Services Equal Opportunity

Companies that endure for 160 years do so by adapting when necessary. Business cycles, customer behavior, priorities, and much more change during such a time span. Menasha Packaging (www.menasha.packaging.com) has always adjusted when needed, the most recent example coming in October 2009 when it sought to rebrand itself to more accurately reflect its products and services.

As part of its rebranding efforts, the company streamlined its internal structure. The result is a corporate framework that allows its own employees and customers to understand the company better. "We are changing how the world sees us and how we see ourselves," says Mike Waite, president. "As an industry leader, our products and services have evolved beyond the 'corrugated box' niche where many of our existing and potential customers categorize us."

Changing with the times

The origins of what is now Menasha Packaging Company, with 1,800 employees and more than 20 facilities in North America, have nothing to do with printing. What ultimately became Menasha Corporation (Menasha Packaging's parent company) began as a wooden pail factory. The company has endured through a Civil War, the Great Depression, two World Wars, and, most recently, the Great Recession. Through it all, the company has transformed itself and realized new business opportunities at every turn. By the end of the Civil War, the company was not only producing wooden pails, but had become a full woodenware manufacturer. During the period spanning from 1916 through the 1930s, the company transformed itself and first entered the corrugated box business. The packaging corporation motivated its employees to learn this new business and develop expertise in paper, which at that time was a new product for the company. In 1995, the company reorganized into seven business groups, including the packaging group.

Today the company is much more than a corrugated box manufacturer. Its capabilities include printing and design and it can provide digital, offset, preprint, flexo, and litho-lam printed products. "There is not a process in the market right now that we can't produce," Waite asserts proudly. "With printing and distribution facilities located strategically across the country, our customers get quality and consistency no matter what facility produces it."

Menasha covers a variety of industries, according to Waite, but focuses on three: food packaging, personal care products, and household products. "The reason we focus in some of those areas is, if you look at traditional manufacturing, which is where we still sell a lot of corrugated packaging, that side was shrinking," says Waite. "We had to step back and say, 'Where is there a more stable base of business for us to try to create a position for us in the marketplace?' Those three segments I referred to have helped stabilize the company during the last five or six years."

From commercial to packaging

Moving from commercial work to packaging work is the trend these days for commercial printers in search of another aspect of printing to enter. When Menasha acquired a commercial printing operation in Neenah (Wis), commercial printing was a great business, but it started to change as the market started to shrink. "We saw that in the early 2000s, and we had a couple of customers that we were doing some folding carton work for. As we began to look at the demographics of how things would change, we discovered we needed to create a shift in this business," reports Waite. "We made a shift toward folding carton and away from commercial work. It wasn't just a wholesale shift. We had some very good commercial printing customers we retained to help us transition from point A to point B." Today, the Folding Carton Group does 90 percent packaging and 10 percent residual commercial printing, according to Waite.

Rebrand for recognition

Menasha is not just a corrugated packaging company. It has nine business units that include displays, folding cartons, preprint, and commercial printing, as well as its Retail Integration Institute. Through various acquisitions over time, the company was able to offer a variety of services, but lacking an integrated image for the company that incorporated all its facilities, it was considered primarily as a corrugated company. "We really had to step back and say, 'We changed so much during the last 10 years, but we're not really telling the story of who we are as a company,' " says Waite.

Menasha didn't only rebrand the overall company, but also its individual parts. Initiatives include a more colorful logo and a modified tag line: Innovative by Design. Previously "Innovative Packaging by Design," the tag line now defines the company as a resource for solutions throughout the supply chain.

Internal streamlining was also necessary. "The multiple divisions were perceived as independent entities instead of specialized Menasha services," asserts Waite. "While the functions of each location differ, they share the common goal of supporting and promoting the Menasha brand." To this end, the company reclassified its divisions as Menasha groups. "What we learned is we were originally sending a mixed message, or not even a very clear message at all," continues Waite. "This was about really focusing on who Menasha is so that both our existing customers, as well as new prospects, can understand what Menasha packaging is all about. I think it helped create more of a holistic Menasha Packaging for our employees, because sometimes our employees didn't even understand some of the things we do."

Designed for success

Waite contends that it's great to be a good printer and diecutter, but if printers don't have services ahead of printing and finishing, everything else is a dime-a-dozen. Menasha addressed this by creating the Retail Integration Institute (RII).

The RII Group bridges the gap between CPG and retailer. Its campus allows account managers to bring in a customer, have the design staff create a prototype, place it on the store shelf, and provide a true picture of how it will appear in the store. According to Waite, RII actually does even more.

"Our market is providing retail-ready packaging with graphics on it that help our customers sell their products," says Waite. But, people didn't know that Menasha Packaging has an entire component of its business dedicated to understanding what goes on in retail. "We have an organization of more than 30 people that's dedicated to figuring out what works in retail—what do customers want, and how do we bring that information back to our design departments to help execute that with our customers," claims Waite.

Shoppers typically make a decision in seven seconds, says Wait. "The shopper is who you want to make sure you're understanding and how it translates into what the retailer is trying to accomplish." For example, in the case of food shopping, the consumer is at the end of the line, but it is the shopper who will buy for the consumer. This is the person Waite is trying to reach. "What is the shopper looking for versus the consumer," he asks. "How do you want to make sure you touch the shopper?

At the RII, group members take what a retailer is trying to accomplish and come up with a design execution, but then study it to determine what went well, what didn't go well, what the retailer liked, and what it didn't like. "A lot of companies will say they have a great design, and some do, but they have no idea if that display provides lift or helps the customer sell more product," asserts Waite. For Menasha, this was the missing link.

The RII started about seven years ago and continues to evolve. Menasha has people on site at major retailers around the country, helping them understand what's going to work on their aisles so when a CPG designs a display, it will know if it will work in retail. "Sometimes people design displays that can't even hit the metrics that the retailer has for display programs within their stores."

According to Menasha, by aligning marketing strategies of retailers with top CPG manufacturers, RII has effectively increased sales, improved profits, and reduced costs for its customers.

Service equals opportunity

Waite contends that it's not going to be easy for a business to endure by standing pat. "Everyone has to decide what's important to them strategically," he says. "I think you've got to explore, because if you just stay where you've always been...we wouldn't have survived 160 years if we did that." Adding services is one way to do that.

"What are you doing to attach services to a product that are really going to help you in the market," Waite challenges. "Are you going to pack out the customer's product so it has fewer suppliers? I think those are the things that companies need to look at, and part of that involves partnering with other companies to see how you can expand geographic breadth." Expanding geographically is a key for Waite, because, he says, "If you are just a local entity with one plant in a small market, it's going to be tougher and tougher to compete in the future unless you have something truly unique."

Stand out, be unique, says Waite. "Because if you don't figure out a way to stand out in the market as something different and also add value, you're going to disappear into the hedge, and no one's going to be able to spot you." Foremost is having the core ability to print, diecut, and deliver a product, according to Waite. "Beyond that, it's all the other services that go with it, with design and really working with the customer's marketing group to understand its needs and translate them," he says.

Preprint niche

Another opportunity came to Menasha in the form of preprint services. One of the company's nine groups is its Preprint Group. Instead of using different printing processes across the country for a national brand, Menasha will print roll stock locally and distribute to corrugators to enhance graphic packaging, color consistency, and quality control, along with brand management. To make this happen, the company invested in a Fischer & Krecke (www.bobstgroup.com) FP 96S-8 central impression flexographic press.

"When we expanded our preprint capabilities the way that we did, I look at that as a pretty big move for a company like us," says Waite. "We're now the largest independent provider of preprint in America. So I think there are places where you can expand, as long as you can come back and say, 'Is this a strength for us as we go to the market; can we differentiate ourselves?' I think there are spaces we could do that and other companies could as well, if they are able to try to see how that all looks."

Ultimately, what is true for commercial printers is also true for package printers—both must be able to do more than just print. Waite says, "If you just print, that's not enough. You've got to be able to do a lot more than that." pP