As the need for contract packaging services increases among brand owners, Packaging Services Expo offers an exhibition and conference that includes a contract packaging track. The show will be May 10-12, 2005, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. The event is hosted by the Tarsus Group.

Microwave packaging is surging beyond the frozen dinner, due to the confluence of changing American lifestyles and advancing packaging technology. In frozen foods, sales of products in microwave packaging will grow 4.4% annually to 2008, forecasts Packaging Strategies Inc.

Opportunities: Look beyond frozen dinners and consider “walk-around” foods and desktop “dining” for hand-held foods, potpies, breakfast foods, pasta, soup, and chili. Consumers want smaller servings and true value-added packaging features.

Want to improve your brand’s appeal to the fast-growing Hispanic market? Strive for simplicity and clarity, and consider injecting warm colors such as red-orange into your package design.

So says Marivi Chong, a bilingual communications expert and one of the leading package designers for the U.S. Hispanic market, at R. Bird & Co., New York. Hispanic by birth and heritage, Chong also says that brand managers should offer both smaller-size and “family-size” containers; the latter appeal to Latinos and Hispanics who prepare large family meals.

Chong points to MiCasa as a product whose packaging holds strong appeal for Hispanics. MiCasa, a private-label brand distributed by Foodhold USA, Landover, MD, was launched in 2003 in 80 of the 350 Stop & Shop grocery stores in the Northeast.

Marketers, brand managers, and package designers who want to learn more about driving brand performance by creating a powerful synergy between marketing strategy and package design are invited to the 9th annual Brand Identity & Package Design conference.

The conference will be April 18-20, 2005, at The Plaza, New York City. It is hosted by the Institute for International Research and supported by Shelf Impact!

During three years of research, General Electric found that it pays to understand how consumers shop your brand and your product category. These insights helped GE develop a new packaging and branding program that takes the guesswork out of selecting its bulbs. The redesigned packaging:

• Eliminates consumer confusion at the point-of-sale by displaying lighting products according to how consumers understand them rather than by technology.

• Identifies a clear best-application message for each style of bulb, avoiding “tekkie” explanations while making correct product selection easier.

GE now has opportunities to “upsell” consumers toward its higher-quality bulbs and increase sales, says Robert Stuart, General Manager of Consumer Lighting.

The new packaging holds the consumer’s hand in many ways. It leverages color and a “quality of light” scale using boxes to distinguish between products across GE’s range of bulbs. Each sub-brand name carries a number, such as “Edison 50,” to indicate the wattage. The bulb shape and a line drawing of its corresponding lighting fixture help anchor the front panel.

The right package structure can help build incremental sales opportunities for a product when brand managers know how consumers use their product and they leverage that knowledge in creating new “touchpoints” with consumers.

WP Beverage Partners LLC does just that in introducing packaging that extends convenience in delivering coffee through additional usage occasions. A hot cup of coffee for the busy consumer has been available only near a point of delivery such as a C-store. What about occasions when the consumer might be stuck in expressway traffic or is sitting in a classroom? They might purchase beverages in packaging that provides “portability on demand” when they want to consume the product.

WP Beverage Partners extends convenience to this consumer segment with a self-heating container for its Wolfgang Puck brand. The coffee, packaged in a container from OnTech Delaware Inc., appears in Kroger stores nationally.

The high-barrier, shelf-stable container holds 10 oz of coffee. Through a natural reaction between calcium oxide and water inside the container, the product heats to 145 degrees Fahrenheit in 6 to 8 minutes.

In a glamour aisle like cosmetics, brand managers especially want packages that distinguish their brands. But the budget is important, too. One answer to both challenges is a trend toward materials that offer the upscale look of glass, without the cost.

Two recent cosmetics packages show how this trend is playing out. Both Merle Norman and G. Candiani are introducing cosmetics brands whose packaging includes components using Eastman Chemical Co.’s Glass Polymer, a thick-walled resin that resembles glass without sacrificing clarity and chemical resistance. The resin allows designers wider latitude in the look of a package. For brand managers, the resin provides a favorable economic alternative to glass.

On jars of Merle Norman’s Luxiva Wrinkle Smoother night cream, the Glass Polymer delivers a distinctive shape for a 2.2-oz jar. The company believes the resin delivers the high-end aesthetic qualities of glass.

“Merle Norman chose the Glass Polymer because it gave us the design freedom we never had before, and inspired us to create a unique, eye-catching design,” says Rick DeLao, Vice President at Los Angeles-based Merle Norman.

Flexible packaging continues to increase as a material of choice for marketers, who see it as a desirable option for improving consumer convenience and safety in food packaging, and for designing more novel packages across categories.

These are two findings of interest to marketers in the Flexible Packaging Association’s (FPA) 2004 State of the Industry Report. The association says it expects flexible packaging shipments will increase 4.7% to $21.4 billion for 2004.

Sherwin-Williams Co. revolutionized packaging in a category with its user-friendly Dutch Boy “Twist & Pour” plastic, hand-held paint container. But after enjoying an initial surge in sales vs. traditional metalpaint containers, “comp” sales improved only slightly.

Stuart Bedford, Director New Business Development, says this scenario taught Sherwin-Williams a lesson: Product and packaging changes are short-lived; consumers adjust quickly and their expectations are altered.

In the face of competitive “me too” paint containers, Sherwin-Williams continued to move forward with Twist & Pour “sized to the project” packages. These extend Dutch Boy Twist & Pour into quart-size and 2 1/2-gallon containers.

Point-of-purchase displays for premium brands require a different thought process than creating displays for “everyday” products. Foremost, make the product the hero, explains Mark Polson, Executive Director, GlobalMerchandising Development for Estèe Lauder.

Links: Libby Perszyk Kathman
Schawk
Fort Dearborn
Silgan Closures

Red Gold’s Tuttorosso brand of canned tomatoes enjoys a loyal following among older cooks who prepare authentic Italian pasta sauce from scratch. To extend the brand to younger consumers who don’t cook, Red Gold, Elwood, IN, leveraged old-world Italian visual cues in a new label introducing a new product, Tuttorosso Original Italian Recipe Pasta Sauce. Rich colors and the right graphics signal “authentic Italian” to consumers who have a discerning palate and want a ready-made pasta sauce.

Link: DuPont Packaging Solutions
Labeling Systems Inc.

Single-serve, portable packaging expands in produce with DuPont Packaging Solutions’ own brand, Sweet ‘N Easy grape tomatoes, in a single-serve, thermoformed polyester container. DuPont wants to leverage the brand to improve packaging through “intellectual property sharing” for broader impact. On-the-go portability comes through a snap-fit top, hinged for easy reclosure. The container fits in a cup-holder, and the film labels are applied by a machine from Labeling Systems Inc.

With a retail price of $1.99 to $3.99, the package is in multiple test markets.

Links: Kapak
Spray Bottles

Spouted flexible pouches have added another dimension to consumer convenience. Hunter’s Specialties, Cedar Rapids, IA, marries a pouch with a trigger sprayer for its Wild Gamekeeper brand. The pouch, from Kapak, transports and displays dry granular product. Consumers can fill it with water in the field, creating a mixture that sprays onto just-harvested game, helping to prevent bacterial growth. The custom trigger sprayer, from Spray Bottles Inc., evacuates virtually all product from the bottom-gusset pouch.

Here are five principles to help ensure that quantitative research studies accurately gauge the impact of new packaging–and properly guide business decisions.

Principle #1: Avoid side-by-side “beauty contests.” The most important principle of effective packaging research is monadic study design. Each person sees and reacts to one system. Findings are compared across “cells” (those who saw current packaging vs. proposed packaging). This approach best simulates the introduction of packaging and accurately measures how a design change will impact attitudes and behavior.

Principle #2: Gauge visibility on the shelf. Shoppers never see at least one-third of the brands displayed in the store. PRS research also shows that being seen quickly correlates highly with purchase intent. Document what happens as shoppers encounter your packaging on the self. Let this knowledge guide major package design decisions.

Shelf Impact! discussed the effectiveness of cause-related marketing through packaging in our January issue. For some consumers, their passion is “environment-friendly” packaging. Biota Brands of America Inc., Telluride, CO, is rolling out its Biota brand of bottled water in bottles molded of NatureWorks™ polylactic acid.

Derived from corn, the bottles will disintegrate in 80 days after use, Biota says. Biota receives PLA preforms injection-molded by its sister company, Plant Friendly Products.

The bottles’ pressure-sensitive labels, flexo-printed in at least eight colors, are also compostable.

Links: NatureWorks
Planet Friendly Products

Baking mixes are intensifying the impact of photography and graphics on packaging in attempts to capture busy consumers’ “share of stomach.” General Mills, in introducing the first new packaging for its Bisquick brand in 10 years, joins this focus on “appetite appeal.”

Mouthwatering photography sets the tone for the brand’s collection of new, versatile dinner recipes. The new, whimsical logo points to a scrumptious photo of the cooked dinner corresponding to the recipe inside the carton. These package elements deliver the message that the brand is more contemporary with current lifestyles.

Links: Rexam Beverage Can Americas

How can a marketer add 4 oz of product to a package at no extra cost to the consumer? In bottled water, hiOsilver, Palo Alto, CA, does it by switching from a 12-oz glass bottle to a 16-oz aluminum can from Rexam BCA. The can provides the improved barrier that the product needs to maximize oxygen concentration, and it can be filled at three times the speed of glass bottles. Faster filling speeds help control the cost per unit.

A hologram on its shippers helps the Honolulu Fish Co. answer two challenges in marketing fresh fish. The first is to establish a brand identity, and the second is to keep fish as fresh as possible while it is air-freighted from Hawaii to the mainland.

Increasingly, consumer product companies understand packaging’s power as the “silent salesman.” They’re diverting dollars into packaging that were formerly earmarked for other promotions.

Consider these seven keys for leveraging packaging as a marketing tool.

1. Bring packaging into the process earlier to deliver real value. The manner in which a package’s structure lets consumers fit a product into their lives is critical to a product’s use and success.

2. Make packaging a growth platform for marketing and organizational success. Investing in having your product and package better integrated into consumers’ lives will enhance performance, usage, and consumer loyalty.

3. View packaging as a brand lever and brand ambassador. How can the package fit into consumers’ lifestyles so they leave the product on their desks at work, or in the kitchen, or carry it with them? This is a valuable endorsement.

Can you increase your brand’s “touchpoints” while also decreasing the “touches”? Leading integrated marketing communications thinking says you’d better, if you want to survive in today’s cluttered yet constantly evolving store environment.

Touchpoints has become a baseline term over the past several years in marketing and packaging circles. On the one hand, touchpoints refers to each occasion when you can convey a message about your brand to consumers.

The term also addresses the package itself and the physical contact consumers have with it. It ranks high in the hierarchy of package design, as designers are delving into areas beyond the obvious visual connection between consumer and package and examining how consumers relate both functionally and emotionally to packaging.

“Dead on” packaging innovation can change how consumers use a product. That can put a new spin on a product category, building equity for a brand as an innovative leader.

This tactic not only boosts market share, it presents opportunities to build incremental sales by creating usage occasions–and retailer benefits–for a product that previously may not have been possible.

Two recent packages demonstrate how technical innovation helps satisfy unmet consumer needs or enhance consumer perceptions of a product.