This will come as no surprise to product marketers, consumer-goods packagers and the converters who serve them: People buy things they don't really need.

It's been said (more times than I care to think about) that consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the US economy. But today, consumers are spending less and less of their income on the necessities of life and more and more on discretionary products and services. Rather than viewing this as wasteful or self-indulgent, think of it instead as one of the strongest economic engines available.

According to Pam Danziger, president of Stevens, PA-based Unity Marketing, consumer spending on discretionary products and services contributes about 40 percent (or roughly $3 trillion) to the nation's economy. In a recent interview on National Public Radio, Danziger explained that the secret to successfully marketing discretionary products is to understand "why people buy."

"When you look at consumers, marketers are taught that past consumer behavior is the best predictor of future behavior," she says. "But I have found in working with clients that actually what we really need to do is get inside the consumers' hearts and minds. We must understand them from the emotional side...why they buy...and that's the best predictor of the future."

Consumers buy things they don't need because it satisfies emotional desires and needs that are no less compelling than physical needs, Danziger says. "People buy things they don't need because it makes them feel better. This is a very important need that humans have that really helps both our economy and each individual living in our society."

As printers and converters of packaging, you play a vital link in the supplier chain that (good or bad, depending on how you look at it) drives consumers to spend money on things they don't need. Take labels, for example, and the people behind Spectrum Label (page 30) and Prestige Label (page 36) featured in this month's Converting. They would be among the first to tell you how the right label—high-quality printed, hot-stamped and intricately die-cut—will sell a bottle of wine or a pricey HBA item that someone might otherwise walk right past on the store shelf.

Likewise, talk to Charles Connolly at Connemara Converting (page 42). He'd tell you immediately of the value that cut-to-register holographic papers have in driving discretionary spending on products ranging from beverages to "Star Trek" TV Guide issues.

Seriously, I'm not saying that discretionary spending by consumers is going to pull us out of the current economic slump. It's going to take a combination of things, including a return to strong capital-equipment investment by manufacturers in every industry.

But, in one sense, it's nice to know that converters everyday are doing their part to keep the consumer-buying engine of the economy humming.