Oct 09 2009
Is Your Packaging Going Local?
Just this week I read about a rooftop garden project called Sky Vegetables. The premise is simple growing food on the rooftops of buildings (mostly unused space) to provide locally grown produce.
Therefore saving on transportation miles to deliver fresh produce locally and cost effectively.
It got me to thinking about how local produce can be marketed through packaging. As consumers evaluate their purchasing decisions in terms of what’s most environmentally friendly, the producers are struggling how to convey that information on the packaging.
It’s important to provide the correct information for the consumer to make an informed purchasing decision yet at the same time protecting the product and keeping it fresh and sanitary.
One of the best ideas is to have a color coding system that shows have far each product was shipped or traveled to the point of sale. Consumers could look at each item and make their purchasing decision (if they care to) on how far a product has traveled.
This could be a simple as a color sticker applied on the existing packaging. Like this system used in Canada by Byward Market Standholders Association that uses four color-coded, circular stickers:
- Red means Canadian.
- Blue means imported.
- Green means from within 100 kilometres of Ottawa.
- Yellow means organic produce from anywhere.
Another concept would be to have a wrapper somewhat similar to a barcode that gives you the actual statistics and a printed receipt that spells mileage out exactly. These numbers can be somewhat scary but in a global economy not all that uncommon. If fact many economy’s are built around alternative shipping seasons such as Chilean produce shipped to the US during our winter. (It’s their summer)
This is a conceptual idea only not in actual use.
Far Foods (way too far according to this)
You can also use the fact that your products are grown locally as a marketing and branding tool like theses examples that cover a broad range of locally grown products identified by a specific geographic area.
When buying close to home counts.
Of course if you have plenty of money to spend you can launch a branding campaign like FritoLay supporting its potato chips as a locally grown brand. You scan a special code on the packaging and find out where your potatoes were actually grown. Check out how it works with their chip tracker tool @ http://www.fritolay.com/lays/chip-tracker.html
Lastly another consideration is utilizing local suppliers, how far is your packaging being shipped to you. Can you source closer to home? Then you can use the locally grown and sourced statement on your product packaging too.
Grown locally and food miles will continue to be a hot issue as people become more aware of using resources more effectively. In fact there is evan a term called “locavore.” “Packaging going local” is a great marketing and sell tool if you use it properly so ask yourself how can you capitalize on this trend to build your brand.
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2 Responses to “Is Your Packaging Going Local?”
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Great post! It’s a fantastic reminder of what small and independent business owners can do right in their own back yards. As the president of IBN, I work with lots of small cosmetics companies. Most look to the Internet for the bulk of their sales, but some are catching onto what I believe is the future — that the most successful companies will use some of the concepts in your post to sell their products to people in their own back yards. The Internet will continue to be extremely relevant, but not so much for sales as for a way of engaging customers when they are not physically present. I predict many more small businesses will adopt this approach. It’s a powerful niche, not expensive to brand and it keeps more money and goodwill in local communities.
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