Time factor inhibits innovation

Paxonix, a MeadWestvaco company offering a web-based packaging and marketing process management service, today announced details of a new research report, "Branding and Packaging; Processes Ripe for Improvement and Automation," developed in partnership with Consumer Goods Technology magazine.

The report, which surveyed top marketing executives, explored how packaging and branding processes contribute to new product success. Research showed that while innovation is important for most executives, the processes to help foster innovation are either lacking or need to be refined to encourage creativity and incorporate innovation into the overall process.

Of those surveyed, 86% suggested that marketing, branding and packaging are "significantly more important" or "more important" to overall product marketing efforts. However, with increased pressure to accelerate time to market and beat out the competition, most consumer goods organisations don't have the luxury of time to spend on these efforts. The burden of tight budgets, fewer hands and the lack of a technology platform to help manage brand marketing and packaging efforts, interferes with the time reserved for innovation.

Speed is the essence

Respondents cited, "speed to market" as the most important business driver and yet 32% suggested that "lack of time" was the greatest inhibitor to innovation in the design and development of branding and packaging. According to Kent St. Vrain, vice president, marketing & business development, Paxonix, "Innovation has to be part of the overall process of providing product to the market. However, it relies on having enough time in the process for innovative ideas to appear, be refined, tested and implemented. With the pressures of speed to market, quality improvement and a reduction in rework, it is clear that current processes do not contain this extra time."

Collaboration was also noted as critical to the success of branding and packaging processes but when asked about the top three roadblocks, 30% of respondents named, "too many revision cycles" as the biggest roadblock. Logistics and communication issues were also major factors, while 19% claimed that not being in the same location was a major roadblock. Confusion about the process itself – "lack of accountability, procrastination and task status" – were also cited as roadblocks.

Too much time spent on admin, too little on creativity

"Most processes in the marketing, branding and packaging functions stifle creativity by having the people in the process spend too much time on administration rather than utilising the creativity of employees," continued St. Vrain. "Consumer goods organisations that leverage automated packaging and brand asset management tools can help ease the burden of administration and free up employees to focus on innovation."

It's clear that while innovation in the design and development of branding and marketing continues to be a priority for consumer goods organisations, the processes that foster innovation are broken. Without the tools in place to streamline and automate, executives will continue to be bogged down in administrative tasks that detract from creativity. Forward thinking executives should leverage technology solutions to reduce cycle times, improve quality, reduce rework and material costs and get products to market sooner.

The report, Branding and Packaging; Processes Ripe for Improvement and Automation is available here