Mood Etcetera

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Mood Etcetera

Mood Etcetera: Bridging Education, greening Innovation in Packaging & Print.

About Mood Etcetera

Mood Etcetera is an initiative designed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and innovation within the Packaging & Print industry. Rooted in the Latin term "Etcetera," meaning "and the other things" or "and the rest," Mood Etcetera aims to encompass a wide range of ideas and insights to drive the industry forward.

Mission and Focus

Mood Etcetera is dedicated to:

  • Education: Enhancing industry knowledge through collaborative learning and information sharing.
  • Innovation: Promoting cutting-edge solutions and advancements.
  • Transfer of Information: Ensuring vital information is accessible across the industry.

Key Activities

Think Tanks

The core of Mood Etcetera's activities revolves around its think tanks:

  • Composition: Bringing together sector executives and academia.
  • Purpose: Identifying and discussing long-term trends and strategic challenges.
  • Global Perspective: Organizing members by country to leverage localized experiences for global problem-solving.

Information Sharing

To support and disseminate the think tanks' findings and industry insights, Mood Etcetera utilizes:

  • Social Media Groups: Engaging with the community on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
  • Blogs and Interviews: Providing in-depth articles and expert opinions.
  • Podcasts and Instagram: Offering multimedia content to reach a wider audience.

Virtual Forum

Mood Etcetera plans to host a virtual forum aimed at:

  • Participants: HR executives and academia.
  • Objective: Discussing trends in employment needs and the evolution of academic curricula.
  • Goal: Ensuring that educational institutions are preparing candidates with the skills needed by the industry.

Get Involved

If you are interested in learning more about Mood Etcetera or wish to participate in the think tank, please reach out to Emma Doo at [email protected]. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to shaping the future of the Packaging & Print industry through collaborative innovation and knowledge sharing.

THE PODCAST

GCC - Printing and Packaging in the Circular Economy?

A tool-kit for planning in a complex and uncertain future

The Circular Economy is a tsunami impacting the packaging industry. Arguably all companies need to follow three guiding axioms; eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials and regenerate nature. However, just in case the world at large and business in particular feel less pressured to follow the axioms, three ‘motivational’ forces are becoming more prevalent; a plethora of laws and regulations, new generation thinking and concerns over ‘greenwashing’.
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GCC - Printing and Packaging in the Circular Economy?

A tool-kit for planning in a complex and uncertain future

The Circular Economy is a tsunami impacting the packaging industry. Arguably all companies need to follow three guiding axioms; eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials and regenerate nature. However, just in case the world at large and business in particular feel less pressured to follow the axioms, three ‘motivational’ forces are becoming more prevalent; a plethora of laws and regulations, new generation thinking and concerns over ‘greenwashing’. Indeed, new, stricter sustainability regulations are emerging on multiple fronts and with increasing frequency. The youth of today play an important role in securing an eco-friendly future, matching increased spending power with more environmentally friendly consumer patterns. Additionally, the shift to circularity will involve digital technologies where youth participation is already significant. Circular activities can generate entry-level jobs with lower skill requirements, essential for youth, especially in vulnerable communities. Investors, both individual and professional, have become concerned as ‘greenwashing’ has created a perception that companies are ‘lying’ with even good, strong brands coming under increased scrutiny.

Planning offers the chance to ‘face the future’ with varying horizons in terms of time-scale. Certainly one year would be normal with budgeting and forecasting. Longer-term strategies may be based on 3 to 5 years or even 10 years.

This Think Piece examines the challenges facing the GCC P&P sector how companies respond to a rapidly growing market, while facing the dilemmas of strategy choice, positioning, and financing.

While this approach is developed to align with developments in the GCC, to include Islamic Finance and the policies and regulations covering the circular economy, the same holds true for other regions and countries. As such the tool-kit remains relevant to other Mood Group clients.

In developing the tool-kit, some tried an trusted modules are used although some require to be adapted given trends around the achievement of the circular economy. Michael Porters Five Forces are used (Investopedia). The essence of strategy formulation is coping with competition.  Rather than viewing competition narrowly as rivalry among existing competitors, his first force, Porter expanded the concept to include four others: the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitute products or services. That said, the concept needs to be expanded to include a new Forces, e.g., investors, technological advancements and strategic partnerships and collaboration. In pulling the information together in a workable way, scenarios aid the discussion. They can be used to shape vision, discuss and avoid barriers and to help with communication to various stakeholders. The use of a wild-card based on Murphy’s law is recommended to examine the potential of disruptive innovation.

The purpose of this Think Piece is therefore to get people thinking - to review, agree, disagree, extend, argue …- and if required, amend plans and tactics within the P&P sector and academia.

The Tool-kit

  • The current situation shaping P&P companies’ strategies
  • Porter's Five Forces include: Competitive Rivalry, Supplier Power, Buyer Power, Threat of Substitution, and Threat of New Entry.
  • Additional forces: Power of law and regulation, Power of investors and increasing activism, Power of strategic partnerships and cooperation, and Power of new disruptive technologies.
  • Financing the future.
  • Complications.
  • Scenarios.
  • Questions for the GCC P&P sector.

 This Tool Kit’s purpose is to stimulate discussion at Board level within a P&P organisation or in a think tank discussion, involving several organisations. Indeed, it could be suited to a team formed at GGC, country or Emirate level.

Send Full Tool-Kit

Thank you for your interest in Mood Group and our planning toolkit – please enter your details and the toolkit will be emailed to you.

Net Zero and the Circular Economy - Brand and reputation impact

A tool-kit for a brand audit

Businesses appreciate the advantages of a circular economy to reform the outdated thinking and acting in a ‘make-use-dispose’ mentality. Firms changing their business models to circularity are considered to undergo a form of repositioning towards sustainability. However, it has been shown that using sustainability in communication can also raise the impression of greenwashing.
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A tool-kit for a brand audit

Businesses appreciate the advantages of a circular economy to reform the outdated thinking and acting in a ‘make-use-dispose’ mentality. Firms changing their business models to circularity are considered to undergo a form of repositioning towards sustainability. However, it has been shown that using sustainability in communication can also raise the impression of greenwashing.

Every company, whether product- or service-based, wants to be recognised as ‘A Brand’. It wants to have a distinctive brand identity. The expression of a brand, including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance, is brand identity. Because the identity is assembled by the brand owner, it reflects how the owner wants stakeholders to perceive the brand – and by extension the branded company, organization, product and/or service. The problem with this is that is what the owner wants - the perception may be very different.

Brand experience is how ‘perceptions’ work in practice; it is mainly driven by the customer but other stakeholders have an increasing say.

A company's reputation is a public perception of the company and how it operates; public perception involves a wide variety of components and stakeholders. This perception includes public opinions on the company's products or services or how the company treats its employees.

The Printing and Packaging sector operates within a supply chain. A supply chain is the linear interactions between all of the individuals, companies, materials, actions and technology involved in the design, development, manufacture, sale of a product and related services post-sale. A supply chain encompasses everything from the delivery of source materials from the supplier to the manufacturer through to its eventual delivery to the end user. The supply chain segment involved with getting the finished product from the manufacturer to the consumer is known as the distribution channel. Supply chains can be relatively simple or extremely complex. The question is how will the P&P sector operate in a regulated Circular Economy and how is that different? Will the brand and reputation of a company be impacted given the plethora of laws and regulations being implemented to secure Net Zero and the Circular Economy? Given the significance of the changes many P&P companies may decide to re-brand.

The Tool-kit

  • What is positive brand experience?
  • What is a negative brand experience?
  • Building a Brand - the main stakeholders?
  • A supply chain.
  • What is the difference between a supply chain and a circular economy?
  • What are the new laws and regulations?
  • Creating a Brand Promise and Theme.
  • Will re-branding dominate the P&P sector?
  • Creating a Spoof Circular Economy brand? (This is a hypothetical brand scenario; its sole purpose is to stimulate discussion)
  • Questions for the P&P sector.

 

Send Full Tool-Kit

Thank you for your interest in Mood Group and our Brand Audit toolkit – please enter your details and the toolkit will be emailed to you.
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