Digitally Printed Packaging: Opportunity for Commercial Printers?

Karstedt also points out that packaging printing can add value in several ways, including product protection, track and trace, brand protection, marketing and brand building (see chart to the upper right).

A Value Proposition Disconnect

While the potential is understood by more forward-thinking brands and converters, Hanley of IT Strategies notes that variable data—the real value and real future of digital—has not taken hold yet. So far, the demand for variable data has largely been confined to label and niche opportunities. All too often, the value proposition is not well understood: digital people don't know about packaging and packaging people don't know about digital.