new packages bring excitement and interest to various beverage categories.more than half of respondents to a recent packaging digest poll say they expect their beverage portfolio will increase in 2015&mdashand that this growth will come mostly through the development of new packaging formats andor sizes. thus the rise and subsequent fall of stockkeeping units continues, as businesses grow and then later optimizestandardize their packaging choices.the online poll was conducted by packaging digest in cooperation with the institute of packaging professionals iopp as part of its march 2015 spotlight on beverage packaging.among the interesting revelations are&bull nearly a quarter of respondents 23.4 don&rsquot know if their beverage portfolio will increase, decrease or stay the same see chart 1 below. with the poll taking place in march, well into the new year, this could mean that either the company hadn&rsquot decided what its growth strategy would be or it hadn&rsquot shared this information with its packaging department. neither situation bodes well for a synergistic strategy.&bull developing new products or line extensions, or buying other beverage brands, is taking a back seat to developing new packages in 2015 see chart 2 below. with many consumer packaged goods cpg companies fighting to improve margins and clamoring about an imperative for innovation, the pressure on designers to create packages that will provide the sales lift needed must be great. so far, many beverage packaging professionals have met the challenge with some spectacular results, as reported earlier this year in &ldquo10 beverage packaging breakthroughs that get touchyfeely with consumers.&rdquo&bull when asked what is driving the decision to develop new packaging, expanding a product&39s usage occasions ranks high with our respondents, just after the top choice of growing profits or margins see chart 3 below. fitting the package format to the retail outlet has been a tactic all along singleserve packs for convenience stores and bulk packs for club stores, for example. but redesigning packaging to either reflect how drinks are being consumed differently these days or to give consumers new ideas in how to consume them&mdashand to consume them more often&mdashcould give beverage companies the competitive edge they need. early poll results showed expanding a product&39s usage occasions in the lead, so clearly this is important.in the poll, we also asked &ldquowhat is the biggest challenge facing packaging departments at beverage companies today and why&rdquo answers ranged quite a bit, but most can be categorized by cost, competitive strategy, technical prowess, sustainability and consumer expectations.highlights of verbatim answers show where many thoughts lie&mdashwith consumers&ldquobe different at low cost.&rdquo&ldquothe evergrowing need to be environmentally friendly while maintaining the premium feel and functionality expected by consumers.&rdquo&ldquopackaging of product with userfriendly packaging design with good aesthetic look.&rdquo&ldquochoose packaging materials free of chemicals of concern and widely accepted by endusers.&rdquo&ldquocost and margins vs. consumer benefits.&rdquoseveral other comments show how creative packaging professionals can be or want to be&ldquocoming up with the next innovation to get the wow factor.&rdquo&ldquoincreased array of processing techniques for which package performance must be confirmed.&rdquo&ldquomost packaging is in bottling plant. why we don&39t think out of the box&rdquochart 1chart 2  chart 3
