Brands are planning to make greater use of packaging to connect with customers, using either QR codes or increasingly NFC chips. In the second Connected Experience Report from marketing agency SharpEnd questioned more than 1,000 brands and marketing budget holders to understand plans to use on pack devices to find out more about customers, to deliver information to those customers and to engage with them. This is the age of the connected consumer journey.
They are already using QR codes extensively for this purpose with 89% saying they have some level of connection through an on pack device, usually a QR code or through in store point of sale. And 85% will increase their investment in connected experiences in the next 12 months.
While obtaining first-party data about consumers is an important driver, along with driving further sales and promoting customer loyalty, sustainability is a huge driver. Brands can use the connections to provide transparency of information about ingredients and the make up of products, can give instructions about how and where to recycle the packaging and product and the steps that the brand is taking to reduce its carbon impact. This is a popular application, something that 93% of those questioned planned to implement over the next 24 months. There is external pressure to do so to meet requirements of ESG policies and extended producer responsibility.
Perhaps for this reason there is increasing awareness of what is possible beyond the marketing departments and all the way to board level. However, there is significant concern about the impact of brand design through the use of codes and devices with 72% nervous for this reason. Brands will look to designers (and packaging providers) for guidance in how to work with this restriction and perhaps to set up the entire system of interaction and to create the personal experiences for consumers. These will be trialled to monitor that they work.
The report provides case examples to show that the connectivity does work. Boots used QR codes on PoS and on packaging for Tens machines to provide instructions to customers on how to operate the device, to provide a pain diary, and as a result increased take up and satisfaction. It has extended the use to the medical devices the report says.
However, the QR code’s days in the spotlight may be ending. The report says that NFC chips, which can communicate with smartphones automatically, are becoming more popular. These are better able to validate products, to provide traceability, serialisation and increase levels of engagement. Compared to the QR code, the NFC is considered a premium product with applications on higher value goods, say alcohols at the luxury end of the market. Brands will pay for the more premium experience says SharpEnd.
And because this type of connectivity can provide far more information to consumers than can be delivered by the packaging alone, the drive for transparency and sustainability may lead to such technology becoming mandatory to fulfil those sustainability requirements.
Earlier this year Italian paper maker Fedrigoni invested in SharpEnd through its venture fund that takes stakes in businesses that are related to paper.
