Hannah Boulton
781 929 4759
hrwboulton@msn.com
mailing address:
56 Depot Street
#1061
Duxbury MA 02331
The mission of OPENEZ is to promote safe and easy-open packaging across all retail lines, in order to prevent injuries in the rapidly growing Senior population.
The goals of OPENEZ are:
1) To increase the dialogue between seniors and packaging engineers/designers, manufacturers, and retail stores.
2) To increase the awareness of manufacturers through the number of returns of difficult and dangerous packaging to retail stores, pharmacies, and online purchases for refunds.
3) To share data from the National Safe Packaging for Seniors Survey with packaging engineers/designers, manufacturers, and retail stores to support discontinuing unsafe packaging.
4) To create and distribute market communications to promote products which are Senior-safe and and easy to open.
5) To increase the percentage of seniors testing new products, and expand the the age from 65-99.
6) To educate senior consumers and the packaging industry.
“By designing something for a minority the outcome is invariably better for the majority.” Credit Andrew Barraclough, Packaging Digest/ Nov 12, 2020
THE CHALLENGE
Nature makes easy-open packages.
Why can’t we?
Modern packaging is designed to resist pilferage and tampering, and those are important goals. But it still shouldn’t take a super-human grip or the frenzied use of sharp tools to get at the product inside the packaging…and the effort shouldn’t end up in a visit to the ER. The simple truth is that too much of today’s packaging is anything but consumer friendly…and for many older consumers, it can actually be dangerous.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. Innovative, cost-effective design solutions now make it possible for you to offer many more products in safe, secure, easy-to-open packaging.
At OPENEZ, we can help companies take advantage of those solutions, where and how they’re most appropriate for your business. Nature figured this out a long time ago. Isn’t it time we did the same?
Better Packaging, Safer Seniors
If you’ve ever found yourself struggling furiously with plastic packaging that seems designed specifically to drive you insane…you know the meaning of “wrap rage.” And the fact is, many of the products carried in stores evoke exactly this same response from consumers.
But what if companies could offer those same products to your customers in safe, secure…but easy to open…packages? What if you could reduce wrap rage, and in the process increase your competitive advantage?
What if you could turn store brand packaging into senior- friendly packaging?
If you’re interested, we should talk about changes. Many seniors would pay MORE for accessible packages across retail lines.
Forces driving the efforts to improve packaging include pressure from customers and retailers and from senior citizens who find it increasingly difficult to open packaging
SENIORS SAY...
“We won’t buy it if we can’t easily open it.”
“We won’t buy it if we can’t easily open it.”
The senior population is the fastest-growing demographic in the United States. THEY are your current and future customers.
The headline above is from a letter written by a 61-year-old veteran and published a few years ago in Packaging Digest. The writer, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, describes the frustration she and other seniors feel when struggling with hard-to-open packaging.
The author also notes that hard-to-open packaging is a problem for “everyone who needs to get something open,” but it’s clear that such packaging has a particularly negative effect on older customers. And with seniors representing some 16% of the US population, a figure that is increasing rapidly, it’s also clear that they are a significant part of all customer brands.
At OPENEZ, we believe the strategic implication is clear. If companies want to move toward easy-to-open packaging…and fully realize the benefits of that decision… they should start by consulting with older customers.
FOR RETAILERS
What’s on YOUR shelves?
What products are declining in sales? Do you know why?
What are your competitors doing with their packaging?
What products in your store are hard to open?
Do you want to be ahead of the curve with safe, accessible products?
What items produce the most wrap rage from consumers of ALL ages?
What products do you make or sell which are hard to open?
How many of those are your own store brands vs national brands?
What could be switched to easy-open packaging?
Which products are being returned the most?
Which products offer the biggest bang for your buck, in terms of packaging costs vs customer satisfaction?
OUR SERVICES
At OPENEZ, we can help. We offer various services to retailers, companies, the packaging industry, and Senior Groups.
These include:
• Providing senior focus groups
• Sharing information from Senior Surveys about your products.
• Testing products
Surveying inventories for difficult to open packages.
• Promoting easy-open, legible containers.
• Surveying retail stores for difficult packages.
• Providing alternate packaging solutions and companies who provide them.
• Speaking to senior groups and packaging companies.
Easy-open packaging: we make it easy and enjoyable.