Mondodelvino boosts shelf appeal and sales with digitally printed creative and seasonal packaging When Mondodelvino began exploring digital printing as a more convenient and cost-effective solution for corrugated packaging short runs, it got a lot more than it bargained for. The Italian wine group discovered that in addition to improving logistical flexibility, digital printing could transform its packaging into a powerful point of sale tool with strong ROI, in turn strengthening its relationship with retailers. Industry sectors: Food and beverage Brand name: Mondodelvino SpA Testimonial from: Enrico Gobino, Marketing Director, Mondodelvino Corrugated converter: Ondulati Ghelfi HP equipment: HP PageWide T1100S Press Websites: mondodelvino.com/en ghelfiondulati.com
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Mondodelvino boosts shelf appeal and sales with digitally printed creative and seasonal packaging When Mondodelvino began exploring digital printing as a more convenient and cost-effective solution for corrugated packaging short runs, it got a lot more than it bargained for. The Italian wine group discovered that in addition to improving logistical flexibility, digital printing could transform its packaging into a powerful point of sale tool with strong ROI, in turn strengthening its relationship with retailers.
“Our first goal was more cost-effective shorter runs for lower-quantity products. We started with the higher-brand value products and saw the quality was very high, so the ideas started running in our heads: Could we regularly use the carton for marketing? Will the variable printing benefit our brands?” – Enrico Gobino, Marketing Director, Mondodelvino
Many SKUs, limited marketing optionsItalian wine group Mondodelvino produces a wide variety of wines under different brand names. Its wines are packaged in bottles of different sizes, sold singly and in multi-bottle boxes, and in special wine bags inside boxes and tubes.
With so many SKUs each requiring unique packaging, digital printing looked like a good way to save costs on the short runs needed for the more niche products. So, when packaging converter Ghelfi Ondulati presented its newly expanded HP digital printing capabilities, Mododelvino was ready to give it a try.
Mododelvino soon discovered there was a lot more to digital than lower costs on short runs. After trying digitally printed cartons for its higher-end products and seeing the high-quality results, it began to think about using its packaging for point-of-sale marketing and leveraging variable printing as part of its ongoing marketing strategy.
With that, Mododelvino saw that digital printing could also help overcome some major marketing limitations it faced. “In the wine business, due to regulations barring advertising, the only real way of marketing is the bottle itself,” explains Enrico Gobino, Marketing Director. “The label and carton are crucial in markets where the possibilities for advertising and communication are limited.” Additionally, the industry business model itself limits Mondodelvino’s advertising and consumer marketing options. “Communication to retailers and to the consumer market is done by importers, not centrally by us here in Italy. Packaging introduces a new variable, another tool for us to use.”
Solution
“Ghelfi wanted to include our marketing team in the discussion, to show us what the digital solution could do, and our procurement team also wanted us to see the possibilities. That’s not a standard approach; it’s not so usual for us marketing people to talk directly to the printers.” – Enrico Gobino, Marketing Director, Mondodelvino
A new view of packaging – for Mondodelvino and its customers Typically, Modedelvino’s purchasing team works with print suppliers to select packaging options. But, when Ghelfi presented its new digital printing capabilities, the discussion quickly expanded beyond price. So, early on, the marketing team also got involved in understanding the possibilities that come with digital printing.
Noting the novelty of this approach, Gobino notes that it enabled them to have the sales team talk to a few customers and gauge interest before they made any decisions. “The customers all got quite excited, because it was presented as an opportunity to improve the imagery in their shops, to give them added value without adding extra work for them,” recalls Gobino. “That enabled us to say ‘Okay, there are customers who are interested, let’s give it a try’.” From there, getting other stakeholders in the company onboard proceeded smoothly.
Mondodelvino had many ideas for how to increase the marketing value of its packaging. “The possibilities are infinite, but you can’t do it all, so we understood we needed to narrow down the possibilities.” The company decided on seasonally dedicated packaging and creative ongoing campaigns for its first steps. It hopes to also try personalized packaging for certain retailers once it has the logistics to support it.
For Christmas 2017, Mondodelvino created holiday-themed bottle labels for one of its brands, with different greetings on different bottles, geo-localized for Finland, Norway and Sweden. It has launched an ongoing multi-carton campaign; and, a Summer 2018 campaign is now underway in Northern Europe.
Results
“Typically, our promotions were centered on price reduction; but now, with the use of the cartons, we can launch campaigns, increasing value while at the same time keeping market share.” – Enrico Gobino, Marketing Director, Mondodelvino
Higher sales, redistributed marketing funds After less than a year of using digital printing for selected wine labels and cartons, the benefits are already clear – in higher sales and a new model for working with retailers.
The Christmas 2017 campaign generated a measurable uptick in sales: December sales of one of the wines were 18% higher than the same month the previous year.
The ongoing special edition campaign, launched in May 2018, has also raised sales. For this campaign, Mondelvino offers retailers a set of six cases, each containing six bottles of wine. Each of the corrugated cartons is printed with a portion of an image that when placed together create a single, eye-catching image. The multi-carton set is offered for seven SKUs, each with its own image, and is available to retailers in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK. “Because retailers want to create the full image, they are buying more cases, typically double; so we get a higher purchase per store,” says Gobino.
Customer acceptance of the new packaging, whether the seasonal promotion or the ongoing multi-case offering, has been so strong that Mondodelvino has been able to offset the additional costs of digital printing with reductions in the marketing budgets it traditionally provides to retailers. “We have presented to them that they can save money on advertising, pallet displays, and point of sale because the packages are doing the work, and in a very targeted way, and that has been well accepted by our customers,” says Gobino.
