Design, creative packaging and graphics professionals, as well as a sociologist and an expert in market research and forecasting, gathered within the Luxe Pack Trends Observer [1], have identified this year four major trends for luxury packaging: The Hyper Material, Pink Lights Up, My Little Show Off, Back to Front.

The Hyper Material

In our hyper-visual technological environment, tactility becomes luxury and pleasure. In the same time, technological advances enable industrials to give materials the appearance of something else: cardboard, thanks to complex printing, lacquering and embossing, transforms into wood, metal or leather. “Metal is transformed into leather or fabric, while glass and plastic are covered with ever more surprising tactile effects,” highlights Lan Vu, founder of Beautystreams.

With increasingly demanding consumers, that have gained more expertise, who want to be surprised and need to dream, who spend a lot of time in front of screens and digitize their lives, industrial tools have become more efficient to address new sensory needs.

Pink Lights Up

Emblematic of a society that is not completely certain to have exited from the recession, but which is fed up with the gloom, pink - the colour of happiness - is treated on the mood of depth, sophistication, seduction and sensuality. "We’re no longer in a girly regression," notes Rémy Oudghiri, director of the corporate strategy and trends & future studies departments of Ipsos Public Affairs. According to Oudghiri, "the desire for pink is very strong today in mature countries.” Especially since, as highlights Jean-Paul Cournillou, director of the packaging and retail department at the Strate Collège, “pink can oppose to other senses, as in the case of the grenade Viktor & Rolf.”

My Little Show Off

While the bling did not survive the recession, the normality supposed to succeed it might be too boring. Actually, overt bling is rather being succeeded by controlled bling for those who want to give up overly eye-catching and fun, but rather do it more discreetly. “A new style of luxury is taking hold, less oriented towards the desire of admiration from others and more towards the search for experiential and aesthetic pleasures,” says Isabelle Musnik, content and editorial manager at INfluencia.

Contrary to what we might think, this trend is not limited to mature markets but begins to spread to emerging ones. Thus, Rémy Oudghiri observes that in Russia and China "the move towards greater measure of discretion, distinction” is growing.

Back to Front

« The sacred has become no secret, » laughs Béatrice Mariotti, vice chairwoman, Carré Noir. Like Replica, the three fragrances from Maison Martin Margiela, that show their ingredients on their front label and use it as the base of their decoration, brands are trying to define their expertise by displaying it. Here again we find the expert consumers, who are, according to Rémy Oudghiri, "increasingly fond of details and product culture.”

Consumers that are not only looking for a status, but for expertise, knowledge, and experiences too.