How to Fix Failing Tape: 3M's Julianne Strunk & Kelsey LaCoursiere

In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes back Julianne Strunk and introduces Kelsey LaCoursiere as they discuss 3M's latest packaging innovations and their upcoming PACK EXPO International booth in Chicago. Julianne shares a career update, including her recent move into a marketing management role overseeing all of 3M packaging in North America, as well as personal news that she's expecting her second child. Kelsey steps into the spotlight as the new owner of 3M's Matic case sealer and sustainable packaging portfolio. The conversation dives into why tape adhesion is becoming more challenging as recycled and alternative fiber content (like eucalyptus) increases in corrugate, along with emerging trends in carry handles, recycling stream considerations, and where 3M sees sustainable packaging headed over the next five to ten years.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Julianne's transition into a marketing management role and Kelsey's move into the 3M Matic and sustainable portfolio
• 3M's frontline marketing internship program and how interns are contributing fresh insight, including AI perspectives
• 3M's role as founding sponsor of the podcast and the value of reaching a sustainability-focused audience
• Why recycled corrugate and non-tree fibers like eucalyptus make it harder for tape to adhere, and how 3M's tape line is engineered to address this
• Growth trends in the carry handle market, including bundling, sustainability drivers, and new global use cases
• The growing importance of recycling streams and post-consumer considerations, including 3M's recyclable 570 paper tape
• Customer demand for custom-printed tape and the shift from water-activated tape to paper tape
• 3M's long-term focus on marrying sustainable consumable products with sustainable automation
• A preview of 3M's PACK EXPO 2026 booth in Chicago, centered on a new recycled corrugate "sealing made simple" campaign

Resources Mentioned:

• 3M Packaging
• 3M Box Sealing Equipment
• 3M Primary Packaging
• PACK EXPO International, Chicago, 2026

Contact:

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To find 3M at PACK EXPO International 2026 in Chicago, check the exhibitor directory and plan your visit here.

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Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors, presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. In today's episode, I connected with Julianne Strunk, the marketing manager from 3M, and Kelsey LeCoursiere, the portfolio marketer from 3M, about their new innovations and exciting upcoming PACK EXPO International booth. Really looking forward to that. I'd also like to thank 3M for being our founding sponsor. We couldn't do this show without them. So excited for a big episode today. Welcome Julianne and Kelsey. Hi, Cory. Glad to be here. Julianne, let's start with you. We congratulations on a year that's full of professional promotions and other big wins and personal promotions and personal wins. Can you give us the audience a little bit of a quick update on you if they if they haven't heard one of your previous episodes? Yeah, absolutely. So Julianne's drunk. I've been with 3M for just over seven years now and specifically in the packaging business for about four. so most of my career spend in packaging with the company, it's been an absolute blast. I started off as an activation marketer with packaging, went on to own my own portfolios, which included our sustainable packaging portfolio. And then more recently, just about a month or two ago, I transitioned into a marketing management role. So Now I am owning marketing for all of 3M packaging, which is really exciting. Uh, getting to kind of talk about how we're launching products into the US and Canada, so that North American space. and then yeah, on the personal side, Cory knows this, but we are expecting our second. So sadly, you will not see me at PACK EXPO this year, but for good reason. And no, we're very excited about it. So thankfully, with me moving on to my new job, Kelsey has stepped up to fill in the portfolio role uh for Matic and Sustainable. So exciting again. Congrats. Kelsey, how about you? A new face on the call today. So excited to have you on the team and tell us a little bit about you. Yes, thanks Cory. And I'm Kelsey LeCorsier. I have been with 3M just over nine years and I am currently a 3M product marketer for our packaging products. Been with the packaging group just over a year, mainly focused to start with our Scotch box ceiling tapes. And as Julianne mentioned, I will be moving over to our 3M Matic case dealer portfolio ownership as well as our sustainable products. So like I said, nine years at 3M started with our tapes and adhesive product division and actually was in a sales operations role for about five years before my packaging role. So yeah, it's been a great experience working with Three and now excited to work more focused on the case dealer side of our packaging business and looking forward to a pack expo coming up this year in the fall. Amazing. I was looking over both of your LinkedIn pages and noticed that you both had been at LinkedIn or at 3M for a long time and just kind of worked your way up the ladder. And I think I think that is very insightful. It shows that it's a great organization with lots of opportunity to grow in your career. And I think you both are um, you know, leaders in the space and it's exciting to work with you both. Thanks. Actually a fun fact, Kelsey and I both started at 3M as frontline marketing interns way back in the day. So we both came through the same internship program. 3M's always looking to cultivate new young talent. And uh we've been there ever since. So it's been really fun this summer having our own interns and being able to tell them, hey, we were there once. ha. I was going to say it's been very fur full circle. They just joined us two weeks ago and they're working on packaging product projects for the summer. So they'll be here with us till August. How fun. So tell us a little more about that. So you you're you're kind of nurturing the future of sustainable packaging, you know, literally. Like tell tell us a little bit about that program. How does it work? Yeah, so we have interns from all across the country, sometimes even all over the world, uh, in a variety of roles. Some of them are application engineering or research and our labs. Some of them are doing field sales or inside sales roles. And then for us, we got very lucky to get two marketing interns who can really help us as we launch new products and new campaigns this year, making sure that we've got the best content that we can to provide our distributors and to promote to end users. But it's been it's been really exciting because. They're joining us after their junior year, coming into senior year. Um, some of them know exactly what they want to do, some of them are still deciding. And and I think what I hear from them a lot is wow, 3M has so much opportunity because they could go to consumer business, they could go to aerospace, they could go to industrial. And it's funny, I don't think uh anyone graduates college and says, you know what I want to do? Packaging tape. But it's it's fun because they're learning so much in this new space. And it's just fun seeing those light bulb moments click of. Wow, like this is what 3M does in sustainable. Or I got a product yesterday that had custom printed tape on it. I wonder if that was 3M. So it's been fun kind of seeing those moments. Right. And I will say too, it's been really fun if people don't know 3M is over 100 years old. So I think it's always great to have new talent, new perspectives with a lot of our products that have been around, at least in the packaging business, over 50 or 60 years. So they're bringing in a new perspective, looking at things differently, bringing in, you know, an AI component. Definitely they're learning that a lot more in their studies at school right now. So again, like I said, it's only been two weeks, but they've learned a lot in those short short two weeks here. Absolutely. Well said, both of you, I think it's an amazing opportunity and a a great place to work. And I've enjoyed being uh partners with you for several years now. Let's talk about that a little bit, Julienne, as 3M is the premier sponsor of this podcast. Tell us how that experience has been. Uh I'm sure you've gained millions of dollars in new business because of that. Uh tell talk us through that. Yeah, no, it's been really fantastic being a founding sponsor here, Cory. I think especially as we continue to see 3M invest in sustainable packaging. And as we look at our new product development and we look at the campaigns that we're releasing, so many of them are focused around sustainable packaging, around recycled corrugate. And so I think that your podcast has just been a fantastic way in LinkedIn and newsletters. I I say that as if the podcast is the only thing. It's been a whole bunch. but it's just been a really fantastic way to reach end users in the space. Obviously, we do a lot of different marketing through 3M, whether it's, you know, paid media and search, organic social, things like that. But I think that reaching out to that specific audience who is very interested in sustainable packaging, in the trends, in new products, it's just been really fruitful. And it's been a good way to be able to connect with people who we might not have connected with before. I think probably the best example of that was for me PACK EXPO in 2024, which was way back when we started with you, I believe. but it was just really fun getting to kind of see, hey, How many people are coming to see Cory Connors at the booth and and what do they want to talk about? What do they want to learn about? So I'm excited, as sad as I am to not go to PACK EXPO this year. I think Kelsey and Dave, our other product manager, are just gonna get to meet so many end users through you and really get to talk about our new products and hear what the customers think and what they're wanting to see in the market, which is such a unique opportunity through this partnership. Thank you so much. It's an honor to work with you and your team at 3M. it's it's been a perfect fit and I'm excited to continue that as long as as possible. but you led us right into PACK EXPO. Kel Kelsey, let's talk about that. Unfortunately, Julianne won't be there for a very good reason. And congrats again. But Kelsey, let's talk about that booth. What are you expecting? Are you excited about it? Is it are are we gonna have uh what kinds of things should we expect at the 3M booth this year other than You and me. Right. Yeah. my gosh, it's going to come up so quick. We are so excited to be in Chicago this year at PECE. our booth will really center around our new recycled corrugate ceiling made simple campaign that we're launching here in the second half of 2026. So expect to see a lot of exciting new products focused around automation and meeting our customers' needs of highly recycled corrugate boxes. Those are being harder. And harder to stick to. so that's really our focus here at PacExpo in 2026. And you can expect to see me, my counterpart Dave Glover, another product manager with 3M, and our whole 3M packaging team uh being out there in Chicago for 2026. So lots of exciting uh products to share, but we're not exactly ready to share them yet here at the podcast. But we're exciting to share them here in it at PACK. Excellent. I can't wait. And I'm sure you'll have some equipment set up so we can watch this these products work and how they how they're made and how, you know, and we'll have all the team there. Maybe we'll do a meet and greet, maybe we'll have some kind of thing like that. That'll that'll be really fun for this audience, I think, to uh promote um the amazing advancements that 3M has made in sustainable packaging. you're certainly a leader in that space. so let's talk about tape a little bit here. 3M is a leader in packaging tape to be used on corrugated made with recycled content. We talked about that a little bit. The the more recycled content, the more difficult it is for the tape to adhere to the box. And this is something Julianne and I have have made videos about and talked about over and over again. But Julianne, can you talk about the use of eucalyptus wood and virgin fibers, leading to them acting more making it more difficult for tape to to stick to these boxes that everybody uses. So it's funny, we created this whole campaign around recycled corrugate and how it's different than a virgin corrugate box. So think about a brand new box, a brand new tree creates that box and it's got long, thick fibers that are super easy for any tape to stick to. But we've talked about in our and I price probably I think our last podcast, virgin versus recycled corrugate boxes. So with recycled corrugate, it's shorter, uh, maybe denser, different types of fibers. They're harder for the tape to stick to. There might be pieces of old tape or adhesive mixed in. And so we made this whole campaign around recycled corrugate, only to now hear, hey, all across the world, we're not only seeing recycled corrugate use, but other types of wood and fibers. And so actually talking with our team out of Brazil, they said that they have seen even up to a hundred percent use of eucalyptus in things like craft liners and things like boxes. And so we kind of talked to them and we said, okay, how does that behave differently than like a pine or or some other type of hardwood that you would typically use for a corrugate box? And they said, well, funny enough, alongside that campaign you just released, it actually works a lot like recycled corrugate. So these fibers like eucalyptus are short, they're dense. It's it's much harder for them to have a stick and for a regular tape to stick to them. So it's funny, I feel like we see these things happen around the world and then eventually they make it to the US. And we're starting to already see it in the US. So a lot of uh companies, even in their virgin boxes, are starting to mix in eucalyptus fibers. Um, if you think about a pine tree, when you plant it, it's going to take it years and years and years to grow to the point that you need for you to actually be able to harvest it and make a box. Eucalyptus has a much shorter growth cycle. So it's cheaper, it's faster, and it's easier for companies to use for those virgin boxes. So even in the US, we're seeing a mix of that eucalyptus fiber. And it's it's all about education for me. I think our customers, you walk in and you see one strip of tape on the top and two strips on the side and one more strip just for good measure. And I walk in and I'm like, my gosh, you're you're quadrupling your budget here because you're having to use all these tape strips. And they said, Well, we're buying the same boxes we always have been, but it's not sticking. And so now I'm I'm even shifting my sales mindset of, hey, it's not just recycled corrugate. It could even be virgin corrugate, but now it could have eucalyptus or another wood in it. So it's it's just interesting. Even when I I think I know the trend, there's something new to talk about. But it does put us in a good spot because our tapes already can adhere to those short fibers. But yeah, now it's less about is it just recycled or virgin and what's actually in that virgin box. Hmm. Incredible insights. I think that's very well said. And and a great point for the people listening. We need to be aware of not only recycle content, but new non-tree fibers that are taking over the market for good reason. They're they're they're readily available. Let's talk about some other trends. What other kinds of things are you are you seeing, Julianne? I know you mentioned uh carry handles before in a in a recent episode that we recorded. Anything else that you want to talk about? In that those trends. Absolutely. So we're seeing a lot of like bundling. I think that carry handles have become a lot more popular lately, not just for that kind of end-of-line use of, you know, a consumer slapping it on at a Target or a Walmart on a big thing of paper towels, but we're actually starting to see them a lot more for product bundling. So whether it's a wholesaler like a Costco or a Sam's Club, or whether it's even just a regular company who wants to bundle their products together, we're seeing a greater use of carry handles for that. And it's great because I mean they are a lot more sustainable compared to if you did a bunch of shrink wrap or if you did a huge plastic bag for something. So it's great to see that use. Um, I think what shocked me is I Googled, I said, you know, I'm curious, how much is the carry handle market growing? And the Kagger was anywhere from 3.5 to 6% all the way through 2031. So if you look at a market that today is maybe 200 million, in the next few years it could get up to three, four hundred million, the carry handle market. So I think we look at what's driving that growth. And one of the pieces is sustainability. Like I said, they want to get rid of the large plastic bag waste. They want to get rid of all the additional packaging waste. But then I think also consumer use. So if a consumer is buying, you know, a big four pack or six pack of bottles and they see all the plastic rings around it, you know, my mind immediately goes to turtles and, you know, no, it's terrible for them. And so we're starting to see companies who are bundling even just two bottles together with a carry handle. And so ways that they can do it just for less plastic waste, less plastic usage and ease of use for the consumer. So that one's been a really interesting one to see. Custom packaging and sustainable packaging are portfolios now that Kelsey will own. But carry handles kind of fall into both because of that. And we're seeing huge growth there. Mm-hmm. And yeah, even with the carry handles as well. I think we had an insight from one of our interns where we've seen carry handle bundling to, you know, carry big boxes of paper towels or toilet paper. But globally we're seeing even a new emergence of a carry handle just to hold one one drink, just something different than like a typical like cup sleeve, just holding a cup differently and then customers and companies are like, what's that? They're using a different packaging, sets us apart. so again, insights coming from our our new 3M interns that we're excited about and maybe something that we need to be looking at differently with our carry handle business. And I think that was something she said from abroad. She had studied abroad and seen that, which is funny. We talked about things happening across the globe and then eventually coming to the US. So our intern said, Hey, I was just abroad for a semester. I saw a carry handle being used on a drink across the world. This might be coming to the US. How do we prepare? So it is it is really cool hearing those insights. That is great to hear from from the younger generation and well from anyone really. But I think you're exactly right. We need to look at packaging from the from the view of the consumer. How are they interacting with products? And you know, if you're if you're going to uh you know, a a quick serve restaurant, I don't want to mention names because we don't have any sponsors there, but and you're trying to carry your drink and your your bag and everything and it's you'd only have two hands. So uh to make it as convenient as possible for them uh while still being as sustainable as possible is a big challenge. Uh and I think it's great to see 3M uh investing in that future, uh making it more sustainable for all of us. Well done. Well let's talk a little bit about uh recycling streams. Why are these recycling streams so important for all these products that you're creating? Absolutely. Um, carry handles is a really good example, actually. So I'll dive into that one first. But we've had some customers reach out to us and say, hey, we're thinking about what happens post-consumers. Or so think about you got something in the mail, you rip open the package, you just tossed it in the recycling. You're not thinking about Kelsey's dog. You're not thinking about what tape needs to be removed from it. You're not thinking about what print was on it. So oftentimes what we're actually seeing now is customers are asking us, what are your carry handles made of? What is your tape made of? And can it be recycled along with our product packaging? So for example, if your product packaging is polyethylene, they want to make sure, hey, is your carry handle made of a low density or a high density polyethylene? Is it going to have a certain percentage of adhesive in it? Is it going to have a certain percentage of dark ink colors that might not make it recyclable? And so it's been really interesting hearing that from consumers because they're starting to think not only how they can be more sustainable, but how to be more sustainable post-customer. So if your customer, you know, opens up their package and it was held together by a carry handle, are they ripping off the carry handle and throwing them away separately? Probably not. They're gonna throw away the whole bundle together. So it's been fun hearing from our customers who are actually thinking that far along in the recycling stream journey. Um, I think our paper tape is another great example. I have never once thought until I entered packaging to remove my tape from boxes before recycling. I just fold them up, I throw them in the trash. And now that we have our 570 paper tape, we know it can be recycled with the corrugate. So now a consumer doesn't even have to think about that. And for those who weren't thinking about it, we at least know as a company that it's going to get recycled and it doesn't have to go through that extra skimming process. So we're finding that recycling streams. are not only important to the consumer now, but even important to brands and companies who want to make sure that their consumers have ease of use when it comes to recycling and that they are using the best of their products to then make more. Yeah, exactly. Well said. And and considering that we need more post consumer recycled material for the next time we use this and and thinking fully circular, I think what you're doing is contributing to that in a very good way. Nice work. Kelsey, any thoughts there? Think Julianne covered it perfectly. You guys make a good team. I love it. what are some of your customers asking you for as far as innovative new products? Can either of you speak to some of the the future things coming out that are 3M innovations? Or are we too early? Maybe going off of the paper tape that Julianne was referencing. So our performance paper tape by 70, we're getting a lot of feedback. Customers want their brand, their logo printed on a tape like that. So we're we're looking at to or we're looking into our options there of what we can offer our customers and scale in that space. we have a lot of custom print customers today with our poly tapes. so that is something that we're looking at and thinking about here in the future, in the near future. Yeah, or even the people who are doing uh custom printed watt tape and they want to move to 570. So it's, hey, how are they applying the watt? Is it through a hand dispenser? Probably not. It's probably through a machine with the water and all the different pieces. So do they want a one-to-one conversion? Do they want a tabletop dispenser? Do they want to move to hand dispensers? So kind of understanding from the consumer side, even kind of how we help them to transition from one sustainable option to another while maintaining that process that they have in place. Yeah, it seems to be a trend for sure. The the move away from water activated tape. I think there there's um there's something to talk about there. and the move away from uh some some polytapes and into paper tapes that that 3M has really led the way. Uh so keep keep doing that. That's great. Um they they both have their their places and they both serve the the different needs of the consumer and the customer. Um but we like to see all these innovations for packaging. can you give us a glimpse into the future of three what do you see five, ten years down the road? What are you what are you thinking long term? Absolutely. Our company continues to innovate in sustainable packaging, both on the automation side and actually sustainable products. So we're continuing to hear feedback from our customers. We need the sustainable product, but we need to scale. So I think that's where we have the perfect solution with our 3M Matic case sealers, along with our tape offering and our paper tape offering that we've been referencing, which is fully recyclable with the box. Um so continuing to hear those customer needs and and meeting those customer needs uh for automation and scaling that automation with a sustainable focus as well. Yeah, and I think that's a piece we've missed in the past, because right now we've been talking a lot about the consumables, you know, the 570 paper tape, the PACR mailers, our uh, you know, plus series tape that adheres to 100% recycled corrugate They're all more of that consumable. And I think that as we see sustainability also in automation, you know, how can we save money, save time, be more efficient, have less rework, less wasted tape, less wasted boxes? I think that automation has kind of been missed. And so I'm really excited because I think a glimpse into the future of 3M, even at PACK EXPO as soon as that, you'll get to see some some new things in automation from us that are surrounding sustainability and then figuring out how to help our customers be more sustainable even when they want to go into a more automated route in their packaging. So I think that that's gonna be a lot of our future too, is figuring out how we marry up sustainable consumable products with sustainable automation and really finding that kind of Perfect marriage between efficiency as well as products that are gonna do less damage to the world and and really be able to be recycled and reused. I think you're exactly right. We we need to look at efficiency. We need to look at um how how can we save the consumer or the customer money and make them more efficient while still being more sustainable? It's not easy to do, but I think uh what you're doing is is working, it's very effective and obviously uh your growth in sales is showing that. So well done. Keep it up. Anything else either of you'd like to mention before we call the show here? I just have to say a huge shout out to our RD team and our application engineering team. I am so impressed day in and day out with what these people come up with. I mean, you bring them one insight from the field, and the next thing you know, they're developing a whole new product around it. They are already hearing about, you know, the eucalyptus changes and informing me about things that I didn't know. They're already starting to test for, you know, the next phase of sustainable products. And so I think as a marketer, it makes your job pretty darn easy when you have a good team behind you making good products. So Just a huge shout out to that side of 3M. We have such innovative people on our on our team and in the background. And I think that while we get to be the face of it, they are the ones who are actually developing these products. So just a huge shout out to them. Any final thoughts? Yes, and shout out to our customers too. They keep us on our toes. So they are bringing the feedback to us every day of of what they need and giving us those those inspirations and new ideas to continue to innovate new products. So I would say the customers are keeping us on our toes, that's for sure. Absolutely. Kelsey. Thank you, Julianne. Appreciate you both. Keep up the amazing work. You will. Thanks, Cory. Yeah, thanks, Lori.