1. Factors in the technical demand for new products
With the advancement of human civilization, new products continue to appear, and some new products involve new areas that humans have not yet touched before. For example, microelectronics, superconductors, biogenetic products, nano-products, etc. These new products also pose new challenges to the packaging design itself. How to protect and retain these products, how to let them safely enter the smooth and smooth field, and how to achieve success in trade sales. These new topics promote the continuous updating and improvement of packaging structures, new materials, visual communication, etc., thereby adapting to the needs of new products and the times.
With the improvement of product technology, new requirements have also been put forward for packaging forms. Let’s take an example of medical packaging, a blood collection bag for blood donation. In order to keep the blood fresh, the active cells in the blood need to "breathe", so the packaging material uses breathable salted polyethylene plastic bags. This material is soft, easy to process, and has good adhesion to blood transfusion vessels. , not as fragile as glass bottles, and with good transparency, and convenient for hygienic maintenance, it is an ideal medical container () If we look carefully at the empty blood bag, we will find that there is transparent liquid inside, mixed with bubbles, this is It prevents blood coagulation and provides a retention solution for nutrients needed by red blood cells in the blood. It provides an environment for blood retention. This kind of plastic blood collection bag packaging has been used since 1980, replacing the previous glass bottles, and is widely used to preserve blood.
However, the retention environments of the three main components of blood, plasma, platelets, and red blood cells, are different. In the same blood, platelets have the shortest life and can only be retained for 72 hours at room temperature of 20-240C. Red blood cells can be retained for 21 days in a cold storage of 4-60C. Plasma is best stored in a refrigerated environment of -200C. If It would be ideal if they could be classified and retained. People have adopted a new packaging method, attaching three sub-blood bags to the outside of the blood bag, and using separation equipment to separate plasma, platelets and red blood cells according to different relative densities and distribute them into different sub-blood bags. Because of the emergence of this new technology, "component blood donation" can be realized during the blood collection process. For example, only platelets are collected during the blood collection process, and other components are returned to the blood donor's body. Using this method, the platelets that can be collected normally from a blood donor at one time are equivalent to the amount of platelets collected from the blood of 10 to 20 people in the past.
2． Factors in the development of consumption patterns
Packaging design serves consumers, and consideration from the perspective of consumer use and preferences is the most basic starting point for packaging design. Therefore, changes in consumption patterns have an important impact on packaging design. Today, with the rapid development of scientific and technological information, life patterns and consumption patterns have undergone great changes. Judging from the development of packaging in the 20th century, the emergence of forms such as POP packaging, portable packaging, cans, pressure spray packaging, vacuum packaging, etc. are all the result of consumer demand. Now that the Internet era has arrived, the Internet has brought great convenience to people's lives, and new consumption patterns such as online transactions and online shopping are gradually being accepted by more and more people. With the popularization of the Internet and the improvement of related hardware technology, packaging design will also face greater changes.
As people’s pace of life accelerates, time and efficiency have become the most important factors, and product packaging is increasingly required to reflect convenience and simplicity. Especially in the food category, a large number of semi-finished products, frozen foods, cooked food products, and microwave foods have emerged to adapt to changes in people's life rhythms. Packaging design also adapts to this change in structure, material, and function. With the popularity of microwave ovens in households, more and more microwave foods are available, which promotes the increasingly diversified forms of frozen foods and steamed foods. Various packaging materials that are easy to use and can be directly suitable for microwave heating are constantly emerging. This kind of packaging material mainly uses breathable special vinyl material. When the food is heated, the pressure of steam in the packaging increases, and it will not burst because of its breathability. In foreign countries, microwave food packaging is clearly marked with a mark that can be directly microwaved. In addition, packaging materials that can brown snacks have also appeared. This material is composed of three layers of paper, conductive material and heat-resistant material. When baking in a microwave oven, the microwaves in the microwave transfer heat through the conductive material in the material, thereby browning the snacks and making them delicious.
In some developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan, vending machines are found all over streets, alleys and subway stations.
China has also begun to develop automatic vending in recent years, and it will definitely become very popular in the future. In order to adapt to the characteristics of automatic vending, packaging design will also change in form and structure accordingly. Various changes in consumption patterns will pose new topics and challenges to packaging design.
3. Factors for smooth and smooth development
The modernization of smooth and smooth means can gradually make the world "smaller". Today, people can buy goods from all over the world in shopping malls in Beijing, such as those from the United States. Beef, fruits from France, salmon from Norway, etc. These all rely on the high efficiency of smooth flow areas and the improvement of advanced packaging and transportation levels. The internationalization of business is a characteristic of modern social and economic development, and the packaging design industry must also adapt to this international development trend. Especially after China joins the WTO, the level of smoothness must adapt to the needs of international modern commerce, in which packaging design plays a decisive role. Packaging should ensure that the goods are not affected by temperature, moisture, dryness, extrusion, vibration, light, and corrosion in the smooth flow, and it should also adapt to modern standardized packaging, storage, and transportation to improve efficiency. All these require designers to come up with more rigorous and scientific design solutions, and the use of packaging materials and packaging structures must be more scientific and reasonable. In fact, people are constantly using scientific and technological means to adapt to new circulation needs. According to the characteristics of each product, there are many methods obtained through experience accumulation and research. For example, in the smooth flow of fresh fruits, people have summed up good preservation methods. Fruits are a living process from harvesting to our mouths. In order to prevent fruits from aging and keep them fresh during the smooth flow process, people have thought of many ways. One of them is to use the ethylene produced by the plants themselves. , acetaldehyde, ethanol and other harmful substances are removed. The specific method is to place multi-larvae biomass that can absorb these gases in the fruit packaging. Different varieties of fruits produce different amounts of harmful gases. Plants, like animals, must absorb acids and exhale carbon dioxide. Because of this, life gradually ages. People place substances that produce carbon dioxide in relatively sealed packaging boxes, which causes the concentration of carbon dioxide in the packaging to increase and the concentration of acid to decrease, causing the fruit to be unable to breathe normally. Animals usually suffocate and die in this situation, but plants only reduce their breathing. They can continue to grow, but their lifespan is extended. This characteristic of the plant can be used to effectively maintain the freshness of fruits. Packaging design constantly uses new materials and new technologies to meet the needs of smoothness. It is also the development of smoothness that promotes the development of packaging design forms.
4． Factors of marketing development
Marketing is a sales science based on consumer psychology. In the fierce market competition, due to the improvement of technology and the gradual standardization of the market, it is no longer easy for consumers to distinguish product quality alone. In this case, what can be used to convince consumers? You must find the quality of your own products. Personality, that is, the difference from others, or creating this difference, to put it bluntly, is to find the selling point of the product. The selling point of Dove chocolate is that it "only dissolves in the mouth, not in the hands." This selling point is focused on product characteristics. There are also many products that convey their selling points to consumers through the images on the packaging, such as coffee from Colombia, wine from France, etc. This information is usually conveyed in the packaging design through graphics that make the appliances have the flavor of the country of origin. The special raw materials, formulas or new processing techniques used in some products are generally reflected as features of packaging design. Marketing strategies often seize some changes in consumer psychology to introduce new products. During 2000, strong earthquakes occurred frequently in Japan. There were rumors that there would be a major earthquake in Japan. This reminded people of the terrible scenes of the Great Kanto Earthquake and the Great Hanshin Earthquake a few years ago. Nissin Food Company seized this opportunity and launched a new type of instant noodles packaged in metal cans with a shelf life of 10 years using new technology. Japanese people love to eat noodles, and they can also be used as a food reserve for disaster prevention. This unique "selling point" attracted many consumers, making this sales plan a success.
The role of packaging in marketing
1. Protect the product
Ensure that the product is transferred to the consumer after the production process is completed until it is consumed , the physical product will not be damaged, lost or deteriorated.
2. Promote sales
Packaging has the functions of identification, beautification and convenience. Packaging is an extension of the product and part of the overall product.
3. Increase profits
Excellent packaging can not only make good products and packaging complement each other, avoid "first-class goods, second-class packaging, third-class prices", but can often also To increase the value of the product, the excess price is higher than the additional cost of packaging, and is readily accepted by customers. Internal experts pointed out that there are 9 development trends in the plastic green packaging industry:
1. Research and develop recyclable green packaging materials.
Packaging waste regulations vary from place to place, but there is a common principle: encourage the use of less raw materials. In packaging design, we should try to use the same material, separable and storable materials, and tend to use materials with simple structure and easy recycling. On the premise of satisfying the packaging function, the amount of garbage generated should be reduced as much as possible, thus showing the development trend of lightweight packaging film.
2. Research on plastic stabilization technology The key to the development of plastic stabilization technology is the research and development of the preparation and application of new antioxidants, ultraviolet stabilizers and free radical scavengers. Refillable plastic containers for daily chemicals, pallets or turnover boxes for food, etc., can use plastic stabilization technology to manufacture high-quality plastic products to increase their reuse or recycling value.
3. Research on plastic degradable technology. Degradable plastics are generally divided into biodegradable plastics, photodegradable plastics and bio/photodegradable plastics. Domestic research and development of varieties has covered photodegradation, photobiodegradation, photooxybiodegradation, high starch content biodegradation, high calcium carbonate filled photooxygen degradation, total biodegradation and other categories; the application of degradable plastic products in packaging , has been widely used in ordinary packaging films, shrink films, shopping bags, garbage bags, etc., and has played a positive role in improving environmental quality. From the perspective of protecting ecological balance, it is urgent to study fully biodegradable plastics. In particular, high-quality, low-cost fully biodegradable plastics filled with edible powder or inorganic minerals are important research topics for degradable plastics.