If your product is small in size, Arlene Peltola, Innovations Marketing Manager at Hershey Foods, suggests that you look at pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, “because they are great for small-item presentation.”

Speaking at the recent Package Design 2005 conference, Peltola said that’s just what Hershey did in creating a package for Liquid Ice, in order to leverage a unique product form—liquid crystals—through packaging.

• Hershey developed a full holographic blister card that leverages the brand equity of its Ice Breakers parent brand and that signals the product benefit.

• The package works through the constraints of limited space by letting consumers see the product through the triangular dispenser package.

Q. Why do focus groups fail to predict market winners consistently?

A. Jack Gordon, CEO of AcuPOLL Research Inc., says focus groups are misused when put in this situation. They were never meant to be predictive of marketplace success. This is not only true when dealing with new products, but also in evaluating packaging. The use of focus groups for this purpose has come about because most quantitative research is expensive and slow in comparison.