Data Points: What do Brand Owners Really Want?

Every year, in the work we do for TLMI and FINAT (TLMI’s European equivalent) and in our research for private clients, we probe what brand owners and packaging buyers want from their label vendors. Surveying hundreds of packaging buyers across North America and Europe every quarter, we often close interviews by asking two key questions: What can your label vendors be doing better? What could they do that they are not already doing?

Inevitably, the majority of responses fall into one of four categories: Innovation, Proactivity, Technical Support, and Education. Some comments include:

• Be more proactive in making recommendations that will let me streamline printing methods and/or artwork design.
• Be more proactive in driving innovation that drives out costs. Educate us about what is available, and what is coming down the pipeline.
• Help us find innovative solutions that enable us to differentiate from our competitors on the retail shelf.
• And here’s an interesting one: “As a group, label manufacturers tend to be the least active packaging group that speaks directly to and understands the requirements of retailers. If a company excelled at this, we would switch to purchasing labels from them in a heartbeat.”

So what’s a label converter to do? Here are four of the top criteria we think would make a label converter really stand out to their customers and prospects:

1. Know your customers’ (and prospects’) products. Even if you don’t print the labels that go on all of them. Do you know your customers’ product market share in each category they serve? Is their pasta sauce brand losing market share? If so, why? Did they recently near-shore some of their consumable durables products? (That is, did they divert manufacturing from China back to the U.S.?) Did you know that one of their condiment lines went from PS-labeled glass containers to flexible printed pouches—and was a total market flop? Do you know why, and what are they going to do about it? Become intimately familiar with the trends and market influences that impact the decisions your customers and prospects are making about their products. And once you know, share the information with every person in your company.
2. Figure out what makes Millennials tick. Millennials are the people born between 1981-1996. The media can’t seem to stop talking about this group that economists are terming The Entitled Generation. Millennials, however, now account for one-third of the workforce, and in our industry one of the job functions with highest turnover rates is the sourcing of packaging: the people buying labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons and corrugated. Right now, Millennials are either directly involved in the sourcing of your products, or have influence over the vendor channels their companies select. They communicate on the fly and don’t bother with long memos and emails. They’re texting, chatting and on social media channels 24/7. You’d better figure out how to position your products (and your skills and your people) in front of them. And do it soon.
3. Don’t be afraid to show off. Have you recently made a new technology investment? Then make sure your customers know. Do you have a resident technical expert who can dig deep into the differences and benefits of printing one job conventionally and another job digitally? If so, have this person create a brief or FAQ directed at customers, educating them on the difference between conventional and digital and why your company excels at steering customers to the best technology for their applications. You can never convey your company’s technical expertise too much.
4. Become environmental stewards and put your sustainability achievements in your marketing collateral. Those pesky Millennials are the generation that cares the most about the environment and they are demanding that their vendors do, too. Are you environmentally certified? Do you have an internal “green” team? Make sure your customers and prospects know your company is a bona fide environmental steward that takes its sustainability practices seriously.

We gauge vendor loyalty rates every year and it’s clear that brand owners and packaging buyers are becoming less loyal to suppliers in the narrow web label printing industry. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, profits for label converters were driven by customers who stayed with their label suppliers, even when they weren’t the best fit for some products. Vendor tenure meant something, but the game is changing. How good is your company at playing it? pP

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