By Philippe Loeb, Vice President, Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail, Dassault Systèmes
The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Retail industry is facing a growing number of challenges, challenges that complicate our customers’ ability to innovate. Yet consumers have higher expectations, driven in part by the influence of mobile and digital capabilities. With this heightened expectation comes a growing need for the industry to not only deliver on those expectations, but create exciting consumer experiences.
So how do we better connect with consumers to deliver on these promises within such a rapidly-changing environment?
Redefining the Value Chain
For CPG brands, now is the time for a redefinition of the value chain. We’ll start to see packaging suppliers extend their offerings and provide higher value services today covered by agencies or brand manufacturers, while some brand manufacturers are going to reinforce strategic activities such as re-insourcing design. With each part of the traditional value chain – suppliers, designers, manufacturers, retailers – considering more than just its own core function, an efficiency will be brought to the entire go-to-market process.
Incorporating Regulation into the Development Process
Similarly, the old model of focusing on product development before regulation is over. We see companies thinking about meeting regulatory standards while developing the product. With growing health and environmental concerns, CPG brands consider compliance as a mission critical part of their go to market strategy. A failure to comply with the requirements can result in launch delays, recalls, fines, poor customer satisfaction, and damaged public image.
That’s why CPG brands adopt software solutions that help them check material content information throughout the product development cycle to ensure compliance. As a result, products will be brought to market more seamlessly, allowing innovation and compliance to be complementary and not antagonistic processes.
Third Trend: Mass Customization
Retailers will introduce mass customization of fast-moving consumer goods products way before CPG players. Technology will allow them to bring the shoppers to the very center of the process and have a major hand in how they want their own experiences to play out.
And looking even further ahead, we’ll actually start to see shopping experiences radically change because of the digital continuity between brand manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Brands and manufacturers will now have the ability to apply what they’ve gleaned from real-time data to alter their delivery of goods. In turn, consumers will be at the very center of more personalized, enhanced shopping experiences.
Overall, it’s an exciting time in the industry. Thanks to new technologies companies are better poised than ever to create, test, market, and deliver winning innovations with extraordinary speed that provide consumers, those at the very heart of what we do, with unparalleled experiences.
To learn more about how Dassault Systèmes is helping brand manufacturers, design agencies, and packaging suppliers respond more quickly to modern package design realities, visit our Perfect Package industry solution experience homepage. More information can also be found at our Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Resource Center, including a whitepaper written by research and analysis firm Cambashi, titled “Concurrent Packaging Design: The New Imperative.”
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