Sustainable packaging design for consumer electronics products: Balancing marketing, logistics and environmental requirements

Packaging design for consumer electronic products is a challenge because contradictory demands from a distribution perspective and a marketing perspective have to be balanced. With several company departments involved and powerful external stakeholders this is a complicated matter. As the level of sophistication of data concerning a packagings marketing performance is limited, decisions are often strongly based on beliefs. This is reflected in inconsistencies in packaging that is currently in the market. This paper will show these inconsistencies, discuss their cause, and propose a tool for assisting product managers in finding optimal packaging solutions. From a sustainability point of view the volume of packaging is very relevant due to its influence on transport efficiency. Therefore balancing distribution and marketing functions in a better way may yield considerable improvements in the environmental performance of the packaging.Industrial Design Engineerin