Things change. In evolutionary biology, there is an idea playfully called ‘The Red Queen Hypothesis’ and is based around a quote from the Red Queen speaking to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

The quote parallels the difficulty organisms face in the fundamentally cut-throat Darwinian environment of earth; at no point is resting on one’s laurels an option. Innovation, improvement and evolution is demanded of everything constantly just to stay in the positions they currently occupy, let alone to gain an advantage over their peers. Applying Darwinism to non-biological situations and areas is by no means a new concept, and so it’s worth noting the existence of The Red Queen problem in our own industries, particularly the world of packaging – the environment is so constantly in flux that we too need to do all the innovating we can just to keep in the same place.

But how does this apply specifically to packaging, and more importantly; your business? What are the primary variables to consider in your sprint? Well, the first thing to identify when creating anything fit for any sort of purpose, is the environment that underpins the entire structure – this is a truth applicable universally in the realm of creativity and innovation, from app design to architecture to packaging; a building in the UK cannot simply be carbon-copied into Japan for example, because the environment of Japan experiences daily earthquakes and yearly typhoons. So, what is the full description of the environment your package and product must survive in?

Money isn't a case of greed; it's the blood that keeps innovation's heart beating.

There’s firstly going to be the raw financial environment of course; the perfect solution that costs so much you lose or make no money is no solution at all, unless your goal is to make your accountant pull their hair out. Now, if a situation arises in which, for example, the government offers tax relief for one thing and extra taxes for another to artificially move the flow of innovation in a specific direction, when adaptation to the changed environment is paramount either to gain the benefits offered fast, or avoid the impending downsides and as a bonus curry the early favour of the public whose very outcries likely instigated the change.

A (quite literal) desire path made manifest in the world

Next is of course arguably the most difficult environment for any innovator; the human environment, not merely to suit our ergonomic and physical needs (which thankfully do not change that often), but most frustratingly to suit our social, cultural and generally subjective but the nevertheless real and ever-changing needs, but it’s not all chaos. There are some things that are reliable constants in the human environment: People demand convenience; if you can take even one inch off the general meander of any ‘desire path’ people travel on, bringing it closer to a straight line between ‘person’ and ‘desire’ the positive returns roll in multiplicatively greater than the initial investment. Whether you consider the case of the famously addictive Amazon ‘1-click buy’ button’s highly positive impact on their sales, to a pack of meat that can actually have the lid peeled off by hand rather than simply having the appearance of being able to do that, but functionally needing to pierce it with a kitchen knife, to something as utterly basic as primitive man latching a stick to a rock to make swinging said rock at targets easier, and suddenly the practice of swinging rocks around with their bare-hands evaporates overnight.

Two extremes of the unboxing-experience.

Then there’s going to be the logistical environment; how it’s transported, on what and by whom – a package that goes from factory to truck, and truck to store warehouse, warehouse to shelf is naturally not quite under the same stress and environmental pressure as the package that goes from factory to truck, truck to warehouse, warehouse to stressed out delivery guy, delivery guy to your front door whilst you’re at work and your dog is snarling at him through the letterbox. And whilst it might seem tempting to rest on benefits and convenience the current innovation of online shopping have brought to commerce, that landscape is so vast that those who will rule in the future will be the ones who can secure repeat business through building customer love and loyalty, and one sure-fire way to get that is to make sure your customers are feeling good straight-away, packaging in hand, before they even touch the product within. The other, naturally, is making sure that package gets there unharmed and ready to impress.

Almost done now, the environment that is so often forgotten; the environment, as in the actual planet we live on and is, at least until Elon Musk overthrows mars, the only place we have to stay. And although it seems such a mighty thing that its relationship with us is simply a one way exertion of pressure on what we must do and be, we know all too well now the destabilizing effect we can have on it and its future and by direct feedback; us. Just as a solution that goes overbudget is no solution at all, packaging that ultimately breaks the whole system to a potentially fatal degree is nothing more than a pistol pointed directly at the foot.

A thing is more than what it is right now; it's what it was and what it will be too!

And finally, the most confusing and treacherous environment of all, and is truly the environment that all other environments sit atop… Time. Science describes time as the 4th dimension, and that really is true. Consider the natural topic of discussion; a packaging box, the perfect example of a 3D object. But add a dimension and ask where and what will it be in 5 minutes? How about 5 days? 5years? How about where it was it 5 months ago? What needs to take place to make sure that packaging in its full 4D shape takes the form of something useful rather than damaging? That’s the extra dimension that needs to be dealt with here; the dimension wherein consequences and catastrophe lie in patient wait for anyone with their eyes closed, the dimension where businesses like Blockbuster, Yahoo & Woolworth’s meet their end. Now, we’re not saying we at iDi Pac can see the future, but what we can do is afford your business a level of agility that can help react to the many trials and changes heading in your direction, and gaining that huge advantage is as easy as making a zero-obligation enquiry today.