How to pack a lobster

I’ll have to admit I thought long and hard about using this particular title. I don’t want to offend PETA and have them on my case for mistreatment of shellfish. However, after reading about the “lobster incident” this week, it seemed to me that there definitely IS a misunderstanding about lobster handling. Has anyone seen the deadliest catch on the Discovery Channel? Talk about some powerful and scary images of snow crab harvesting. After seeing it, I have to ask…snow crab anyone?

I know people never think about how IT gets there. How does the lobster get into the tank in the first place? They have to be transported by some kind of packaging. It’s easy to research “lobster wrappers” and from what I’ve read, it seems pretty humane. Though for now lobster is in the news and it’s all about how they are poorly handled and packaged.

There are many “hidden” packaged things (the transport of blood, for example) that the average consumer knows nothing about. Yes, blood is shipped by truck like any other packaged product. That particular pack has evolved over the years, but it’s still a bloody pack.

In my sales days, I worked packaging cow salt licks. Seriously, it was a big deal. Cows seem to lose weight when moved. If they take all their medicine in the field at a salt lick, it keeps them healthy. And a healthy cow is worth a lot of money. The secret is in the way the salt stone is packaged. I’m talking about industrial espionage stuff here. This actually happened with one of my clients.

The point of all this is that you never know what might cause the media to go into a frenzy about your product or its packaging. Suddenly packaging can become a big problem. Take for example fast food restaurants and how they have had to clarify what their ingredients are on the packaging. Just this week, Starbucks has been added to the “hits” list.

Whether it’s the amount of fat on your packaging or you’re just not telling people what they think the “real story” is, expect to be scrutinized. Even organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) are getting on the scene. The AMA is pushing for warning labels on foods that are high in salt and, in the next 10 years, reduce those salt levels by 50%.

Other recent examples of packaging “hot” buttons that the media love include:

o “Consumer Reports” Oyster Awards for Hardest Packages to Open;

or Wolfgang Puck exploding self-heating latte cans;

o Wal-Mart and its “green” packaging efforts;

o 100 calorie snacks, or so they say.

So no matter how you package your lobster, it’s important to understand the potential ramifications of your product’s packaging. Don’t just put your “lobster” in the box and hope that consumers and other stakeholders won’t criticize it. Remember that it is no longer just a package.

Feel free to use me as a resource when it comes to understanding which packaging markets are hot and which are not. Or which companies are developing the latest in innovative packaging technology.