The Label Manufacturers Association of India (LMAI) hosted a panel discussion ‘Labels – what print buyers want’ on 5 August 2022 at Pride Plaza Hotel in New Delhi. Moderated by Harveer Sahni, chairman at Weldon Celloplast and director LMAI, the event was attended by label converters, labelstock suppliers, machine manufacturers and suppliers.

The event was a perfect opportunity for the label industry to discuss new trends, challenges and sustainability. The panel members were Sanjay Ghoshal, senior GM and head of packaging, Diageo India; Naveen Stuart, cluster packaging manager, Reckitt Benckiser; Anil Namugade, founder and director, Trigon Digipack; Sanjeev Sharma, director product management, Avery Dennison; and Nirav Shah, founder Letragraphix.

Rajiv Dhar, former director of IIP and senior advisor export packaging at UN, in his keynote address gave an overview of different innovative packaging and highlighted the need to understand consumers’ buying psychology and decision-making process. Dhar emphasized that premiumization and personalization with exceptional quality, experience and aesthetics can fuel a taste for unique, value-added products. Dhar said, “What print buyers want?… Nothing but to create a desire to buy!”

During the panel discussion, Sanjay Ghoshal, senior GM and head of packaging, Diageo India, said that the aesthetics of a label doesn’t just start with the printing but can also start with the material. In line with Dhar, Ghoshal also stressed the importance of consumer engagement. He said that there is a greater need to increase a brand’s visibility to not get lost in the crowd.

Ghoshal said, “Today, for any particular brand of any category, you can see about 25 more competitor brands coming up and trying to create clutter on the shelf. 25 more brands mean 25 times less visibility. In this scenario, consumer engagement is an important factor that influences purchasing decisions. Today, the label on a product must be an interactive and aesthetic solution that is able to draw consumers’ attention – communicate with consumers by providing manufacturing information, sustainability quotient as well as virtual reality while also instructing and educating, among other things.”

Ghoshal added, “Currently, short-run premium labels printed on digital label presses are in great demand. They are many upcoming bands, continuously experimenting with their products in the market with multiple variants with hyper localization. As a label supplier, it is very important how you help these brands. At the end of the day, a label which is made for consumer engagement or which is meant to be sustainable has also the responsibility of creating value for the brand owner.”

Naveen Stuart, cluster packaging manager, Reckitt Benckiser, said, “Being an FMCG company, when we talk about consumer engagement, we are today looking at how we can use personalization to engage with our consumers. This is the biggest thing that we are currently looking at as an FMCG company – and this is true for many other companies as well.”

Stuart also highlighted the importance of sustainable reverse logistics and said that it’s time we moved from Take, Make and Waste to Take, Make and Recycle.

Anil Namugade, founder and director, Trigon Digipack, said, “Today, print buyers/brand owners are looking for more than a mere print. They are looking for partners who can help them in handling sustainability challenges as well as boost the design capability of their brands. In short, they are looking for partners who can provide maximum value in the whole print process.”

Nirav Shah, founder Letragraphix, said, “The overall expectations from the packaging have increased manifold over the last few years. This in turn will continue to trigger high standards for the finish, quality, aesthetics, and high level of functionality from the same label what it used to be 10 years ago.”

Sanjeev Sharma, director product management, Avery Dennison, said “As a label stock manufacturer, the biggest challenge we face in sustainability is how we can enable recyclability because of the adhesives and ink on the label. At Avery Dennison, we’re leveraging our legacy of innovation in labels and packaging to design sustainable solutions that are better for our planet.”

During the event, Harveer Sahni was given a standing ovation for winning the prestigious R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award. Sahni is the first Indian to be a recipient of the award. It recognizes Sahni’s central role in building the Indian self-adhesive label industry from its earliest days, and later his major contribution to promoting the Indian label industry on the world stage.