We're all under more and more time pressure these days, needing to get more done in less time with fewer resources (material and human). So, it probably comes as no surprise via a new research study that “lack of time” is the key inhibitor for both packaging and branding innovation by consumer goods companies.

Paxonix (www.paxonix.com), a division of substrate provider and converter MeadWestvaco that provides Web-based process management, along with Consumer Goods Technology magazine, surveyed top marketing executives to explore how packaging and branding processes contribute to new product success. The research showed that while innovation is important, the processes to foster innovation are either lacking or need to be refined to encourage creativity.

Eighty-six percent of those surveyed said marketing, branding and packaging are “significantly more important” or “more important” to overall product marketing efforts. However, with increased pressure to accelerate time-to-market and beat out the competition, most CPCs don't have the luxury of time to spend on these efforts. The burden of tight budgets, fewer hands and the lack of a technology platform to manage branding and packaging efforts interferes with the time reserved for innovation.

Respondents cited “speed to market” as the most important business driver and yet 32 percent suggested that “lack of time” was the greatest inhibitor to innovation in the design and development of branding and packaging.

Collaboration was also noted as critical to the success of these tasks but when asked about the top three roadblocks, 30 percent named “too many revision cycles” as the biggest roadblock. Logistics and communication issues were also major factors, while 19 percent claimed that not being in the same location was a major roadblock.

Clearly, here's an opportunity for you to help your CPC customers and thus become an even more indispensable part of their packaging process.

Can you provide very fast turnaround on very short-run jobs for promotions and test-marketing? Or on the flip side, can you rapidly deliver huge orders from multiple locations with very short lead times? Can you outsource or even provide in-house contract-packaging operations for them? Can you take over some administrative tasks to free up more time for CPC employees to focus on innovation? Is your staff itself ready to innovate new material and container shapes, designs and functions?

Your answers to the above may just determine your long-term success with “time-crunched” customers.