Nearly every product on the market is becoming more individualized and customized to each customer. Packaging is keeping up with the trend in brand new ways.

 

If you run a massive food brand, how do you offer a personal touch? For the marketers at Lay's it means giving buyers the chance to design their own bags.

The potato chip brand is launching a program in which people can create custom bags by uploading a personal picture and phrase depicting their "favorite summer moment." Lay's will then use the digital design to create real bags and ship them directly to the consumer, set to arrive near the Fourth of July.

But Lay's fans will have to act fast. PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay is capping the program at 10,000 bags. Still, that is a significant customization effort for a brand used to pumping out countless monolithic designs.

"The packaging and [research and development] teams have invested a lot of effort to figure out how do we do these small customized packaging runs within the complexity of the millions of bags we produce," said Frito-Lay North America CMO Ram Krishnan.

In a separate program, Lay's is creating special bags with designs made from ultraviolet ink that change when they are exposed to sunlight. "It is the first time I think anyone has ever done UV-activated packaging for the consumer," Mr. Krishnan said.

Read more from the source: adage.com