Packaging used to be the thing you threw away. Now brands are trying to make it the thing you keep. Forbes picked up this shift this week in beverage, where cans, bottles, and labels are being designed as collectibles, not just containers. Limited-edition packaging is being used to create scarcity, social currency, and fandom — effectively turning the beverage aisle into a merch table. The useful insight isn't just that limited-edition packaging works. Brands have known that forever. The more interesting point is that packaging is starting to behave like merch, media, and memorabilia at the same time. A single can can be a product, a billboard, a social post, and a keepsake. That gives brands a way to create urgency and emotional value without changing anything about what's inside.

The Forbes piece captures a broader shift in packaging strategy: brands are moving from "stand out on shelf" to "earn a place in culture." In a crowded beverage aisle where flavor, function, and claims often blur together, packaging that feels collectible creates a second layer of value. Not just what's inside, but what the object represents. Done well, collectible packaging gives people a reason to buy now, buy again, post about it, and feel like they're participating in something limited. Done poorly, it's just another seasonal label with a louder color palette.

For brands, the lesson isn't "make a limited-edition label." That's easy. The lesson is that packaging can carry a second job beyond protection and persuasion. It can become a memory, a badge, a souvenir, a status object, or proof that someone was part of a moment. The trick is making the collectible feel earned. A can tied to a real cultural moment — a sports tie-in, a local artist collaboration, a place-based story, a seasonal ritual with actual meaning — feels like a keepsake. A random seasonal color swap feels like procurement had extra budget. The brands getting this right are building that reason in from the start, not bolting it on at the design brief stage.

Source: Forbes

L.E.K. Consulting's annual packaging study dropped last week, and the headline number is hard to ignore: 99% of brand managers surveyed plan to make changes to their packaging in the next three years. The survey covered 450 U.S. brand managers, and the near-unanimous result points to something much broader than a sample artifact — across categories and company sizes, virtually every brand is committing to packaging change at a moment when that change costs more, takes longer, and carries more compliance exposure than it did five years ago. Something is clearly moving the industry.

Two forces are driving most of it. Sustainability leads at 48% of decision-making weight, followed closely by aesthetics at 41%. That combination is more interesting than either number alone. This isn't a compliance-only story. Brands are rethinking packaging because they want to look better and because their customers expect them to do better, and those motivations are now reinforcing each other. When sustainability and design pull in the same direction, packaging investment is a lot easier to justify internally.

On the supply side, 91% of brands are moving toward multiple suppliers per format — a direct response to the aluminum capacity crunch, tariff volatility, and freight instability that has dominated the past year and a half. The instinct is right. Execution is harder than it sounds: every additional supplier adds complexity to your spec management, quality control, and compliance data collection. The brands that navigate this well will treat supplier diversification as a structured program rather than a reaction to the next shortage.

The AI finding rounds it out: adoption in packaging decision-making is rising fast, with brand managers citing it across design iteration, cost modeling, and EPR compliance tracking. The practical implication for smaller brands without dedicated packaging teams is worth noting. AI tools are narrowing the gap between companies that have packaging functions and those that don't. If you're not using any AI in your packaging workflow yet, the case for starting is getting stronger every quarter. The L.E.K. data makes clear that your competitors are.

Source: L.E.K. Consulting / PR Newswire

California's Office of Administrative Law approved and filed CalRecycle's final SB 54 packaging EPR regulations on May 1, making them immediately effective. The same day, the Circular Action Alliance published its first set of "Illustrative Fees" — the first concrete look at what EPR cost obligations will mean per material type and recyclability level. This is the moment the clock officially started. Brands that sell covered packaging in California must register with CalRecycle or join a Producer Responsibility Organization (the CAA is the main PRO) and submit their 2025 packaging supply data by June 1, 2026. That's 21 days from today. First SB 54 fees are due July 1, 2027, and the 2025 baseline data feeds directly into how those fees are calculated.

If you sell packaged goods in California and haven't registered with CAA yet, do it this week — not next week. The June 1 deadline applies to 2025 supply data, which means you need to know how many units of each packaging type you placed into the California market last year, broken down by material. If you're a small brand without a compliance team, CAA has self-reporting tools and a portal; if you have a broker or distributor, confirm now whether they're tracking this on your behalf or whether you are on your own. Use the CAA's Illustrative Fee calculator to model your 2027 fee exposure — this is useful for budget planning even if the amounts shift. The one thing you cannot afford to do is nothing.

Source: Packaging Dive / Ropes & Gray

Maine was the first U.S. state to pass extended producer responsibility for packaging, back in 2021. Five years later, it is also the most behind on implementation. As of this month, Maine DEP still hasn't issued an RFP to select a stewardship organization — meaning brands that are technically obligated to register and report packaging data this spring have nowhere to officially do it. The program is still on track to be "fully operational" in 2027, and DEP has been explicit: the financial obligations to producers remain intact. Once a stewardship organization is selected, back-data will be owed.

Maine's delays create compliance fog, not compliance relief. If you sell into Maine, start collecting your 2025 packaging supply data now — the same data you need for California. When Maine's stewardship organization (SO) is contracted, brands will likely have a compressed window to register and report, and the brands who've already done the data work will be in a far better position. The practical action: add Maine to your EPR tracking alongside California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington. It's easier to track seven states in parallel than to reconstruct historical data under deadline pressure.

Source: Packaging Dive

Jo Cutri Studio designed Sundae's body mist collection around one obsessive constraint: every SKU must double as a sculptural object you'd leave on your bathroom shelf even after it's empty. The result is a rounded, jellybean-form bottle paired with a candy-coded pastel color system, contrasting pump nozzles, and tonal monochromatic label finishes — so each product reads as part of a coherent family and as a standalone display piece simultaneously. The Dieline editorial team called it "one of the most covetable and instantly recognizable objects in the beauty aisle." That's not a quote you manufacture with a design brief. You earn it by deciding, early, that the bottle shape is the brand — not the label.

Packaging form as brand equity is underused because structural design costs more upfront and takes longer to get right. Sundae's jellybean bottle demonstrates what happens when you make that investment before you need it — the form creates instant recognizability across a full SKU range without requiring the label to carry all the shelf work. For brands in beauty, wellness, or personal care: your bottle shape is a brand asset, not a commodity decision. If you've never asked your designer to develop a proprietary silhouette instead of choosing from a supplier catalog, start that conversation.

Source: The Dieline