Fixing FMCG’s Packaging Innovation Gap

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was an iconic event. Let's visualize Ingrid, a young mother of two from erstwhile West Germany. On the day the Wall fell, Ingrid was shopping for a typical weekly basket of FMCG products in a supermarket in Munich. Imagine that a time machine transported Ingrid to 2021, to a similar spot in a Munich supermarket. After recovering from the future shock, what would be her impressions about packaging?

An almost mind-numbing choice of products and variants. More intricate pack shapes and more eye-catching decoration. A bigger range of promotions and price-points (with the numbers preceded by a strange new currency symbol: €). Much more coverage of health, nutrition, regulatory and environmental information on packs. But wait! Ingrid finds that it is no longer even necessary to go to the supermarket - most products are available to order from her home computer or mobile phone - those strange devices everybody seems to be talking or tapping on - via something almost magical, called the 'Internet'...

But will Ingrid find genuinely new functionality in packaging, or even experience great improvements in the more familiar functions? Will she notice that packs are much easier…