Innovation Trends from Carton Package Design Perspective

1. Innovation Trends from Carton Package Design Perspective
Henry YU, Marketing services director, Tetra Pak
Ying WU, Business development director, Tetra Pak
Speaking of designs, many of you may have some professional ideas, but
now, I want to ask some questions based on the global design resources
of Tetra Pak: What’s the trend for carton package design in the future?
And what are the need of the consumers and the respective innovation
platform behind the trend? I am not a designer, and Tetra Pak is a
supplier of food, machines and manufacture rather than a design
company. But why we find the package design intriguing? Tetra Pak

2. started from machines; however, its business model is B2B2C. Nowadays,
who is the most powerful one in today’s market if we take the whole
industrial chain into consideration? From my perspective, it is the
consumption and purchasing behaviors of our consumers that drive the
movement of the value chain. In this sense, consumers are always the
core for Tetra Pak in innovation and marketing. And our company has
endeavored to study the consumption trends with huge investment.
When you ask a consumer in a serious way why he chose this product
rather than that one. He probably will reply: the money was paid for the
product or for the brand itself. However, we ignore the importance of
package designs here. When consumers first take a look at products on
the shelf from a long distance, they receive very limited information, for
example, the shape and color of packages, whether they form sharp
contrasts or not. Only when walking up to the products can they
recognize brands and specific designs, and only when holding in hands
will they read the key information which the package of the product tries
to convey. That’s why I say the package designs play a significant role in
consumers’ purchasing decision, although some of them say in a
seemingly rational tone that the package design of the product is not the
main reason for their purchases.

3. Package design is so important that it seems we are not in a position to
talk about it in this occasion. But we have done a lot in this part. For years
Tetra Pak has constantly made investment in studying the changes in
consumption trends of consumers and gained many helpful information.
In addition, as a start-up of carton packaging, Tetra Pak is quite familiar
with every single side, angle and streamline of any regular carton
package. In this case, we have the ability as well as the responsibility to
introduce to our customers how package designs make our products
better. In design center of Tetra Pak, we have a massive volume of
databases; we have design teams in Italy, three professional designers of
visual creativity in China; and we have cooperated with many other
consulting companies to explore the next trend in designing. All of these
only have one purpose: we try to change designs, or more specifically,
the carton package designs, into profitale services of Tetra Pak.
A good design needs many inputs. First of all, the design trend matters.
This one is somewhat tricky, so basically, we focus on the influence it
exerts on the future designs. By collecting information of the market and
consumers, we store the inspiration for future designing work. Knowing
the trend is far from enough though, other factors, for instance,

4. orientation of products, brand identity, core values, contents, rivals,
product differentiation, key selling points, and moreover, consumption of
emotions, also play a significant part in good designs. Furthermore,
design tools and design guidance are indispensable as well. Tetra Pak will
provide some guidelines for general carton package designs from time
to time.
How can we make the best use of the current carton package designs to
highlight selling points of our products?
We think there are six trends for future designs. First is geometry and
minimalism. When we talk about design trends, we first need to ask
ourselves: Why should consumers choose this product? And what are the
changes of our consumers in today’s society? Consumers are now

5. under increased pressure—they are becoming busier and busier.
Statistics of last year show that 65% of consumers worldwide complained
that they had no enough time to do what they should do well, and 53%
of Chinese people said they are willing to pay for something that would
save their time. Therefore, I think one of biggest opportunities in China
for future business development is to help consumers save their time. By
doing this, your products and services can bring the most generous
added-values to consumers.
In this case, we have to consider how to present our information in the
fastest, simplest and most distinctive way to consumers by designing.
Our suggestions are as followed. Firstly, the quickest way is using
geometric blocks in very bright colors, because such designs convey
feelings of simplicity and vivacity. Secondly, make the contrasts of
product packages shaper by various ways, such as applying blocks in
very different colors. And lastly, make full use of the texture of packaging
materials. Minimalism doesn’t mean laziness. The texture of products
usually tells a lot about its characteristics.
The second trend is the culture created by human hands. After years of
industrialization, people are starting to think more of interpersonal

6. relationships, emotions and communication since the material needs are
generally satisfied. Apart from that, the complicity of model society drive
consumers back to the original nature to seek innocence. They require
more from products, because they view a product or brand as a human
being with its own uniqueness and characteristics, which should be in
line with their personalities. They do not want a product or a brand
without any feelings.
So here I want to attract your attention to feelings and the spirit of the
craftsman in products when doing designs. For example, we can use the
traditional rustic color scheme to convey some kind of feeling of being at
home. Sometimes returning to the original nature is in opposition to
consumers and trends, but we have to stick to the feelings of our own to
the extent that it can be called “the spirt of the craftsman”, the most
popular phrase in China recently. We need to deal with the everyday-life
elements in an artistic way and transfer them into classic symbols, which
can remind our consumers of the beauty in the world. That’s why we
attach a feeling of folk tradition in these designs.
The picture shows the design of a tomato juice, which demonstrates key
words like humanity, culture and product data. As you can see, the

7. product takes shape of whistles and is covered with very bright colors.
The handwritten letters look very human. Besides, the pattern of checked
fabric is employed on side and back in the designing of the box, giving
you a humanistic feeling in no time. It can be said that this design is in
perfect harmony with the integrity of the product and with feelings the
image of the product tries to spark.
And the third trend is choosing by nature. People increasingly emphasize
environmental protection and interactions between men and nature. The
global investigation of last year shows that consumers in China ranked
first in the world in their attention to topics about environmental
protection. We believe that gradually consumers will let their purchasing

8. behaviors speak clearly of their attitude—they want the producers and
manufacturers take responsibility for the environment as well as for the
Earth.
As a natural trend, nearly all the elements and inspirations come from
the nature itself, so we recommend hues in autumn, colors of maturity
and fullness. Autumn is warm and mature, capturing people’s
imagination. We have a full range of colors to choose. By using vibrant
colors, balanced out by dark brown and black, plus some crude materials,
consumers can feel the products are recyclable and environmentally
friendly.
Concerning the choice of design elements, many botanical elements in
nature will never be old-fashioned. They are always attractive to
consumers. Materials like rock, wood, and coarse sandpaper are all very
appealing in this trend.
With regard to other three trends, one of them is high-end customization.
Under this trend we provide a design concept called “Nocturne”,
whose inspiration comes from the night and gems. The preference for
darker colors, the combination of shadow and shade, the exquisite

9. details all make the products fashionable, artistic and upmarket.
The picture you see is the design of a cocktail. Nowadays, more and
more women and those who are not very good at drinking begin to
drink. As a matter of fact, their requirements of the wine packages
outweigh the wine itself. We sell more than a billion of wine packages all
over the world every year. The truth is that the carton package makes the
wine more mysterious and distinctive.
Actually, designing itself is only one part of the process in making a
successful product. Designs alone cannot create successful products.

10. Behind design trends is consumer trends, which are on the basis of the
values of a generation. Hence, they are more persistent and
longer-lasting and can bring about more opportunities for innovation.
As for the consumer trends we mentioned above, what’s kind of
package do Tetra Pak have to better meet the trends? We have been
worked on the exploration and improvement of the carton packages for
dairy drinks, and begin to turn to packaging in food sector along with
the development of the trends. These packages share some
characteristics: firstly, they have a rather long period of shelf life, up to
two years; secondly, after the process of high-temperature sterilization
they can ensure food safety; thirdly, it’s quite simple and safe to open
the packages; and finally, the packaging materials are recyclable and
reusable.

11. Almost 80% of consumers prefer this kind of package to replace the
current products, because its characteristics, including the way of
packing and the contents, are in line with the innovative trends we
mentioned before. Such package is simple in the first place. The way of
packaging can well meet our need for convenience and simplicity. Being
fashionable is its second feature. It absorbs the all-new concepts. Thirdly,
it’s environment-friendly as all the packaging materials of Tetra Pak are
based on the concept of environmental protection. Being natural and
fresh is another feature—the food additives free packages can keep the
freshness and the original flavour of food intact. And it also has the
feature of being creative. Currently, it is the world’s first sterile carton
package for retort food.

12. We choose several products from the market and try to analyze the way
these product concepts go with the innovation and new trends. This
picture is about a bean product, coming from the native brand ICA in
Swedish supermarket. As you can see, the design is very plain, giving the
message of being pure, natural and simple. They are nothing more but
beans.
This one is oatmeal from Pacific Foods. It’s minimalist, natural and
organic, which catches people’s eyes.

13. Chinese people are known as demanding consumers. They want
seasonal food, which is the best of the best, because the original flavor f
food can be kept. However, as urbanization goes faster, how can we
make sure our consumers have these seasonal food in a limited time？
Then the concept emerges: we make their wishes come true by bringing
the delicious food to every household and every table. That’s called
“pick of the season”.

14. Many young people like travelling, willing to taste delicious food all over
the world. While some people only think of delicacies in their hometown
because those make them feel at home. We can bring these concepts
into a variety of products, for example, this one called “Flavours of the
World”, which aims to bring delicacies of the world or food of your
hometown on the dining table with perfect ease.

15. We satisfy the needs of consumers, and at the same time, we try to
stimulate new demands and consumption. I think products like Tetra
Recart will help you to achieve such demands, and even create new
demands, providing solutions for future carton package designs.