Volume and price driving print decisions

The Demands by the brand owners for their packaging printing study by GfK, which follows two previous GfK studies commissioned by ERA under the topic Image of gravure in packaging among the brand owners and which were carried out as a comparison of the image of gravure and flexo printing in packaging, was conducted to find out indications about brand owner strategies concerning the print process for their packaging.

Results from the study showed that the most decisive criteria in choosing a printing process are print volume and price, and, provided that excellent image quality and high color saturation are requested, printing quality also ranks among the important criteria. Environmental aspects are less taken into account in choosing a printing process, according to the results of the study.

By process, gravure is seen as the ideal print process for high volumes and offering the highest quality, while flexography is regarded as a process suited for medium volumes offering medium but generally acceptable quality.

Digital printing only plays a role for very small volumes, and does not come into question yet for substrates such as film – the major substrate for the printing of flexible packaging material.

The study also confirmed a tendency towards more frequent design changes and therefore smaller volumes per job, and a trend towards customized packaging. These tendencies are expected to continue, and favour flexible and fast print processes, ERA said.