Do-It-Yourself retailers are “hot,” and they should be on the radar screen for your brand. But it’s not enough just to win a spot on the store shelf. If your packaging doesn’t work in this retail environment, consumers can leave the store feeling annoyed and without having bought anything, or with having purchased the wrong product.

Jackie DeLise is Director, Business Development at Liljeqvist & Wargo, Westport, CT. She says the following steps should be prominent in any packaging effort designed for D-I-Y retailers.

The next iteration of the much-maligned PET-bodied, double-seamed aluminum topped can has entered commercial production. What differentiates this version from its straight-walled PET/aluminum combo predecessors is its high “Wow!” design quotient—shape, structure, and tactility.

Previous versions of this multi-material structure have included the PETainer introduced in the early 1980s by former plastics packaging giant Owens-Illinois, a look-alike two-piece structure from the Water Investment Network, and Elisha Mineral Water’s container introduced a year ago with an aluminum end and decorated with a full-body PET shrink sleeve.

In February 2005, Najaro Group decided a 12.3-oz version with a full-body shrink label was a novel idea for its FlavH20 water. This version has been creating a stir. Notably, the container is 500 ml, not the standard 350 ml.

Diageo plc’s Baileys Irish Cream has been the most successful spirits entry in 30 years. The brand has enjoyed double-digit growth in the United States over the past three years.

Yet, Diageo decided Baileys’ fifth packaging change was much needed. A number of newer competing products are in packaging that mimics Baileys packaging. Bailey’s had become another “me too” product in the category.

Internal and consumer testing on three continents revealed “significant” design-related issues. Foremost, the brand was perceived as old-fashioned.

Q: How can design analysis be less subjective and more efficient while ensuring that the most effective strategies are identified, explored, selected, and implemented?

A: Translate your brand’s core attributes into colors, shapes, textures, graphics, and typestyles that best evoke your brand’s emotional connection with your consumer.

First, develop a “visual brand essence.” Determine what unique experience your brand can own, and then look for brands that own a similar experience in a related category. Which design elements can you leverage to make them distinct to your brand?

Second, define category cues and core mnemonics. Define visual cues that your category uses to train consumers toward defining product forms or benefits. Adapt these cues to work uniquely for your brand (“fast relief” in OTC).

In last month’s Shelf Impact!, Martin Bunce of Tin Horse, a United Kingdom design firm, said a sameness approach to package development is leading to a lot of bland packaging. So what’s going wrong? Bunce says the innovation focus has to shift.

He recommends connecting with values that drive consumers’ thought processes. His operative words are “feel,” “think,” and “do,” and the two accompanying charts describe two ways of approaching the relationship between the three of them.

Aroma can be an intoxicating purchase motivator. Just ask NutriSystem Inc. It markets Aquascents refillable plastic water bottles with closures that release desirable aromas.

Jay Satz, NutriSystem Vice President of Product Development, says consumers willingly pay $15 for the refillable, 32-oz bottle that comes with three flavored caps and one unflavored cap, from ScentSational Technologies. “We encourage all of our customers to drink at least 10 glasses of water a day, which can get boring,” Statz says. “We thought this would be an easy way for them to consume water and enjoy different flavors.”

The caps on Aquascents bottles release both a scent of the marketer’s choosing as well as flavor into the water in the bottle.

Your brand risks failure in many product categories if you continue to think in exclusionary terms such as “male” or “female.” That’s because women are making more of the purchase decisions in many categories long thought of as male-oriented.

Marketers and designers often rely on conventional avenues in package creation. Try finding inspiration in unconventional places and translating it to actual applications, recommends Martin Bunce of Tin Horse, a United Kingdom design firm.

“See it, see its use, and apply it,” Bunce says. “If it’s a really sound idea, you can describe it on the back of an envelope. You don’t need computer technology to design it.”

Share your marketing insights with your peers. Contact Jim George, 630/897-7158 or george@packworld.com.

Hewlett-Packard is leading a trend of consumer products companies seeking to outsource package development and its sizeable and diverse supply chain to contract packagers so it can concentrate on what it does best—market technology-based products to businesses and consumers.

Key is developing a partnership with co-packers that optimize its packaging with the right materials, understand regional variations, and create “horizontal integration” through alliances.

“We don’t do design anymore. We manage design. We check design,” says John Hayward, an HP Packaging Manager.

The packaging industry is obsessed with determining what “Wal-Mart wants.” Your brand may find success by considering what this “10-ton gorilla” wants before packaging even reaches its loading docks.

John Henry has managed and studied packaging plant operations for 30 years, and offers this perspective: Think of Wal-Mart as a logistics company rather than a retailer.

“Wal-Mart is in the business of buying things for its customers. Other retailers are in the business of selling things to people,” Henry says.

Marketers should integrate the value chain to clarify packaging’s price-value relationship with the product and enhance security.

First in a series

Marketers looking to boost shelf impact should take a closer look at paperboard packaging. So says a two-year study of consumers and independent research conducted by consultancies Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions and NewProductWorks for the Paperboard Packaging Alliance, a joint relationship between the Paperboard Packaging Council and the American Forest & Paper Association.

Brand identity consultants often position a single product or new product line. When the product is new, brand identity and image must be created from scratch. Often, these both must be re-created when the product is already in the marketplace.

A host of research is required prior to establishing a brand’s identity, and its ensuing package design. Category audits must be done to assess the competition at retail. The brand assets of the new product must be uncovered and its brand drivers identified. Consumer research into brand experiences that impact consumer perception and decision-making require analysis. Package design must honestly and directly communicate brand values, and connect with consumers.

Consider these two steps to help you succeed:

• Quantitative and qualitative research are crucial to creating and maintaining consistent category leaders. Formulate a pre-design process to lay the foundation for all brand identity and package design.

A growing volume of research validates two points that many marketers still need to grasp—at least in practice. In consumers’ view, the product and the package are the same. “Behind the scenes,” the best packages weigh the needs of the entire value chain.

Marketing’s mantra is that “I don’t care what the packaging material is as long as it works.” This statement expresses an end result, and experts who study value chain dynamics recommend that marketers rethink how they’re getting to what “works.” Too often, the packaging that arrives at stores either fails to signal the price-value relationship with the product or it proves inadequate somewhere in operations or distribution.

Brian Wagner at Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions says an underlying factor is that CPG companies apparently view product development as a linear process rather than an integrated process. Purchasing, operations, and vendors are consulted too late to provide solutions that can make a package work at every “touchpoint.”

David Kendall, Principal and Creative Director of Kendall Ross, a Seattle brand development and design firm, recently told students at the Metropolitan State College of Denver that graphic design is being reduced to a commodity. Shelf Impact! asked Kendall to elaborate on his perspective in the context of package development.

SI: Why do you say that designers need a reality check?

Kendall: We should be positioning design as a business tool and a business solution, and I don’t think schools teach it that way or designers grasp that until quite late in their careers. They just tend to wallow in the design base rather than offering solutions-based services. So there is a trend toward devaluation—trying to get it done cheaper.

As sports trading cards have become established as collectibles, card marketers like Topps have upped the ante significantly, both in the types of cards available and in their selling prices. The result is that card marketers and the retailers that sell them want more secure packaging that can’t be opened easily in a store.

Topps has converted some of its collector card lines to BlisterGuard® packaging from Colbert Packaging, printed in four-color process. The package uses bleached board from International Paper in a fold-over format that traps a plastic blister inside. The board is laminated with a high-density polyethylene film from Valeron Strength Films.

Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Portland, OR, reflects the richness of its 2004/2005 milk stout, SnowPlow, through primary and secondary packaging.

The custom bottle features a longer neck and a taller profile. The bottle label and six-pack paperboard carrier provide the seasonal spin that visually separates the brand from the brewer’s main core line.

Widmer’s beer brands all carry a “belt-and-buckle” design on bottle labels and carrier packs, and a rounded-edge-box logo featuring a prominent letter “W”. SnowPlow’s color scheme represents how Widmer retains central design components while differentiating subbrands through color.

Link: Owens-Illinois Inc.
Smurfit-Stone

In the process of refreshing the look for its Seagram’s Cooler Escapes fruit-flavored alcoholic beverages, United States Beverage LLC gains two benefits: new packaging that brings perceptions of a more contemporary brand, as well as operational efficiencies.

The brand’s new packaging shares production line and purchasing efficiencies with a sister brand, Seagram’s Smooth.

The beer-shaped bottle from Owens-Illinois introduces tropical label graphics, printed in six colors, which suggest a refreshing escape. The graphical theme repeats on four-pack carriers printed in gravure by Smurfit-Stone.

Links: IDI
Seaquist Closures

Consumers identified two frustrations with traditional, round mayonnaise jars. First, the glass can break. Second, the opening is too small.

Kraft Foods answers both concerns with a 32-oz blow-molded PET jar. Stemming from research conducted by IDI, Kraft selected an oval shape, which consumers prefer over a round jar. Seaquist Closures provides the snap-top closure. From a marketing perspective, the oval shape provides more front-panel “real estate” than a round jar for the wraparound paper label.

Other pluses: The new jar improves shelf density, reduces case size, and is stackable.

Easy-opening, storage convenience, and shelf distinction come to bacon packaging with a reclosable zipper and contoured bag for Farmer John Quick Serve, from Farmer John Meats/Clougherty Packing Co. Los Angeles.

An EZ Peel strip below the hermetic seal provides opening without a knife or scissors. The bag’s laminated structure includes a semi-rigid bottom web. Refrigerated product shelf life is 90 days. Curwood supplies the bag’s barrier film and Zip-Pak provides the reclosable zipper.

The contoured packages offer retailers merchandising flexibility as either stand-up bags or pegboard-hanging bags.

Links: Curwood Inc. │ Zip-Pak

Designer Denis Boudard created packaging for US Beauty Group Coty’s new Daring for Isabella Rossellini fragrance and beauty line using the same bottle shape as IsaBella, Coty’s previous fragrance. But attention to color and finishing—and a new brand name—make the Daring brand appealing to a different audience.

The design features a heavy glass bottle with a purple base and a contemporary-looking twist closure to create perceptions of originality and elegance. Those attributes, Boudard says, appeal to independent and audacious women.

The packaging is available in European markets.

Links: Tetra Pak

Valrhona, a French gourmet chocolate maker, wanted to enter the growing market for gourmet, ready-made dessert sauces in both retail and food service. Success required a ready-to-use package to protect the flavor and quality of its premium Sauce au Chocolat sauce. Valrhona chose Tetra Pak’s Tetra Wedge™ microwavable aseptic pouch.

The benefits of ready-to-serve and microwavable heating, along with the web-shaped pouch, present additional value to the brand’s customers. The pouch material includes polyethylene terephthalic silicon oxide.

The package is printed using flexography, in four colors plus black.