Last month, Knockout attended a webinar organized by Beauty Packaging that featured insights and discussions about the latest industry packaging trends from Darshit Gandhi at McKinsey & Company. We also heard from Jacyln Bellomo at RegistrarCorp about the necessary steps and organizational mindset needed to navigate regulations like MoCRA.

In today’s blog, we will explore the critical insights that Darshit, from McKinsey, shared with the group.

The webinar started with us learning that consumers’ attitudes towards product packaging have significantly shifted since 2020. Environmental impact has now become more important to consumers as compared to the packaging’s appearance. In addition to this, a 2023 McKinsey Sustainable Packaging Survey found that 40% of consumers believed that brand owners are the most responsible for driving packaging sustainability and that this number is expected to climb as sustainability requirements increase at every step of the product lifecycle.

McKinsey also found that 89% of those surveyed would pay up to 10% more for their personal hygiene and beauty products if the brand incorporated sustainable packaging and that eco-friendly packaging is especially important to Millennials, Gen Z and urban customers.

However, the study found that not all sustainability claims made are equally effective. The more specific brands can be with their claims, the higher the premium they can charge to achieve additional sales growth. Consumers value transparency over generic blanket statements which have become all too common and cannot be easily proven. For example, brands that market, and can prove, they are carbon-zero are seeing higher sales growth than those that only claim to be sustainable.

Consumer thoughts on what makes packaging sustainable have been changing over the last few years as well. They now believe that compostable and plant-based packaging is more eco-friendly as compared to 2020 which found that plastic films made out of renewable materials and glass bottles and jars were at the top of the list.

Today, as consumer preferences favor packaging sustainability, brands must also consider cost, speed to market, and personalized experiences. Knockout Sustainable Packaging has the knowledge and experience to support brands looking to offer their customers impressive and unique packaging experiences without long production timelines or sacrificing their brand aesthetics. Please visit our website here to learn more.