Packaging: a profession in tension and in transformation, from packaging to connected objects by Solène Joulin, Capgemini Engineering

This is the mantra of luxury brands to build customer loyalty: offer an increasingly connected and personalised experience. According to a Salesforce study¹, 88% of consumers today consider a company’s buying experience as important as its products or services, compared to 80% in 2020. If this demand is to be translated into action throughout the purchasing process, packaging is crucial. All the more so as it crystallises contradictory feelings among consumers: on the one hand, a certain bad conscience – 43%² of 18-34 year olds say they feel guilty when they make certain purchases – and on the other, the desire for an enriched experience.

Today’s packaging specialists face a double challenge. The first is to offer sustainable packaging that must move from being a simple container – destined to become waste – to being a real object. The second challenge is to offer customers a luxurious experience, even in distribution channels that are not luxurious. Technology plays a key role in this. How do we do this? By combining the physical product with an enriched digital environment, accompanied by multiple associated services. It is not a question of innovating to simply dazzle the consumer. The packaging must be seen as a gateway to the brand’s ecosystem, made up of associated services that can vary according to the period, location or identity of the buyer, so as to personalise the experience. It is also a good way for the brand to control the return on investment of its campaigns and to know its customers better.

The world leader in the sector, L’Oréal, has chosen a well-known technology, the QR code, to link its 7 billion products sold each year to the digital world. Once the packaging has been scanned, the consumer can access the ingredients, user guides and instructions for ensuring its recyclability. This meets the expectations of increasingly demanding consumers, who are concerned about product quality and are uncompromising about safety and transparency. These QR codes also make it possible to rethink the customer journey thanks to new services such as the virtual trial, offered for hair colouring, for example.

Another brand in the L’Oréal galaxy, Lancôme, has also perfectly grasped the issues at stake: putting technology at the service of the customer experience by offering an immersion experience that begins in the boutique. Teint Particulier allows each woman to obtain her own customised foundation, according to her skin tone and desired level of hydration and coverage. A Lancôme beauty consultant begins the consultation with a scan of the skin in three different places to analyse the exact type and shade of skin. The result: 72,000 possible combinations, thanks to a specially developed algorithm

To make this type of technological breakthrough a reality, it is all a matter of skill and know-how. The cosmetics sector is undergoing a changeover from technical expertise to technological expertise that will create a real ecosystem where products and services complement each other and enrich the consumer experience.