Now package providers can sharpen market penetration with integrated global services from new Berndt+Drucker alliance  

CHICAGO – The Drucker Group, a Chicago, Illinois investigative marketing, strategic consulting and Voice of Customer research firm, has formed a joint alliance with Berlin, Germany based Berndt+Partner Communicationsto deliver strategic marketing, brand development and communications services for packaging providers worldwide. Both firms will be represented at PACK Expo in Las Vegas, Sept. 28-30, and at FachPack 2015 in Nuremberg, Germany, Sept. 29-Oct. 1. 

The Drucker Group’s B2B and Consumer product experience includes an extensive track record in the packaging industry. Companies they have represented include INX International Ink Co, MonoSol LLC, Silgan Containers, Amcor PET Packaging and Huhtamaki, as well as food marketers and packaging material providers.

Berndt+Partner Communications’ division has worked exclusively on B2B businesses in the packaging industry, including Constantia Flexibles, Huhtamaki, Lenze, Windmoller & Holscher, folian, Aptar, prepac group and DuPont.

“Increasingly, we see packaging firms thinking on a global scale, including mid-size firms looking to expand internationally,” asserts Scott Drucker, Managing Partner, The Drucker Group. “The U.S.? Europe? Asia? Continents and countries, per se, don’t necessarily exist; marketing teams are truly international, and the lines have become blurred.” 

As packaging providers cover more countries, all too often ‘the wheels can fall off’ in several ways, according to Drucker: 

“So-called ‘global’ sales methods and messaging fail to resonate in ‘foreign’ markets – and/or regional, locally targeted efforts fail to capitalize on and advance international positions and competitive sales goals. That’s why global marketers need partners; specifically, partners with the integrated expertise in the packaging sector that the Drucker-Berndt joint alliance can provide.” 

Matthias Giebel, CEO for Berndt+Partner Communications, concurs. “Packaging companies must address multi-level value chains and cope with extremely heterogeneous consumers. These structures have led to new managerial and organizational requirements.  And concepts that have been successful up until now must be checked and adapted if necessary. 

“Thus, there’s real value for package marketers in having a coordinated team around the world – especially industry specialists who see eye-to-eye on strategic communications. Our combined packaging experience runs deep. The Drucker Group and Berndt+Partner Communications individually have worked with some of the same clients, and collaboration on programs confirms how smoothly our joint alliance can work.” 

Retaining a cohesive global thrust with area-specific customer understanding 

“Unlike transoceanic agency networks where a client is simply ‘handed off’ from Europe to a U.S. agency or vice versa, we can bring to bear a coordinated team,” Drucker explains. “This enables us to deliver locally adept market tactics and messaging, while also maintaining critical global continuity and building upon worldwide initiatives to more effectively achieve the packaging marketer’s sales goals.” 

The key to global success, Drucker contends, is understanding the buyer. “Exactly,” Giebel observes. “Companies may be multinational, but buyers are not a homogeneous entity. When you cross oceans or national borders, the marketing strategy may be the same, but targeted companies may be set up differently, and employ different buying processes. Seemingly minor nuances can make or break your marketing campaign.” 

Drucker expands on the point: “You have to understand local buyer dynamics, company structures, the purchasing process, pricing strategies and more, as well as buyer hot buttons (and turnoffs) when it comes to communication tactics and messaging.”

He notes that “all of these are areas where our Voice of Customer (VOC) research can prove invaluable, to clarify and amplify opportunities. Even accepted ‘truths’ shouldn’t be automatically accepted at face value. With relative speed, ease and little expense, our VOC investigations almost inevitably uncover pitfalls worth avoiding as well as new options worth pursuing. Someone once said, ‘Even when you know, you never know’; it pays to ‘peek under the tent’ first.”

The Drucker-Berndt joint alliance puts a wealth of capabilities in the hands of European marketers entering the U.S. or elsewhere in the Americas, and vice versa. In addition to strategic consultation, they can create and execute a full range of communication, including local market-specific publicity, trade show, sales support and related PR services – all focused on the needs of packaging providers. 

“Global firms require global answers,” said Drucker. “This alliance puts in-place ways for our coordinated, integrated capabilities to provide them.” 

For further details, e-mail or call Scott Drucker: 312.867.4960; [email protected].