FDBusiness.com

Smurfit Kappa, one of the world’s leading packaging firms, has launched a new global brand strategy across 32 countries, which is set to Open the future for its customers.

The new strategy focuses on delivering customer growth through insight and innovation, reflecting the continued battle for brand owners to win that all-important First Moment of Truth, where shoppers choose one brand over another.  It will deliver the deepest insights programme ever seen in the packaging industry and build a new network of customer experience centres around the world.

A new, global brand campaign called Open the future will showcase Smurfit Kappa’s dedication to customer growth, through its proactive, listening approach and its relentless pursuit of the critical gains which make the difference in consumer brand choice. It draws on the company’s global experience across packaging, paper and sustainability to help solve real-world problems, based on deep consumer insights.

The new brand strategy is the result of a 12-month long, global research programme, using the best business-to-business research specialists to establish what brand owners really want from the packaging industry. It included customers, suppliers and investors, as well as broad internal engagement with Smurfit Kappa employees across Europe and the Americas.

Gary McGann, Group Chief Executive Officer at Smurfit Kappa, says: “The world for global brands has become more challenging and fast moving but full of opportunity for those who embrace and lead new ideas, new technologies and new trends.  We are no different.  Our approach to innovation has to be rooted in the sharpest insights, exactly mirroring the approach of the brands who are our customers.”

The new brand strategy will be rolled out with a range of high profile customer service and innovation programmes which break new ground for the industry.  They include the launch of a bespoke customer insights programme, created especially for the world of packaging, which will deliver a depth of understanding of consumer markets, behaviour and trend data never seen before in the industry.

Smurfit Kappa is also building a new network of customer experience centres in its main markets.  The hub will be a showcase International Customer Experience Centre at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport where brand owners will spend days working alongside Smurfit Kappa experts, immersed in market insights and assessing new packaging innovations designed to deliver profitable growth and a sustainable supply chain.  Satellite versions of the centre will be introduced in other major markets worldwide.

Open the future is brought to life through a new, dynamic microsite, where a series of films demonstrate how customers across the world have worked in partnership with Smurfit Kappa to create innovative solutions which have driven commercial success.  The new microsite can be visited at www.openthefuture.info and will be the home for new, shareable content updated regularly throughout the year.

Gary McGann adds: “The delivery of creative, forward-thinking solutions for brands has always been part of our DNA.  Today we’re taking that to a new level with a big commitment to increase our insight into our customers’ worlds and deliver growth through innovation.

“The industry has to look beyond our customers’ immediate packaging needs to understand what really makes their business and their customers tick and where future opportunities lie.  Only if we do that can we credibly produce insightful, creative solutions that will be taken seriously by brand owners and open up future growth opportunities.”