The Package Deal : In the brave new world of marketing, milk comes in pouches, labels have thermometers and products will talk.

The schlep to the supermarket is often considered just another ho-hum errand: 30 rushed minutes spent cruising the aisles, comparing costs and tossing the goods into the cart before finding the shortest checkout line.

But some describe this trip another way, calling it a visually intense sojourn in which the average shopper sees more than 30,000 items and must decide, over and over: to buy or not to buy?

The response often springs not from need, budget or hunger pangs, but a split-second reaction to the product’s packaging--the window dressing manufacturers and marketers aim to make both functional and irresistible.

Packaging has been a part of modern life for years, but never has it been so important or sophisticated. “The package has to sell the product,” says David Luttenberger, editor of Packaging Technology & Engineering, a Philadelphia-based trade publication.

“A lot fewer products are getting bigger launches, so packaging and coupon promotion are getting to be more important,” adds Thomas Hine, design columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of “The Total Package: The Evolution and Secret Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, Tubes, and Other Persuasive Containers” (Little, Brown and Company, 1995).

Not that the average shopper has paused much between produce and frozen foods to ponder all this. “Packages understand people much better than people understand packages,” Hine contends in the foreword to his book, which traces the development of modern packaging.

Here, some input to close the information gap:

Packages change frequently, but often so slightly consumers might not notice. “Most of the time the reason you change a package is to attract new buyers, while not having regular buyers notice you have changed the package,” Hine says. “The result is, it gets quite subtle.”

For example, Campbell’s soup recently changed its packaging, Hine says, putting a picture of a bowl of soup on the can but maintaining the red label with which customers have long associated the product.

Some manufacturers, when changing a package, try to include reassurance that it’s just the window dressing that’s different. The new Minute Maid orange juice container, for instance, says, “New Look--Same Great Minute Maid.”

Other labels carry a hint of what consumers can expect. Barq’s root beer label suggests longevity represents quality: “Famous Old Tyme Root Beer/Since 1898/It’s Good.”

Other products seem to follow predictable changes in packaging, Hine says. Household cleansers often start out using very bold graphics and bright colors. “What happens is, as they become more accepted, the packages become softer, the graphics more subdued,” Hine says, “because they are no longer trying to prove something.”

In past years, characters were popular on packages--such as the Campbell soup kids and the Pillsbury Dough Boy. “Now,” says Hine, “the characters have mostly dropped out.” Some play a smaller role, literally, and are moved to a less prominent place on the package.

Packaging changes can be driven by many other forces besides the quest for sales. The nutrition information now seen on products is the result of the Food and Drug Administration’s recent labeling regulation. Consumer opinion, the state of the economy and the packaging industry also affect packaging.

Recyclable packages are considered important by consumers. In a survey, 85% of 700 respondents called recycling extremely or somewhat important, says Mary Ann Falkman, executive editor of Packaging Digest, citing a 1994 poll published in Packaging, a trade publication that merged last year with Packaging Digest. And, 75% of respondents say they recycle, says Falkman.

Trends in packaging also follow trends in the economy, says Bob Heitzman, editor in chief of Packaging Digest. “Different features will ebb and flow,” he says. “Right now, people are putting an emphasis on convenience.”

“People are committed to getting value as well as quality,” he says. “When they buy the larger size they may not use all of the product at once.”

“Source reduction”--the use of lighter materials and more efficient packaging--is a big buzzword now, experts say, and is industry-driven. Pouches are a prime example of this, Heitzman says, with these containers now used to package laundry detergent, coffee, cat food and other items. Cheer and Tide detergents both offer a 9.5-pound refill pouch. Tide calls it the “Enviro-Pak.” Cheer notes that its refill uses 80% less packaging than traditional detergent cartons.

“A lot of pouch products are sold in Europe and Canada,” Heitzman says, and people there are more accepting of the packaging form. “Milk is big in pouches in Canada.”

But experts predict the pouch craze will catch on here as well. “While it offers less packaging, it is also less costly,” Heitzman says. People will accept an environmental-saving feature as a reason to buy a product, he adds, but not necessarily if it’s the sole reason. Saving money and the planet is often a winning combination.

Other examples of “source reduction,” says Luttenberger of Packaging Technology & Engineering, are lighter soda cans and thinner materials for folding cartons.

Also popular, Heitzman says, is “modified atmosphere packaging”--the introduction of inert gases into such products as prepared salads, other produce items and meats to extend the shelf life by a few days and reduce the need for preservatives.

Co-branding is another technique gaining favor, Heitzman says. A cookie company might decide to use a well-known candy bar in its cookies and advertise that fact on the package, attracting regular customers of the candy bar.

Private label packaging has changed too, Heitzman says. Manufacturers of private label products used to pride themselves on simple, no-frills labels. When buying these low-cost house brands, customers might see a plain white label with black stenciling. Manufacturers were into simplicity.

“They tried to give the impression they were saving on the packaging,” Heitzman says. But the difference between plain labels and four-color labels is low. These days, private label packaging tends to look classier, Heitzman notes. “Private label industries have improvement in their quality and their packaging reflects that.”

So what’ll be the next big thing in packaging?

Smart packages.

“You’ll be seeing interactive packages,” says Luttenberger, who predicts many products will soon talk to us. (If consumers think it’s tough to make it through the market with a hungry, impressionable child now, just wait until Michael Jordan’s voice is telling youngsters how Wheaties can turn them into athletes.)

Already, some corrugated boxes used to ship frozen food products have temperature indicators that activate if the optimal storage temperature declines before the food arrives at the grocery.

Last year, Pillsbury introduced Hungry Jack Microwave Ready Syrup in a compact shape that fits inside most microwave ovens and includes a heat-sensitive indicator label that reads “HOT” when the syrup is thoroughly heated. It’s not yet sold in California, says a Pillsbury representative.

Interactive dairy packaging could also become common, says Luttenberger, perhaps including an indicator that alerts the consumer when the milk has gone sour.

Soon, consumers might not have to squint to read the fat grams on products, relying instead on an interactive chip that, when pressed, would assure them: “This product is low fat because you are trying to lose weight.”

We hope this package would come equipped with volume control.

Landmarks Since the first Earth Day in 1970, environmental trends have made packaging news. Recently, editors from U. S. packaging trade publications told the Flexible Packaging Assn. what they consider the environmental landmarks in packaging. Among their votes:

In the Bag

The substitution of bags and pouches for bottles, boxes and cans. Coffee is now packaged in “brick packs” and some soup in pouches instead of cans.

Easy Does It

Convenience. Packages with “reclosability” keep a product fresh if the consumer doesn’t use it all at once.

Slimming Down

Reduction in the weight and volume of packaging materials. Plastic grocery sacks are 70% thinner and plastic soda bottles 25% lighter than two decades ago.

A Fresh Idea

The development of new protective properties in packaging materials, allowing food that used to go bad quickly to stay fresher longer.