Marketing, sales and consumer behaviour – March 2020

31 March 2020

COVID-19
National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces. SARS-CoV-2 was detectable in aerosols for up to 3 hours, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2 to 3 days on plastic and stainless steel. The study was published on 13 March 2020 in The New England Journal of Medicine. A month earlier, researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum published a review article in the Journal of Hospital Infection summarising the knowledge of researchers about the lifetime of corona viruses on surfaces and the effect of disinfectants.
FPF reports that UPSTREAM has published a letter discussing single-use and reusable food packaging as it relates to the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The organisation set out to answer a range of questions being asked by consumers including whether or not reusable packaging is safe, if single-use packaging is safer, and how the spread of SARS-CoV-19 could impact the expanding trend towards zero-waste lifestyles and bring-your-own container shopping options.
At the moment IRI is regularly publishing reports on the impact of COVID-19 for CPG manufacturers and retailers. You can download the reports free of charge (scroll down).

Global packaging market and trends
The PMMI report ‘2019 Global Packaging Trends’ highlights future packaging demand, product categories, and opportunities for growth in packaging can be downloaded after filling in your e-mail address. Mintel’s ‘2020 Global Packaging identifies two trends impacting the global packaging industry in 2020: Ahead of the Recycling Curve and In-store Refill. Download the report after filling in your details to read more about what consumers in 2020 (and 2030!) will want. In a recent article, Smithers identifies 5 trends for the global packaging market over the next 5 years. In another article, Smithers looks at 4 trends for packaging in Asia over the same period.
Kemira looks at the future of food packaging and discusses four future scenarios. You can download the report after filling in your details. Now New Next has published a trend report (5.21 MB) on Biofach 2019.

Global print market
In a recent article Smithers identifies 5 trends for the global printing industry over the next 5 years. The top ten fastest growing national print markets from 2014-2024 according to Smithers can be found here. Despite worldwide growth, Smithers finds that the North American print market is facing challenges. You can read more here.

Top 9 packaging annoyances for the consumer
Radar has submitted a questionnaire on packaging annoyances to 32,688 people and lists the 9 biggest packaging annoyances in an article (in Dutch). The biggest annoyance is packaging that is difficult to open (98%).

Consumer and environmental issues
According to a survey commissioned by Mondi, 58% of the British consumers say that they would switch to a different brand if that brand uses less packaging. The European Commission reports that, according to a new Eurobarometer survey (17.25 MB), 94% of citizens in all EU Member States say that protecting the environment is important to them. The survey shows solid support for policy measures aimed at reducing plastic waste. For her dissertation (1.56 MB) at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Joana Sofia de Oliveira Ferreira Pedro Dias looked at what determines the intention to use a reusable packaging and how the consumers’ environmental attitude impacts this relationship.

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411.