A research report from POPAI indicates that 76 % of retail purchases are made at the store. This brings the battle of brands to the shelf of a super market. And we have seen that some iconic Indian FMCG brands and products have revamped their packaging in order to regain better in-store visibility. Nancy Janes, Worldwide Business Development Manager, Graphics Solution Business, HP Inc., speaks to explain the latest trends in labelling and how HP is spearheading the growth.

What are your latest observations with regards to packaging and labelling work towards brand building?

Brands worldwide are working harder to have a personal relationship with the consumer. Global companies also have to treat their customers in a very local way. How do you that? Technology helps you do that, the Internet helps you do that, and digital printing and packaging helps you do that. The rise of customization is starting to catch on. Retailers and brand have ample opportunities to treat us in a very unique way. That’s an opportunity for brands if they chose to use it.
       
What are the aspirations of brands while choosing their labelling partner?

Many big companies and many small companies have policies about what they believe in and what they aspire to do. When you boil it down they focus on three things - they like to minimise waste, they like sustainability not just for the planet but also for the communities and the people of those communities, the health and well-being of people and the planet. Policies are essentially same worldwide.
       
Increasing need for agility, so we know now whether it is brochure or whether it is packaging; the run lengths are actually coming down and the variety and number of things that we are printing are increasing. This is what is happening in the digital era. So brands have to be agile enough to respond to this.

How your next level of printing solutions is helping brands in other ways?

The messages that we give to the brands when we speak to them are really in three areas. We talk to them about supply chain optimisation and that might mean environmental, that might mean track and trace, or that might mean short run on demand. We talk to them about agility, about being able to respond but also being proactive very very quickly. And customer delight, how consumers feel is what they remember and that is what branding is all about.

There have been some very big brands that have been there for a very long time, but they need to think differently about how the consumer acts and environment around them. We help brands take that journey from analog to digital.