By Mashum Mollah
Digital pouch printing, also known as flexible packaging, is a practical and cost-saving approach to product branding and market fulfillment. There’s much more to it than just flexibility. The latest digital technology enables the consumable-product sector to take advantage of fast turnaround times, obtain low-cost short-run printing and avoid obsolescence issues.
Quick and Cost-Effective Packaging Solutions:
Unlike traditional offset press methods, digital printing doesn’t require plates. Software-generated PDFs are used instead and sent directly to a state-of-the-art commercial digital printer such as the industry leader HP Indigo 20000. Set-up time is reduced and cost-effective small-to-medium production runs are easily accommodated. Specialized product offerings can fit into limited-time promotions without concerns over unused and outdated packaging inventory. Speed to market is increased and supply chains run more smoothly.
Flexible nutritional supplement packaging offers the industry a variety of options for protecting and maintaining the potency of products while also providing a low-cost alternative to glass and rigid plastic bottles. Digitally-printed pouches are airtight and highly effective at protecting package contents from light, moisture and exterior contaminants.
A Wide Range of Product Pouch Formats:
Digitally-enabled pouch printing is no one-size-fits-all affair. The specialized needs of natural food packaging, for example, can be easily met by the many made-to-order pouch formats that producers can choose from. Pouches can be ordered in customized stand-up, lay-flat or roll stock formats, and can also feature options such as hang holes, tear notches and press-to-close zippers. A wide range of single-serving and multi-liter capacity formats provides the processed, natural and snackfood industries with plenty of choices for serving up trail mixes, protein powders, meal-prep ingredients, jams, jellies, fruits, and juices.
The Easily-Customized Convenience of Digital Printing:
Digital print runs with multi-SKU output and customized variable printing requirements won’t result in costly stop-and-start work orders; each package produced in a single run can reflect a unique graphic, branding message or localized text content. New branding and marketing approaches are easily implemented with on-the-fly adaptability for promotional updates or changes in consumer preferences.
Digital pouch printing enables suppliers to make use of the front, bottom, sides, and back of a product’s packaging. Specialized and regionally-oriented promotions can be used to target a variety of specific demographics by linking QR codes on product packaging to online coupons, rebates or exclusive offers. Variable data printing, or VDP, which is one of the most attractive features of digital printing, brings to product packaging a degree of flexibility and cost-efficiency previously unattainable through conventional printing means.
Shelf-Appeal Trial Runs Made Easy:
Products compete for shoppers’ attention, and those that can effectively catch the purchaser’s eye make it into the shopping cart. Flexible printing allows suppliers to create packaging that reflects a stylistic or customer-appeal vision that can entice shoppers to reach for their products at the store. Is the product hanging from a hook, standing up on the shelf or laying flat? Can the shopper see through the packaging and take note of what’s inside? How about the graphics and messaging — does it appeal to a specific demographic or regional preference? These are examples of branding and shelf-appeal issues that can easily be tested in the marketplace by tracking the sales of two or more differing packaging approaches. With digitally-enabled flexible packaging, short-run shelf-appeal trials can be implemented as needed and without overburdening a company’s production budget.
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