Fostering Authentic Consumer Relationships with Connected Packaging

Digitizing the supply chain doesn’t just make logistics and sourcing sense. The smartest marketers today use connected packaging to foster direct relationships with consumers by allowing the product to do the talking. Using the product as an owned media channel gives brands rich storytelling opportunities, and in return, creates a more direct, authentic, and rewarding relationship with consumers. By encouraging consumers to simply scan the code using a smartphone, marketers can offer the kind of targeted messaging that they will eagerly opt-in to receive, such as the provenance of the food they consume or authentication of the brands they purchase or full transparency around sourcing and manufacturing.  Through connected packaging, bringing every product item to life with a digital identity, supply chain data is turned into instant and authentic content.

Increased customer loyalty and lower customer acquisition costs have long been considered the positive benefits of having a direct relationship with the customer.  Tech companies have known and benefited from this dynamic for the past decade. As VentureBeat noted, direct relationships give “access to more data on how customers use their products, and they can use this data to directly inform product development, creating better user experiences.”

Millennials and Gen Z consumers will happily share their personal details with the brands they admire because, unlike previous generations, they want to be marketed to in a more relevant and smarter way. By insisting on a two-way relationship between themselves and the brands they support, these consumers are as curious about the brands as the brands are about them.  

These direct relationships become even more important when ever-changing marketing dynamics are considered. Third party cookies — the ability to track an online shopper’s individual behavior, will no longer be available, according to Google, by the end of 2022. Performance metrics will change substantially, but this new wrinkle will be less vexing to brands with the most robust data on their loyal consumers.

Another point to consider: the rising costs of customer acquisition. Online marketing has been considered the best way to reach more consumers for less money than the more “traditional’ mediums … but the growth of digital adoption and e-commerce has meant that online marketing costs have skyrocketed. 

McKinsey, estimates new customer acquisition costs are five times greater than the cost of retaining an existing one. Improving loyalty obviously improves a customer’s lifetime value and, ultimately, the bottom line. Richer, more personal relationships live at the intersection of supply chain and consumer data when content is shared via connected products.

From mitigating allergic reactions in food and cosmetics products to proving that a product is authentic and not counterfeit, digitized supply chains, and their rich data, provide endless possibilities for fostering engagement and loyalty with uniquely specific content creation. Marketers that unlock the value created with connected packaging will soon be able to recognize a greater share of wallet, higher product engagement, and increased loyalty in today’s rapidly evolving business environment.

Keith Turco is chief commercial officer and president Americas & APAC for EVRYTHNG.