VP of Design for Mattel Inc., Matt Petersen, learned the top three complaints from parents about traditional toy packaging at a birthday party.
“I was at my godson’s birthday party,” said Petersen. “This party was for a two year old, so all these moms and all these toys are around and I said, ‘I just took over a packaging job here at Mattel.’ I was berated by these mothers. They were livid about their experiences opening these toys: ‘Too much packaging,’ ‘all the twist ties,’ ‘a terrible experience’ was what they told me. They asked, ‘What’s wrong with you [Mattel]?’”
Petersen took their comments personally and realized Mattel could improve packaging and improve customer experience dramatically.
As a result, Mattel partnered with Amazon to create packaging for direct-to-consumer delivery in November 2008. In August 2010, the Mega Rigs Pirate Ship became one of many toys offered by Mattel and Amazon in both traditional retail packaging and a new type of sustainable packaging designed to take the frustration out of opening toy packages. This new packaging, aptly named Frustration-free Packaging (FFP), was co-developed by Mattel and Amazon and does not require the twist-ties, securing bands and the inner blisters often used to market and secure toys in traditional packaging.
Traditionally packaged products and products to be sold in FFPs are manufactured, assembled and packaged under one roof, going from plastic pellets to packaged product. However, traditionally packaged products are assembled and secured with plastic bands, plastic tabs and inner blisters to a paperboard insert. A product in FFP is shipped unassembled with its accompanying smaller parts in taped plastic bags.
Traditionally packaged products also receive an extra layer of packaging to protect the brightly printed, windowed primary packaging. Before shipment to Amazon’s distribution centers, traditionally packaged products are placed two to a corrugated case. In contrast, products to be sold in FFPs are loaded directly into shipping containers.
“At the beginning of a product design project—whether it begins on a sketch-board or in someone’s mind—we’re already starting to think about ways in which we could make it more sustainable,” said Petersen. “Sustainability’s all about making choices, and each one of those choices usually takes more time, money, [employee] energy and effort. As a company, we must have strong convictions that it’s an important principle, and we have to be disciplined in terms of how we go about doing it.”
The ten-person, global design team was charged not only with making sure that the FFP packaging was designed in the most sustainable way but also that the regular package was as eco-friendly as possible. Overall, the company successfully reduced packaging material use across the board. Petersen boasts that Mattel has reduced packaging by 5 percent every year.
FFP yields substantial sustainability benefits over the traditional packaging: It uses 54 percent less paper material; 100 percent less PVC because there is no window; 96 percent less overall plastic packaging material; and 100 percent fewer twist-ties.
“Twist-ties are very important to packaging toys, especially when packaging heavier items. But consumers hate them. They do. They hate them. They looked at our [previous] packaging and thought that it was very difficult to open. This is the antithesis of what we wanted the experience to be, which is a fun experience with a toy. So, from a brand perspective, we knew we needed to move away from that,” said Petersen.
Mattel has introduced a formal program to remove the amount of traditional packaging restraints. The Plastics Reduction Program focuses on reducing the amount of restraints used, as well as making it easier for consumers to open and access Mattel’s products. This doesn’t mean that twist-ties are going away completely, though, as restraints are necessary for preventing product damage during shipping.
“We’re dramatically cutting back on twist-ties across everything that we do,” Petersen comments. “Because of this, we test packaging in a multitude of different ways: drop testing, transportation tests; humidity and heat tests. We even have machines that just shake packages for days and days.”
Amazon is also testing FFP. “Vendors can ship the package for free to use, and we evaluate the packaging—testing it for trans-shipment, to ensure that the product is secure,” said Nadia Shouraboura, VP of Technology for Worldwide Operations at Amazon.com Inc.
Shouraboura says transit testing is only one part of Amazon’s packaging testing program. Amazon actively seeks consumer feedback on packaging. “We offer two ways for our customers to leave feedback,” she explains. “We print a URL, which invites our customers to leave feedback, on our printed boxes. Amazon customers also can look at their order history online, click a button next to an individual item and leave packaging feedback.”
Shouraboura is pleased with positive feedback from consumers and is looking forward to expanding use of FFP. “This is how I see our future: In 10 years, every product that Amazon ships will be in frustration-free packaging,” she said.
In other, recent packaging news; Amerplast began using sugarcane to manufacture flexible packaging, Unilever introduced new technology to reduce the amount of plastic in packaging, P&G unveiled a new process to mold plastic that creates up to 75 percent thinner packaging and saves them $1 billion a year in materials.