent victim of the most recent fitness campaign is the prestigious, permanently loss-making Du, to which the culture-loving publishing family was particularly emotionally attached. With last week's bombshell, their previous idealistic-commercial mixed calculation has now finally landed in the dustbin of media history.
The fact that the arch-pragmatist Kall managed to persuade his new patron Hans Heinrich Coninx to abruptly turn away from patronage after only 15 months in office sheds a glaring light on the influence of the German CEO, which has long since extended far beyond the operational side. And points to a real cultural change at Tamedia. Instead of - as before - relying on board member Iwan Rickenbacher in cases of doubt and fate,
Coninx now seems to be relying entirely on his chief strategist Kall.
After magazines, he wants to take on the newspaper sector in the fourth quarter. Which could mean bad news for the magazine as the last reserve of profitability. But perhaps the cash cow Tages-Anzeiger will also be sent on a slimming diet.
Oliver Classen, Editor

Barilla pasta is said to be the best for true lovers of Italian cuisine. In any case, it is the pasta that ends up in the cooking pot most often in Italy.food "Numero uno in Italia" is therefore also the claim of the new Barilla advertisement by Advico Young & Rubicam. The agency has illustrated its conviction with two monuments that are instantly recognized around the world as symbols of everything Italian: the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Roman Colosseum - both of which are made from Barilla pasta, of course.

The IT service provider Abraxas Informatik AG has commissioned Jenni Kommunikation with the PR mandate for German-speaking Switzerland.Abraxas emerged from the IT departments of the cantons of St.Gallen and Zurich and now operates as an independent company with the two cantons as its main shareholders. Now that the company has established itself on the market, the aim is to publicize its activities, writes Jenni Kommunikation.

Digital television will not achieve a market breakthrough in the coming years, writes the Prognos research institute in its latest report.television By 2007, less than 40 percent of households in German-speaking countries will be able to receive digital TV. In Germany and Austria, reception via satellite will predominate, in Switzerland via cable. However, a market for digital TV will only emerge in cable.

The article "Net-Promotions at the end" (WW 24, 19.6.03) contained two errors. Firstly, it stated that the Konkursite company Net-Promotions was a partner company of Goldbach Media AG "until the end of 2002". It is correct that the partnership had already been terminated in summer 2002 and that Goldbach CEO Klaus Kappeler had announced his resignation as a board delegate at Net-Promotions at that time. In addition, Hans Ulrich Keller, Chairman of the Board of Net-Promotions, was quoted as saying that his company was "illiquid, but not indebted". However, it should have said that the company was "illiquid but not overindebted".

Packaging 1 In times of tight advertising budgets, manufacturers like to remind themselves that up to 75 percent of purchasing decisions are made at the POS - and bring fresher colors, more sensual shapes and more convenience to the packaging. The spectacular "packaging appearance" had a symbolic character for an industry with increased self-confidence. Especially on the carpet floors of consumer goods manufacturers, the realization is gaining ground that sustainable advertising is hardly possible with a budget of CHF 50,000 - but optimal packaging can be developed for the price, which is also successful at the POS. While competing products are only marginally different from one another and their USPs are becoming increasingly blurred as a result, it is the packaging that promises the product a unique appearance. Today, experts therefore speak less of the USP and more of the UPP, which means "Unique Packaging Proposition". An ideal UPP is based on the shape (new convenience aspects), the graphics, the material and the color. And the packaging industry in particular is able to offer ever better solutions in these areas thanks to constant innovation.
For example, the salad dressings from "Anna's Best" (Migros) are available on the shelves in extremely waisted plastic bottles, whose wrap-around labels (from the base edge to the mouth of the bottle) show vegetables and salads in unusual sharpness and color brilliance in close-ups. Chocolate bars packaged in new films have the same effect. Vetropack, for example, which offers Swiss wine producers over 100 standard bottle models in eight different colors, shows just how wide the range of packaging shapes is today.
Growing price pressure "The importance of packaging in the marketing mix has clearly increased in recent years. One indication of this is that traditional advertising is suffering far more from the current recession than packaging design," says Martin Amann, CEO of Future Brand AG in Reinach. Nevertheless, the Swiss packaging market is also undergoing structural change. On the shelves of the major distributors, the cut-throat competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Cost pressure is growing in parallel with rising expectations regarding product presentation. In this environment, only large companies with an international focus or highly specialized small companies can survive.
Another phenomenon is the shortening life cycles of products. Particularly in the consumer goods sector, where sweet drinks or chocolate bars used to remain visually unchanged on the shelf for years, they are now repositioned after just a short time. This requires the packaging industry to be more responsive and flexible.
POS instead of traditional advertisingIn the major distributors, established brands are increasingly launching new products such as yogurts, biscuits or chocolates via POS marketing only - without accompanying advertising. Experts are convinced that UPP would not only enable such line extensions, but also actual new brand launches. However, it is the wholesalers who counteract this by only listing new products or brands if the manufacturer guarantees accompanying activities in the area of traditional advertising.
There are also conflicts of interest between retailers and manufacturers when it comes to display solutions. At Model AG in Weinfelden, for example, the industry leader in this field, such display solutions are increasingly in demand from manufacturers. They guarantee the latter a clear profile compared to competing products. Wholesalers, on the other hand, have reservations about display or shop-in-the-shop solutions. As a rule, they require a second point of sale that takes up space (and sales). In addition, wholesalers assume that consumers prefer to find all products in a particular category on the same shelf. Ultimately, it is still the shelf impact (conspicuousness), the size impression (size effect) and the block effect (visual coherence of a range) that decide which brand can prevail over competitors at the POS.
It's not just the great packaging that triggers the impulse to buy - it also depends on the shelf space in the store.

The SVI takes off

The birthday celebrations are marked by a new beginning. Exactly 40 years after its foundation, the Swiss Packaging Institute (SVI) wants to increasingly establish itself as an overarching and unifying platform within the industry. The association also wants to present itself more confidently to the outside world as a spokesperson for the industry and establish the topic of packaging in the public eye. The aim is for packaging to be perceived less as "waste" and more as an "emotional product with increasing importance in everyday life". In order to achieve these ambitious goals, a new strategy has been developed over the last two years, which is now to be gradually implemented from July 2003. By comprehensively strengthening the association, the industry is responding to future market challenges such as increasing globalization, rising competitive and cost pressures and concentration trends. The focus of the realignment is on training and further education (there is currently no "packaging theory" or further education at engineering level) and the development of meaningful industry statistics. The most important showcase for the Swiss packaging industry is the Swiss Star competition, which annually evaluates and awards prizes for the most innovative and creative work in the sector. This competition was launched back in 1957 and has grown in importance in recent years.
Further information can be found at www.svi-verpackung.ch and www.verpackungs-markt.ch (tv)
Thomas Vaterlaus

Florian Biafori from Mediabox believes in the growing importance of below-the-line measures and has the best overview.hundreds of thousands of kebab bags are picked up in Switzerland every month. Advertising for chewing gum could be placed on these pieces of paper and supplemented with a sample to freshen the breath after eating the Turkish snack. When pizzas are delivered, a sampling of new detergent tabs can be handed out at the same time. The drooling consumers would be grateful. "Why not?", Florian Biafori asked himself almost three years ago and, together with Sandro Proietto, gave himself the answer: Mediabox was founded - and both ideas were put into practice. Advertising on petrol pump nozzles at petrol stations, posters on ski lift masts, in toilets or lift cabins, eye-catchers on dust control mats, beer mats or even sugar sachets as well as cards for free or wildlife posters have been around for some time, but these media carriers, some of which were initiated by Mediabox, are now marketed professionally in the same way as a conventional marketing agency does with its traditional advertising media.
"There are hundreds of different advertising media - but no one place where they can be booked centrally," was the brilliant idea. The aim was to set up a pool for all non-classical media - similar to what Publicitas does in the print sector. The most important question in this new type of placement: "Where is the target group affinity for a below-the-line measure?"
In the example of the pizza box, advertising for new detergent tabs was brought to customers with almost no wastage. Young people, who usually have to keep a household in good shape themselves for the first time but work all day, use food couriers and are unlikely to throw away a detergent sample in a pizza box. And if the product is good, they will buy it later in the store.
Florian Biafori learned about these mechanisms working for nine years at media agencies. In 1992, after graduating from business school, he responded to an advertisement at Leo Burnett Media, where he was hired as a media assistant and was ultimately responsible for media planning for the entire Philip Morris Group. He later became media planner and head of outdoor advertising at the former Innomedia and finally media manager at MQI (today: Mediaedge|CIA). At these agencies, he looked after clients such as Credit Suisse, Orange and the Feldschlösschen Group, learned a great deal - and realized "that I was starting to think in flat patterns".
It was while thinking about his job - together with Sandro Proietto, who was working at Cinecom at the time - that they both developed a passion for Mediabox. Today, their company has "every medium that is offered in the non-classical sector in Switzerland under contract". But Mediabox also develops its own ideas and looks for suitable customers.
"Demand is high because below-the-line is becoming increasingly important," says Biafori. Because the agencies themselves don't have time to stay up to date with such previously unknown media. Mediabox, on the other hand, immediately has a lot of experience to offer that a conventional media planner would have to spend days researching. "There are already agencies that take us along to a client presentation because, as a partner, we can show them many new approaches and ways forward," says Biafori proudly.
In addition to the crossover projects area, a "youth pool" has now also been integrated into the Mediabox as a central marketer for trend and youth magazines.
With so much work, Biafori had little free time in three years at Mediabox. He actually started his own business because he had become a father and hoped to have a little more free time for himself and his child. That has so far remained an illusion. Fortunately, there's the pizza courier.
Originally wanted more free time, but instead Mediabox co-owner Florian Biafori is drowning in work.

Andreas Panzeri