Techno-Commercial Viability Of Connected Packaging
There are many technological advancements taking place with each passing day, but that doesn’t mean that they are viable enough to invest in them. Connected packaging is a relatively new concept; as such, many questions surround it, including its data security, reliability, and financial feasibility. Ideally, these questions are majorly focused on the technologies chosen for their use, majorly RFID, and NFC. All the business aspects need to be considered before taking a huge step, such as changing product packaging completely.
Bill On Material & The Product Lending Cost
The rich user experience should not come at the expense of an affordable product. Premium products with higher margins can easily accommodate connected packaging with AR, IoT, NFC, or RFID. In comparison, the products with thinner margins may proceed with printed costs if it serves the purpose. A slight change in the product cost has a significant impact on mass productions, which can not be overlooked. Choosing the right solution to create considerable value is the key to ensuring the return on investment.
Value Proposition:
Before implementing connected packaging, brands must have a clear idea of what value they are trying to create for the customer. It’s going to be an underutilization when consumers are not using the connected packages even after the vast R & D investment in good intent. It’s essential that the connected packaging proposes some value to complement the customer experience instead of implementing a fancy feature that customers can’t often use.
Solution Scalability:
Is it really a scalable solution? Would the majority of customers benefit from the same? A brand would have to think about these primary questions thoroughly. NFC based smart packaging would be proven effective, considering that most smartphone users could use it easily. However, the same might not be accurate for other RFID tags where the user must have particular RFID readers that support it. A similar case has to be studied when comparing the scalability of other technologies like printed codes, AR, and Image processing.
Security & Authenticity:
Duplication and stealth of information is always a concern for any user. There is some information that is safe to share publicly, such as the expiry date of a food product. Then there are other products where the data is customized for the buyer’s needs. Barcodes & QR codes might be readable by every code scanner while brands can leverage app-based password authentication on NFC and RFID based connected packages. Besides, it is hard to duplicate NFC or RFID tags considering the unique identification and variety of information they carry. Similarly, AR-based connected packages are easy to recognize because of the lengthy platform development.
These parameters can help brands develop the best suitable connected packaging solution if taken into consideration precisely. Otherwise, there is a chance that their implementation of connected packaging can end up as experimentation. The brands need to find that sweet spot between enhanced customer experience and commercial return on investment for their efforts. Getting that right would be a delight for the brands as well as the consumers.
