Even basic actions can come with a swarm of emotions these days. Stopping by the grocery store after work to grab the missing ingredients from your dinner prep isn’t a nonchalant activity. In fact, it might not be an activity at all. You might just opt to substitute the ingredients in your stockpile and put the missing items on the next grocery pickup list.
COVID-19 has contributed to the explosion of grocery store pickup and e-commerce. However, the consumer trend to highly value safety and ease was established before the “new normal” of 2020.
A 2018 GlobalData study on the Sterilized Society states, “There is an escalating obsession with hygiene, cleanliness, and immunity among global consumers, as awareness of infectious disease, bacteria, viruses, and how those can interact with or be affected by consumer choices rises.”1 Sound familiar?
The current global pandemic coupled with established consumer trends means CPG companies must cater to consumer desire for safety and convenience. You can still engage your consumers, just take the trend of safety and convenience into consideration at every phase from product development to purchase.
Develop Branding, Products, and Packaging to Speak to Safety and Ease
Think about ways that your current products or soon-to-launch products are already meeting consumer demand for safety and ease. Simple adjustments to messaging can appeal to this consumer demand. For example, maybe your current messaging focuses on the fun, creative experience a consumer can have with gamification. Great! You could take the same product, packaging, and branding and remind customers that the online game allows them to safely engage with their friends from a distance. Same message – fun and creative – coupled with a reminder that the product is also safe and easy to use.
Also, don’t limit “safety and security” to thinking about hygiene products or tamper-resistant packaging. Yes, these items are wonderful! However, safety and security is broader. Items that can be purchased in bulk, packaging that prolongs shelf life, and seasonal bundles to simplify purchases are all examples of catering to consumer desire for safety and ease.
Market Research & Market Testing
Good-quality market research is critical for the success of your product. And, it’s not just about having a good product anymore. You have to ensure that your digital experience is on-par with consumer desire. Consumers are shopping online in part because of the increased desire for safety and ease.
Nielsen reported that by May of 2020, 44% of global consumers said they were shopping online each week, compared to only 9% “regularly shopping online” before the pandemic.3 Winning at e-commerce is crucial to turning profit margins in today’s digital shopping landscape.
You must research customer reactions to product presentation online. Do your e-commerce capabilities meet consumer expectations?
The HiveSM Design Services can help you by conducting market research to ensure your e-commerce meets customer expectations. Our experts can conduct netnography research to understand how packaging used influences online product purchases. How are customers talking about packaging in reviews and online resources? We have the expertise to help you make sense of that data. Our trained moderators can also conduct online surveys and focus groups, so distance or travel precautions don’t have to be a hurdle.
When it comes to shipping those online purchases, Sonoco can ensure your products arrive safely and keep the online networks and reviews speaking positively of customer experience. Sonoco is part of the Amazon Packaging Support and Supplier Network (APASS) and can conduct ISTA-6 testing, both ways we ensure your packaging and e-commerce customer experience are top-notch.
Digital Promotions – Create a Buzz about Your Products
Online shopping means fewer customers are walking by physical promotional displays. Less foot traffic in stores has the potential to limit awareness of new products or seasonal products, but customers’ boredom from quarantine means they still crave new experiences.4 They just want ease of access to those new experiences.
To increase awareness for your brand, you need to implement digital promotion strategies, not just in-person promotion strategies. Below are some suggestions for how you can promote your product online.
Suggestions for Digital Promotions:
It’s still possible to engage customers with your brand while appealing to safety and ease. Expand promotions to digital, and you’ll be on your way to a more engaging, successful product launch.
Still trying to figure out how your product and brand can appeal to safety and convenience? Contact our team to help with custom research programs!
Ready to Help!
At The Hive℠ Design Services we are ready to help by designing custom research programs to uncover your customers’ brand connection, preferences, pain points and usage behavior, while revealing themes that you can use to build your strategy for enhancing consumer engagement and brand loyalty. Our certified moderators, research and packaging specialists will build the qualitative and quantitative studies you need to test your concepts at scale, from insights to prototyping.
For more information on how we can help you convert insights to opportunities, email us at TheHive@sonoco.com or visit our page www.sonoco.com/graphics-management.
1 GlobalData. “TrendSights: Sterilized Society 2018” (Subscription Required), 2018. https://packaging.globaldata.com/Analysis/details/trendsights-sterilized-society-2018
2 McKinsey & Company. “Perspectives on Retail and Consumer Goods,” 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Retail/Our%20Insights/Perspectives%20on%20retail%20and%20consumer%20goods%20Number%208/Perspectives-on-Retail-and-Consumer-Goods_Issue-8.pdf
3 Nielsen. “COVID-19 has Flipped the Value Proposition of Omnichannel Shopping for Constrained Consumers,” 2020. https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/covid-19-has-flipped-the-value-proposition-of-omnichannel-shopping-for-constrained-consumers/
4 GlobalData. “TrendSights Analysis 2020: Sensory & Indulgence” (Subscription Required), 2020. https://packaging.globaldata.com/Analysis/details/trendsights-analysis-2020-sensory-indulgence