The PDA Blog
The PDA media center encompasses blog articles and updates in our community. Within the media center we have shared hundreds of articles over the years to cover what is current in packaging. From philanthropy in the PDA community to solving the new e-commerce problems, and more, we have shared trends and insights that are important in packaging.
These are the top articles in the PDA media center over all time.
PACKAGING DESIGN FOR USER EXPERIENCE
or many companies, packaging design is the last consideration in the supply chain process, and often a cost prohibitive endeavor. With that being said, we have proved, time and time again, that poor packaging design leads to a negative impact on customer satisfaction. Why is this so?
Your packaging = your brand
Your packaging is often the first thing that end users face when interacting with your products. A popular YouTube phenomenon features a topic called “unboxing.” Users show their experience as they open boxes of products that they have received in the mail. These videos are receiving millions of views and are influencing millions of consumers to pay more attention during the unpacking process. It is also giving consumers an outlet to express their satisfaction, or lack of satisfaction, during the “unboxing” process.
THE STORY OF THE CEREAL BOX
Some still carry the original intention of a healthy breakfast that aids digestion, while most are considered sugary snacks. One element most of these cereals have in common: the box.
In the late 19th century James Caleb Jackson invented Granula, the first breakfast cereal. It had to be soaked in milk overnight for breakfast the following morning and didn’t have the appealing taste we love today.
A few decades pass and John Harvey Kellogg, a distinguished physician, changed the production process of breakfast cereal creating a lighter crispier breakfast cereal that could be consumed immediately. It was also packaged in a plain brown cardboard box, setting the stage for the iconic cereal box.
[INFOGRAPHIC] HOW A TREE BECOMES A BOX
Did you know that boxes are made from almost 100% raw materials? Fast-growing pine trees provide the primary raw material used to make corrugated cardboard. The largest packaging companies own thousands of acres of land where trees are matured, harvested, and replaced with seedlings.
After the trees are harvested, they are stripped of their limbs and the trunks are prepared to be shipped by truck to a pulp mill.
At the pulp mill, pulping and processing is used to break down wood chips into fibrous pulp. Tree trunks are stripped of bark and torn into small chips. These chips are placed in a large, high-pressure tank called a batch digester, where they are cooked in a solution, or liquor, made of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and several other ionic compounds such as sulfates, sulfides, and sulfites. These strongly alkaline chemicals dissolve the lignin, the glue-like substance that holds the individual wood fibers together in a tree trunk. When the pressure is released after several hours, the wood chips explode like popcorn into fluffy masses of fiber.
PDA EVENT HIGHLIGHT: CHAMPIONS MEETING
A PDA Champions meeting was recently held in Atlanta with packaging professionals from our Member and Supplier companies attending. George Strobel kicked off the meeting with general greetings and some facts about PDA. Barb Dammann took the stage next and led the group through the PDA mission and goals.
Amy Packer (Hughes) and Jeff Knapke (Versa Pak) “championed” the session and led the team in strategy sessions and networking sessions. Olivia Pietersen led a talk on social media in packaging and introduced the group to #WeArePDA.
The session also included sharing company core competencies, review of the champion roles, best practices, discussion on current trends and issues as well as general networking.
TOP BOOKS FOR ANYONE IN A PACKAGING ROLE
We’re joining Paper and Packaging with their 15 Pages A Day challenge, where they’re encouraging everyone to read at least 15 pages on paper every day. While our society is rushed to bring every part of our lives to technology, the research studies continually prove that reading regularly preserves memory, improves memory, and much more (Paper and Packaging). What’s worse is that a quarter of adults haven’t read a book in the last year, and that’s a growing number (Pew Research).
Are you joining P&P’s challenge to read just 15 pages per day? This is a challenge that’s for everyone, all ages and all literacy levels. Click here to take the pledge. With endless options, sometimes it’s hard to select a book! Here’s our list of favorite books for anyone who’s in a packaging role.
