|
|
Contributing Editor's Comment
March 1, 2009 By: Mark Arzoumanian Paperboard PackagingImagine you're watching TV when a commercial comes on showing a baby girl in a hospital crib. She's breathing steadily but has plastic tubes in her mouth and one sticking out of one of her arms. Looking down on her are her mother and a nurse. They're smiling. The voiceover is talking about how plastics save lives. All of a sudden you feel a lump in your throat. How wonderful. How touching. Aren't plastics great?
 Mark Arzoumanian |
Some of you might remember that such a commercial did run on television. I'm sure it touched a lot of hearts. So why isn't the paperboard packaging industry trying to sell itself by telling similar feel-good stories on television or in print ads nowadays? It certainly has a great story to tell about safely transporting and protecting goods. The problem is engineers and scientists, not marketers, run the industry.
"We sell our products well but we don't market them well," says Jim Keller, a former Weyerhaeuser Co. containerboard division executive who now works as an industry consultant. He quickly adds that he's directing his criticism more toward the integrated box makers than the independents, who have a more entrepreneurial approach to the world.
"Our industry tends to throw numbers at people, telling them about the science," he states. "Look at all the data we throw out on our websites. But there's no connection to our users, whether they be end users or consumers that talk about cardboard. There's so much more to our story that really hasn't been told."
Lost in Numbers
The obvious selling point that box and carton makers have going for them is the tried and true natural resource, or environmental, angle. I know, you've heard it a million times: our packaging comes from trees, a natural resource.
But where's the emotional sell? It gets lost in numbers and pie charts. Imagine a commercial that shows some four- and five-year-olds playing in a corrugated house and their neighbors playing in a house made of plastic. The kids playing in the corrugated house decide to be good citizens and recycle it. The kids playing in the plastic house just look at them glumly while they hold pieces of their house in their hands. One of them turns to his mother and says, "Mommy, why can't we recycle our house?" Then the voiceover says something like, "Recycling cardboard. Back to the earth."
This isn't to say that there aren't box makers out there that are distinguishing themselves from their peers. Take Pratt Industries. Anthony Pratt, chairman and ceo, has run television commercials featuring boxer Muhammad Ali and actress Alicia Silverstone extolling the virtues of recycling. But Pratt can't be expected to pound the drum by himself. He has made a very clear commitment. But what about the other industry ceos? Is it all about the need for new blood or the need for a new attitude? A new attitude, Keller says.
"It's time the industry wakes up and has a new attitude," he states. "And it has to spend a little money to tell a story. Outside of the Corrugated Packaging Alliance, the industry doesn't come together to tell a story. The CPA is going to come up with a pretty good program in the next year as it finishes its life cycle study. It also has some good carbon footprint calculators. But we still have to go to that next level and put some emotion in this thing."
So why don't we tell the public what we do for mothers and children? Imagine if your child couldn't get a certain kind of medicine because packaging wasn't available? Consumers don't realize how boxes and cartons enable international trade. This industry can produce a package on a moment's notice and get it where it needs to be instantaneously because of a broad network of supplier-based locations.
Unfortunately, the leaders in this consolidating industry haven't made connecting with the consumer a priority. They need to sit down in one room, discuss their image, and start showing some emotion themselves.
Contact Mark at 773-880-2234 or marzoumanian@questex.com
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.