Packaging 4 Melton Mowbray is known for Pork Pie, Stilton - and the world's leading Institute of Packaging. Director John Webb-Jenkins talks about good packaging design as the key to product success.WW How do you explain the great influence and excellent reputation of your institute, Mr. Webb-Jenkins? John Webb-Jenkins: Education and training have been continuously developed since the institute was founded in 1947. We have communicated this in the UK and worldwide via packaging organizations. As our diploma is recognized virtually everywhere and we have been offering distance learning courses for many years, our graduates are working all over the world. For even easier global access, we will be offering our
diploma course will also go online at the end of July. We have also developed a slightly more in-depth certificate aimed at business people, designers and engineers.
Isn't this reputation also based on the design affinity of this traditional trading nation? The high standard of design in the UK is largely due to the high level of investment in design colleges and the innovative spirit of designers. Equally influential in this context were the supermarkets that line our high streets. In these hubs, 30,000 to 35,000 items compete for the consumer's favor every day. If you consider that a purchase decision is made on average in just a few seconds, then the impact of design in terms of brand loyalty and perception is more important here than in a normal department store in the rest of Europe. This is also the reason for the realization that the marketing benefits of unusual packaging usually far outweigh the costs.
Why is packaging design becoming increasingly important in the marketing mix? I believe that today's refinement of packaging has to do quite simply with the fact that in 90 percent of all cases we no longer buy the product, but its packaging. Because you only see the product directly for one in ten items. That's why you have to trust the packaging today. It has to be credible, attractive and eye-catching. Within seconds, it should shout out to the potential buyer: "Here I am. Buy me!" This instant recognizability turns Perrier or Coca-Cola bottles into icons of packaging design. This criterion becomes even more important in online shopping platforms, where people only click on what they recognize.
It is therefore all the more astonishing that new packaging is less and less likely to meet this requirement nowadays.
I can neither confirm nor refute your observation. It may be because all the essential design parameters have already been set, so that every new packaging is inevitably reminiscent of an existing one.
Have globalization and concentration trends influenced packaging design? Global corporations are trying to harmonize their product packaging in order to increase their efficiency. Agency networks have specialized in this know-how and offer a management platform for all multinationals such as Unilever, P&G and Nestlé. At local level, on the other hand, remarkable differences in design philosophy have persisted. If national styles are very strong, they can certainly shape the packaging of multinational brands. But this is mainly limited to graphic style, colors, content units and decorative characteristics such as cartoon characters in France, neat aesthetics in Italy, clarity and reduction in Japan or design like in England, which makes it immediately recognizable in which price segment the product is located.
Despite such country-specific characteristics, do you see any international trends in packaging design? Apart from ecologically restrictive guidelines in Europe, which have led to a minimization and simultaneous refinement of packaging and new materials such as elastic laminates, I don't see any significant international trends.
At most, the fact that consumers' ecological considerations no longer determine whether they buy or not.
Yes, many people have grown weary of the issue of ecology. All the well-meaning officials in Brussels have not really tackled the core problem of the mountains of waste. The fact is that packaging accounts for a relatively small proportion of global waste. Therefore, optimal waste concepts cannot just be a matter for the packaging industry. If we follow the ideological arguments of environmentalists too closely, there is an inevitable risk that packaging design will be stifled because designers will only question themselves - instead of being creative.
Packaging expert John Webb-Jenkins.

Interview: Luca Aloisi

Column Blood is thicker than water - at least in the liberal family. That's why the rebellious niece WoZ is officially showing solidarity with her old aunt NZZ. And offers her some advice: "Dear aunt, in times of need, the family should stand together. Sure, there have often been misunderstandings between WoZ and NZZ in the past. (The wretched politics!) But after all, every good family has its problems. The important thing is to stick together when it comes to the big picture. In any case, the latest news about you worries us: 50 million annual losses, 100 million write-offs, rumors of power struggles and amputations - we know these problems well. WoZ and NZZ not only share a passion for style, seriousness and sometimes adventurous political messages. What makes us really close relatives, however, is our shared identity as uncompromisingly liberal papers. Our common goal is freedom. Not just as an ideal, but as a daily practice.
While the WoZ has chosen a chief-rich model - 55 chiefs and 0 Indians - the NZZ, however, prefers the variant of a wise, mild and inactive chief. As a result, the departments are almost autonomous: the NZZ is a labyrinth of labyrinths with a hundred small courts, niches and lonely nomadic trappers in the great lead prairie.
This astonishing freedom for (still) an astonishing number of employees sometimes produces annoying results: Ignorance, arrogance, nested sentences. (Note: freedom is only freedom if it can also be abused). But brilliance is also possible at any time. There are many voices, many styles, many points of view in the NZZ. It is not only the paper of the liberals, but also a liberal paper.
Now this freedom is under serious threat: the name of the modern-day Gessler is lack of money. There are rumors of a second wave of redundancies, Hugo Bütler's removal from power and the streamlining of entire departments. The cold hands of the reorganizers are reaching out to the paper that has praised their recipes but never lived up to them.
What is even more dangerous is that the idealistic cement is crumbling: the liberal tradition. Not only because the FDP is losing ground and is increasingly at the mercy of the SVP. But because liberalism itself mutated into an ideology in the 1990s. Performance and profit have become ends in themselves rather than mere means: To run a company with interesting people and products - like the NZZ. But an ideologized environment is poison for a newspaper: the lack of curiosity is even more suffocating than the lack of money. We on the left know this from the past.
But don't worry, dear aunt, the crisis also offers enormous opportunities to reinvent yourself. Here's what your niece advises you to do:
1. under existential pressure, even lone fighters can be forged into a powerful force: through shared fear and shared wounded pride. However, this requires discussions about the future course of the paper - among the entire editorial team. The defense of liberality, of freedom against economic freedom, would be a real, inspiring task.
2. with the direction, of course, the form should also change. Is the byzantine to cryptic style really necessary? Until now, as the central organ of the economy, the NZZ could oracle like the Kremlin astrologers; as an opposition paper, however, it must express itself clearly.
3. if sacrifices are to be made, then in the right place: In view of the prevailing state of emergency, it should be possible to say goodbye to the hard core of ideologues in style (head of economics Gerhard Schwarz, for example, could be appointed to the NZZ honorary board of directors). What we can't do: as we did last year, we can't fire people without a lobby and Zurichberg pedigree.
With this in mind: Fight, dear aunt! Your niece is on your side.
As editor of WochenZeitung (WoZ), Constantin Seibt is jointly responsible for its relaunch.

Klaus J. Stöhlker is handing over the operational management of his PR agency of the same name in Zollikon. In future, he will act as Delegate of the Board of Directors. In this role, he will support the new Executive Board, which consists of Stephan Oehen, Fidel Stöhlker
and Eva Lehner.
...
The advertising agency Grey Worldwide in Rüschlikon ZH is expanding its management team. At the beginning of July, former Senior Account Director Reto Baumann joined the management board. He is taking on the role of Client Service Director. Enrico Bachmann, who also joined the management team at the beginning of July as the new Creative Director of McCann-
Erickson has joined Grey. Chairman and Managing Partner Stefan Vogler continues to be responsible for overall management. His brother and partner Christoph Vogler heads Strategic Planning and Media.
Rudolf Stoffel is also a member of the Executive Board as Chief Financial Officer.
...
The Solothurner Tagblatt (ST) is to have its own publishing director. As the lead paper of the Berner Zeitung (BZ), it was previously under the management of the BZ management (VR-
Delegate Albert Stäheli and
Publishing Director Franziska von Weissenfluh) together with Editor-in-Chief Andreas Z'Graggen. Lorenz Bruegger will now take over as ST Publishing Director at the beginning of July, in addition to his previous duties as Head of Sales Marketing for the BZ and its head papers.
...
Bernhard Hügli becomes the new Head of the Customer Contact Center at
Espace Media Group (EM). He
replaces Noel from mid-July
Scheiwiller, who is taking on a new role in logistics at Swiss Post. Hügli was previously
Head of Marketing & Publishing Services at Fischer AG for
Data and Print in Münsingen.
...
CEO Rudolf Rentsch is leaving the Vogt-Schild Media Group at the end of June. Rentsch will also step down as Chairman of the company's Board of Directors with immediate effect. On an interim basis, Rentsch's duties will be assumed by his
Christian Müller, the previous deputy.

The Zurich trade fair Internet Expo (iEx) will continue to present not only web services and internet technology, but also web media and internet content in the future. iEx 04 has made this fundamental decision during its launch phase to underline the growing role of the internet as a medium and in marketing, writes the organizer Exhibit AG. The motto of next year's trade fair is: "Where IT meets the Internet". According to Exhibition Director Giancarlo Palmisani, initial feedback has been positive. The eighth iEx will take place from February 4 to 6, 2004 at Messe Zürich.

The Zurich-based advertising agency Department has been entrusted by Aare-Tessin Ltd. for Electricity (Atel) with the positioning and communication of its German business. The energy group, headquartered in Olten, recently opened a new office in Düsseldorf and intends to step up its activities in Germany. Department's first task for Atel is to produce an acquisition mailing and a self-presentation for the German market. The target groups are municipal plants and industrial companies. The Zurich agency was awarded the contract without a pitch on the basis of recommendations, as co-owner Johannes Eisenhut said.

The contract between the SRG Research Service and the market research institute IHA-GfK has been signed since June 30, and now the Radiocontrol panel will be successively increased from the current 812 to 1012 Radiocontrol clocks per week. From the fall, 25 percent more clocks will therefore measure radio usage in Switzerland. This was confirmed by Matthias Steinmann, Head of the SRG Research Service. However, he emphasizes that the additional clocks will be distributed specifically to the broadcasting areas of smaller stations in order to provide them with a larger sample. Previously, there were broadcasters in whose area only eight watches per week were in circulation; now there will be at least 16. The additional effort can be solved cost-neutrally for the next one and a half years by the Research Service ending the previous media study early in return. This had been continued after the introduction of Radiocontrol for the purpose of an internal review. (mk)

Packaging 3 Packaging design is of vital importance in the economic downturn - because customers want to recognize their products on the shelf. They are silent salespeople on the shelf who quickly communicate which need they satisfy better than the product standing right next to them," says Werner Lang, founder of the packaging design agency Design by Desire, summing up the most important requirement for packaging from a marketing perspective. Packaging has long since had to fulfill more than just protective, wrapping and logistical functions. This can be tested most impressively with a small experiment: anyone could distinguish a shard of glass from an Orangina belly bottle or a waisted Coca-Cola bottle from those of other bottles.The fact that uniqueness is increasingly being sought in packaging - a low-involvement element of communication - is obvious given the shifts in the marketing mix caused by cost pressure. Especially as the clear design message with its identifying characteristics is not only the most direct but also the cheapest way to reach the consumer's heart - without having to say much about it.
Philippe Guignards, PR manager at ARD Graphic in Vevey, probably speaks for the industry when he says: "We haven't felt the effects of the crisis yet." Not only does his brand and packaging design office have the best neighbor it could wish for: Nestlé, one of the largest packaging clients in the world, is just a stone's throw away. ARD Graphic even recently received a silver Mermaid for Findus' ready-to-eat meal bowl. The PDA Pan European Brand Design Association's design award was first presented in 2002 and symbolizes the growing self-confidence of an industry that has long been overshadowed by the communications sector in Switzerland. For designer Lang, this is incomprehensible, as packaging is the most durable and therefore most important medium in the marketing mix and "the justification of the advertising promise" par excellence.
Umbilical cord to the consumerIn the field of packaged goods, Klaus Brandmeyer, Director at the Institute for Brand Technology in Geneva, believes that the increasing importance of packaging and the information it conveys is no longer limited to the supermarket. "Packaging is the only way to maintain the connection to the manufacturer, even without a salesperson," he says. In addition, good packaging - concisely and independently designed - is still regarded as the best embodiment of the product and the brand idea.
This has been proven to be the strongest way of creating customer loyalty to a product or brand. Brigitte Meier from Pro Carton Switzerland confirms this with a German study conducted by the market research company Facit among 300 consumers and 31 experts. The results show, among other things, that TV advertising generates by far the most attention for a product and also entices consumers to buy a product for the first time. "However, whether the first purchase is followed by a repeat purchase is decided on the basis of the packaging," says Meier.
Trilingual restrictionsConsumers and experts agree on credibility and information content: packaging is far ahead of advertisements, TV commercials and even the internet. But it is precisely the desire for more information that limits the freedom of packaging designers in trilingual Switzerland, says Franco Miani, Head of Training and Communication at the Swiss Packaging Institute SVI. However, this is not the only reason why distinctive design, i.e. standing out from the competition, is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.
As important as packaging may have become in the marketing mix, it remains astonishing that it is still mostly created in advertising agencies. But even if it is developed in one of the many Swiss design companies, it is like squaring the circle because of the battle between marketing managers and packaging technicians. While the former see packaging that attracts the buyer's attention with its choice of materials and design, the technician first thinks about standards and efficient processes, "which often leads to abstruse results, as the solution is not sought together," Miani reports.
Brandmeyer sees further reasons for the increasing uniformity on the shelves in the fear of doing something that others are not doing. Combined with the bogus argument that you have to ensure that you are immediately perceived as belonging to the industry. "In addition, the belief persists that you can compensate for a lack of difference in packaging with differentiating advertising."
Pierre Barth, Head of Marketing and Sales at Limmatdruck/Zeiler, sees the reason for so much hesitation in the highly dynamic markets, in which product cycles are becoming ever shorter. Innovation is then usually limited to the product. "People often fall back on classic packaging for cost reasons, but this can gain uniqueness through print quality and increasingly versatile finishing techniques and thus make a name for itself at POP," says Barth.
The small domestic market also plays a role. Those who cannot sell European quantities find it difficult to refinance the high investments in special packaging systems, Miani points out. Cost management has influenced packaging design in recent years much more than globalization and the concentration movement. "Trying new experiments can be very costly. Being the first requires a lot of entrepreneurial courage." When Limmatdruck/Zeiler, which is spoiled with prizes, says that, it means something. Franco Miani from the SVI is aware of the framework conditions, but above all he sees a great need for training and education across all disciplines. The packaging expert complains that "a lot of untapped potential is being wasted", particularly among marketing people on the client side.
However, Werner Lang, who switched from a traditional advertising agency to his own design agency, is also aware of consumer inertia: "The design codes are fixed for all segments and have therefore been learned by consumers. Breaking this rule would require a great deal of communicative support." Miani sees no disadvantage in the generally conservative, conventional Swiss packaging design: "It always depends on the target audience. Other markets may be more open to more creative packaging than our market. But we are also seeing a decrease in skepticism towards packaging here. The Swiss are receptive to credible packaging whose design is in harmony with the product."
The trend is towards convenience and individuality with constant research into sustainability and recycling. However, it is difficult to draw an international comparison in packaging design. There are already major differences in materials and volumes between the industrialized countries alone. "Until recently, both packaging production and the packaging machinery industry were primarily nationally oriented," says Barth. Apart from the growing use of standard containers by international multinationals, no global trends in packaging design can be identified. There is therefore no question of uniformity, says Miani: "Packaging design itself does not set trends. It always reacts to regional trends and adapts to country-specific requirements."
His statement can be illustrated by the cleaning agent Ajax: While flavors with fruit aromas are well received on the market in Mediterranean countries and the packaging is kept in warm, sweet shades, consumers north of the Alps prefer cool blue or green packaging because the fresh mountain scent is easier to sell.
The only trend in the Swiss market is probably that, despite discount lines, packaging will not be less, but different, sometimes more and more environmentally friendly. Nobody seriously believes that designers could run out of work because of M-Budget. "M-Budget is a typical Swiss Migros phenomenon that will probably remain unique in its success," Miani is convinced.
It is TV advertising that entices consumers to buy a product for the first time. According to the consumers and experts surveyed, however, it is the packaging that encourages repeat purchases.

Luca Aloisi

Market research A new planning tool, the so-called Sinus-Milieus, will be introduced in the fall. In a two-part article, Werbewoche introduces its readers to the individual milieus in Switzerland, which were surveyed for Switzerland for the first time last year on the initiative of Publisuisse (see also WW 25/03 and WW 24/03). The SRG-SSR research service, Publica Data AG, Credit Suisse and the Heidelberg-based Sinus Sociovision GmbH institute also took part in the project, which identified ten milieus for Switzerland. These target group segments are each characterized by very different combinations of personal values, attitudes, leisure activities and everyday aesthetics. From the fall, the Sinus-Milieus, which have already proven their worth in other countries, will also be available as a planning tool in Switzerland. Advertising Week presented the first five milieus and their characteristics in the last issue. These are the two main groups of the traditional milieus (the traditional middle-class and the frugal traditional) and the leading social milieus (the established, the post-materialists and the modern performers). Part 2 now describes the milieus of the Status-oriented, the Middle-class and the Consumer-oriented Workers (the so-called Mainstream milieus) as well as the Experimentalists and the Escapists (the Unconventional, Young milieus).
Kerstin Schoegel

In the founding period of the Soviet Union, the utopian urge to build a new society encouraged the experimental use of new materials, media and techniques.posters In this atmosphere, the dissemination of writing and images was a decisive means of consolidating the revolutionary awakening. Posters and film were discovered and promoted as mass media. This triggered an unprecedented wealth of ideas among the leading Russian artists. Poster art had experienced a real heyday before numerous avant-garde artists fell out of favor in 1932... The Museum für Gestaltung's poster collection now aims to commemorate this period. The exhibition "Posters of Russian Constructivism" will be on display at the Swiss National Bank on Fraumünsterstrasse in Zurich from July 15 to November 17. The picture shows a motif by El Lissitzky from 1929.

We made a few mistakes in last week's shortlist. Urs Schrepfer is of course CD, but at Jung von Matt and not Wirz. Roli Scotoni is indeed at Advico, but as AD, not as copywriter. Ditto Jung von Matt's Lukas Frei - he is also an AD and not a copywriter. Sorry for these misspellings!

The advertising agency Grey Worldwide has won the pitch for the launch of the Puls 5 fitness park, the wellness center of the Migros Cooperative Zurich, which will open in summer 2004 in the new development of the same name on the Escher-Wyss site in Zurich and offer a comprehensive fitness program with sauna and pool area. According to Grey, the marketing preparations are already in full swing, but the publicity and pre-sales campaign will not start until next year.

Magazines Tamedia can now only give away its loss-making prestige title Du. According to insiders, Tamedia's cultural flagship cost its long-standing patron and advocate Hans Heinrich Coninx around two million francs in 2002 alone. The brand value also suffers as a result, even if it is a noble journalistic brand like Du. In view of Du's long-standing negative balance sheet, however, more than the brand is not really for sale in this case, and Kurt W. Zimmermann puts its current value at "one franc" when asked. "The markets don't currently pay goodwill for loss-making brands," says the ex-Tamedia manager. The current management consultant considers the traditional title to be "absolutely impossible to commercialize", which is why serious major publishers would have to turn down such an offer with thanks.
Not an issue for G+J eitherIn fact, the question arises as to which publisher can or wants to afford such a cultural commitment. The Swiss competitors all have money worries of their own, to which - as recently at Ringier - their own magazine projects sometimes fall victim. And for potentially interested German companies such as Gruner + Jahr, "such a foreign investment is certainly not in the cards at the moment", explains press spokesman Kurt Otto to Werbewoche.
There are only two options for securing the existence of the "cultural encyclopaedia" (self-defined), which is now in its 62nd year: Either it
a wealthy du-enthusiast is quickly found who continues to subsidize the magazine with seven-figure annual contributions. Or the editorial and publishing management may decide on a management buyout (MBO) - along the lines of the architecture magazine Hochparterre, for example, which Curti Medien handed over to the staff in 1991 for a symbolic penny and the assumption of the divestment costs.
For Du editor-in-chief Christian Seiler, patron and MBO scenarios are at best a "second and third priority". He would prefer to embed his magazine "in a sensible new publishing environment". At the same time, Seiler leaves no doubt that he and his team are only available for a product "that really deserves the name Du". Together with designer Wendelin Hess, they have spent the last few months designing such a product. Whether the relaunch will take place as planned in September, however, is still uncertain and depends on whether a new sponsor has been constituted by then.
Drastic redimensioning

As part of the "fundamental realignment" of its loss-making magazine division, Tamedia intends to concentrate all its publishing efforts on the trio of titles Facts, annabelle and Schweizer Familie. While the line extensions annabelle business (effective immediately) and annabelle wohnen (effective end of August) will be discontinued, the Tamedia Board of Directors officially put the culture magazine Du and Spick up for sale last week. The commercial web offset printing division is also to be closed by mid-2005. These measures will lead to the loss of 140 jobs. (oc)
Oliver Classen