by Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland) New packaging, product, design and food trends in the fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) market for 2015 will revolve around three things:
- consumer demand for fortified foods
- packaging that provides functionality, and
- ethical product sourcing and manufacture.
1. Product collaboration
I think I’ve already found my product of the year for 2015: this adults-only ice cream, infused with wine, has been launched in New York. Mercer’s Wine Ice Cream has an alcohol content of 5% and comes in flavours such as chocolate cabernet, red raspberry chardonnay, Riesling and cherry merlot.
As far as trends go, veggie flavoured ice-cream, tomato cherry and carrot orange have been also launched by Haagen-Dazs. I think I’ll stick to the wine one!
And unless someone else invents a body lotion that tans you while addressing cellulite, acts as a slimming aid and makes me look taller, this one is a winner for me this year!
2. Origin and source
Consumers want to know that what they are buying is 100% real, with ingredients they recognise, all natural ingredients and is ethically sourced. Natural and organic foods and beverages with a ‘back story’ are gaining traction. This feeds into the personalisation and craft product trends, design and packaging.
This is also fuelled by the growth of the urban farming trend and backlash against GMO foods and harmful additives.
Sources: Project Packaging 2015 Trends; PackagingoftheWorld.com.
3. Personal touch
Consumers are responding to brands that get personal with them, that evoke an emotional response, that reach out in their own language, be it via social media or the real world. The authenticity of voice required of brands these days has translated into beautifully crafted packaging for brands.
PackagingoftheWorld.com reports in its Packaging Design Trends for 2015 on the trend towards hand-drawn logos and labelling, with examples from Morrisons’ supermarket tea with its “whimsical, hand-drawn or hand-written typography [which] adds a personal, human touch to packaging and suggests to a consumer that there is a face behind the brand”.
4. Fortified foods
Banting, paleo, ‘caveman’ or whatever high-protein diets are the rage right now, combined with a focus on superfoods, have provided opportunities for manufacturers to come up with new functional foods and drinks.
Nowadays, consumers expect their food to deliver various health and nutritional benefits. Well, duh! But, really, the demand is there for added nutritional benefit with a combination of beneficial attributes and less harmful substances and ethical sourcing of ingredients and manufacture.
The most-popular food trends in recent years, according to US-based Food Technology magazine, where the US boasts the largest functional food market with sales in excess of US$43.9 billion: yogurt for digestive health; cereal for heart health; cholesterol-lowering butter/margarine; cholesterol-lowering orange juice; shakes/bars to reduce hunger; orange juice for joint health; immune-boosting dairy beverages; and medicinal teas.
5. Aesthetic functionality
As PackagingoftheWorld.com showcases, the function of packaging is “to house, protect and transport your product”. In the growing culture of ‘waste not’, designers are now starting to think about what happens to the product and packaging once it has left the store, creating “hyperfunctional” packaging that also has a purpose.
An example is Aquilequa wine packaging, which transforms into a wine rack.
6. Masterchef
While the proliferation of cooking shows and competitions is encouraging consumers back to the kitchen, this has led to a spike in products that enable consumers to “cook like a chef”, such as packaged gourmet ready-meals, says FoodNavigator.com.
7. Homemade
Design trends include “warm graphics that look homemade or friendly” and packaging that gives people a warm fuzzy feeling of all natural or eco-friendly and disposable, according to Pripackaging.com.
An example is Nutty Bunny frozen dessert, with its apparently hand-drawn labels.
8. Simplification
Less is more in this era of information overload, and packaging design needs to follow suit, says the Ambalaj packaging and design blog.
Showcase the natural ingredients, use iconic packaging shapes to identify your brand and reduce, rather than add, design elements, such as the Angus Nicholls design for Green Press juice that it references.
9. Snackification
Everything is being turned into snacks, including healthy food, as consumers want a more portable lifestyle.
Breakfast pouches, muesli bites and breakfast biscuits, as well as other convenience foods to replace lunch and dinner, too, are coming to market, says FoodNavigator.com, quoting Innova.
10. Techno-packing
This is a trend that began late-2013, when Nabisco and Aurasma created bespoke One Direction video content for fans that could be accessed via packs of Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz Bits and Cheese Nips, reports PackagingoftheWorld.com, with this clip of the project on an Oreo pack.
Guaranteed we’ll see more of this kind of work and collaboration, even though, hopefully, not too much more of One Direction!
Shelf Life is a weekly column by Louise Marsland. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland 
or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Louise has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for over 20 years as a former editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing, as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She also edited the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper. She is currently the publishing editor of industry trendwatching portal, TRENDAFRiCA, for consumer insight, research and trends in Africa; a regular industry columnist and speaker; a consultant on content strategy; and contributing editor to Fast Company South Africa magazine, which has just launched in South Africa.
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so its all about organic? i love this?