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In an article in CMO magazine, Taddy Hall, Chief Strategy Officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, explains that creating a great and sustainable brand (and supporting it through packaging) requires that brand managers determine how consumers use brands in their lives. Hall offers nine ideas for creating a great brand.
1. Don't ask customers what they want or query them about product attributes. Those questions won’t provide insight into customers' needs. Only by observing how they confront the challenges of a particular set of circumstances can you identify their “jobs to be done.” From there, you can define a new category according to those jobs and develop a brand that's the perfect “hire.”
2. Beware of the major up-front advertising blitz. If a manager recommends mass-reach advertising to generate awareness and induce “trial,” be nervous. Big markets are needed to justify spending big bucks. Big markets are usually occupied and unavailable to new entrants.
In July, Shelf Impact! asked readers to ponder this question: How do you know when it’s time for a packaging change for your brand, and what process do you use in your evaluation? Judging from the 138 responses, some of you think in terms of constant evaluation while others let the marketplace tell them it’s time. A sampling of responses:
The word from Osaka, Japan, is that Suntory Ltd., working with Kotobuki Seihan Printing Co. , has developed a label that can be easily peeled off glass bottles by hand. Asia Pulse reports that the label is highly water-resistant and will stay on the bottles that are refrigerated or put in vending machines.
Suntory is using the label on some bottles of Dekavita C, a vitamin-enriched carbonated soft drink. Suntory plans to use the label on other bottled soft drinks and liquors.
Cosmetics marketers are using French in their packaging to court U.S. consumers who associate the language with sophistication and glamour—even if it is spelled wrong.
Marketers are enhancing their packaging with non-English words and phrases as U.S. cosmetic exports soared 41% in 2004, says United Press International.
Leisure Time’s sales rise 17% with packaging inspired by HBA products. The bottles’ ‘softer’ look and texture deliver the ‘ahh’ moment that pampered luxury homeowners crave.
Sales of the Leisure Time brand of spa and hot-tub water care products were exceeding the category’s annual sales increases of 3 to 5%. Consumers viewed the premium-priced products as high quality.
Yet the brand’s owner, Atlanta-based Advantis Technologies, made a bold move by redesigning the packaging. The company believes its new packaging communicates a more sophisticated message about the product quality to well-to-do consumers.
The redesign has produced several results:
• The packaging helps to deliver the brand’s magic “ahh” moment, both visually and through surface texture, which spa owners—who are used to enjoying the finer things in life—expect.
• Sales have risen 17%, and distribution has increased at spa dealers.
• The line is “displacing” some competitors’ brands from some dealers’ store shelves and retaining Leisure Time’s position as the category sales leader.
When good beer comes in great packaging, as is the case with Labatt Blue in the Cool2Go™ shrink label technology from DuPont, it’s just a wonderful thing.
While I typically opt to ramble in this column about aesthetics, functionality, or structure, this month I traveled the technology pure-play route and went for the “whoa” factor rather than the “wow” factor.
I say “whoa” because for the beer-swigging consumer at large, it’ll take a few seconds to drink in and tie together the graphic triad of “The Cold One,” the Cool2Go icon, and the quarter-sized thermal barrier graphic to grasp the whole story at point-of-purchase. When the realization registers that through some miracle of material science, beer in this can will stay cold longer, it then becomes a “whoa, that's cool” moment and—bingo—into the shopping cart!
Packaging for Jays salty snacks is undergoing some subtle modernization, both in structure and in graphics. The goals, says new owner Ubiquity Brands, Chicago, are to modernize the appearance of the packages while reinforcing the equity in the venerable brand and to make a stronger brand statement for the different product varieties.
Ubiquity Brands believes strongly in consumer research. “Our consumers told us they loved Jays and felt they ‘owned’ the brand,” says Tom Reynolds, Executive Vice President for Innovation. “They told us they believed it is made locally and so was fresher and had better taste. And the brand’s tagline, ‘Can’t stop eating ‘em!’, is synonymous with the brand.”
The design challenge for Haugaard Creative was keeping as much equity of the existing packaging while contemporizing the look. Transparent inks and a metalized look make the packaging stand out across different products in the line.
Testing showed that consumers felt the reflective packaging indicated a more premium package.
With packaging providing an ambient, nonrefrigerated shelf life of two years, a breakthrough new tray and lid combination is presenting a serious challenge to the steel can for cooked vegetables.
The package was conceived by Luc Fevrier, Category Manager at France-based retailer Carrefour, and the tray was produced by RPC Bebo UK. Lidding is supplied by LPF Flexible Packaging, and Gelagri Bretagne is the agricultural cooperative that packs the vegetables.
Gelagri packs into either two- or four-compartment breakaway trays that are sold in a printed paperboard sleeve with a die-cut window to allow the shopper to see the food inside.
Fevrier initially contacted RPC Bebo in December 2002 to develop the new packaging. In November 2003, the French retailer tested two items in the pack in 200-plus Carrefour stores. Called Conserves Pratiques, the new line is sold under the Carrefour brand in hypermarkets, Champion in supermarkets, and Grand Jury in local stores.
Secondary package stability is crucial for success in shrink-sleeve-bundling two or more products into multi-packs that won’t tip over or tear when handled. In Italy, a metal twist-open lid provides the structural stability that enables Barilla’s to bundle two glass jars of Restaurant Creation sauces in a shrink sleeve.
Giuseppe Concari, Barilla Technical Packaging Manager, says the specially designed lid, from Crown Closures Europe enhances package stability on grocery shelves, Additionally, the lid provides the following packaging enhancements:
1. It allows two sauce jars to be stacked, forming a distinctive hourglass-shaped, dual-container package.
Private-label brands pose a “good alternative” to national brands and an “extremely good value for the money.” They also offer quality that’s “at least as good as that of the usual big brands.”
Those insights come from ACNielsen’s recent online global survey of consumers. The study polled consumers in 38 markets and found that Americans, in particular, have embraced private-label products.
Consumer perceptions that private-label brands are a good alternative to other brands were most prevalent in regions where private-label product and packaging strategies are highly developed. The leaders were Europe (78%), the Pacific (78%), North America (77%), Latin America (64%), and Asia (51%).
Countries in which consumers rated private label brands the highest were the Netherlands (91%), Portugal (89%), and Germany (88%).
At the other end of the scale, Malaysia (36%) and Japan (35%) were least likely to agree that private-label brands provide a good alternative to national brands.
This article was adapted from a longer article in the July/August issue of Package Design magazine
As Director of Global Design for Procter & Gamble Beauty, Elizabeth Olson sifts the bandwidth of consumer demand for the cues and clues that enable P&G Beauty to make emotional connections with consumers around the world.
The key to successful brand extensions is determining that they are consistent with the brand’s values. Not from the marketing department’s pointof view. From the consumer’s point of view, assessed through research.
Once the marketing department has effectively carried out this research, design can begin on the brand extension. The core equities of the brand and subbrand must be retained, using a visual system of segmentation. This can be done through one or more of the following five methods:
1. Color. Variations in color from package to package help distinguish one segment from another.
2. Architectural device. This is a common element engineered into the package design architecture that allows for a color, pattern, or textural change to distinguish one segment from another. An example of an excellent use of this technique is Post’s high-volume Honey Bunches of Oats cereal line.
Building brand equity is marketing’s most important job. Brands with high equity have higher share-of requirements, higher margins, and higher profitability.
Yet, Gordon Wade, Partner at the EMM Group, observes that brand equity scores long have been declining. In a highly informative recent workshop, Wade listed these reasons for the decline:
• The cost of conventional media is skyrocketing.
• The effectiveness of using conventional media is declining, and with it, return on investment.
Marketers who keep abreast of packaging advances and understand when to use them have a leg up in the battle for shelf supremacy. Unilever Foods is one marketer that understands this dynamic and reflects it in the conversion of its flagship 32-oz Hellmann’s mayonnaise jar from glass to PET.
Unilever Foods had converted its 48- and 64-oz jars of Hellmann’s mayonnaise from glass to PET, but resisted in the 32-oz size. “Converting to PET is more economical in the larger sizes because the resin weight-per-unit volume decreases as you go up in size,” explains Vinod Bansal, Group Manager, Packaging Technology, Unilever Foods.
Then, Unilever Foods discovered Amcor PET Packaging’s two-step blow-and-trim technology. The high-volume process forms threads as containers are made rather than during the preform stage. Amcor’s higher-volume approach made the conversion to PET financially practical for the 32-oz jar, Bansal says.
Many of the 79 million Baby Boomers are transitioning into “empty nesters.” But the next great growth wave, the Echo Boomers (ages 10-27), offers imposing brand growth potential for brand managers and retailers who understand the motivations and preferences of this 75-million consumer segment.
Key will be examining Echo Boomers’ shopping and purchase behaviors, says Janet Eden-Harris, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Information Resources Inc., a market information solutions provider.
Based on IRI’s research, here are some factors that could influence package design for products targeted to Echo Boomers:
• Supercenters, emphasizing value, capture a significantly greater share of Echo Boomer consumer products spending than that of the overall population.
A combination shrink label for Betty Crocker’s Decorating Decors line upgrades the brand image and enhances tamper evidence.
The heat-shrink, PVC label, from Seal-It, is used for all five product varieties and printed rotogravure in 6 to 10 colors. The label’s 360-degree image area provides room for graphics with more “pop,” a UPC code, an ingredients listing, and instructions on product use.
The label conforms to the canister shape, covering the top and sealing the cap. The label also incorporates a tamper-evident seal with a horizontal perforation that allows the band to be released from the cap while the label remains on the canister.
Glossy, full-body PVC shrink labels provide multiple marketing benefits while decorating plastic tubes of Mentholatum Co.’s Natural Ice brand of Original, Cherry, and Sport medicinal lip balms.
First, the labels enhance security. They secure both the cap and the body of the tube, and a horizontal perforation breaks when the cap is removed. Second, the labels eliminate the printing and storage costs associated with stocking silk-screen tubes in assorted designs.
The shrink labels, reverse-printed rotogravure in four or five colors, are from Seal-It.
Motorola wanted a distinctive, upscale package for its Original premium cell phone accessories. It selected a package from AGI Klearfold that combines a fold-over thermoformed tray slid inside a printed sleeve.
A different sleeve holds each of the four accessories. Package printing is done in flexo in nine colors plus rotary screen printing in one color.
A slot molded into the slide of the tray connects with a tab inside each sleeve. The tray folds over and slides into a sleeve, and the sleeve’s tabs lock into the slot in the try to hold the fold-over tray closed. The trays mirror the shape of each accessory.
Fonte Tavina is a positioned as a premium brand of mineral water. One of the ways in which the brand signals high quality on tables in homes and fine restaurants is by upgrading the cap from a commodity packaging component to a value-added design element of the bottle.
The cap uses colorful, transparent, polypropylene caps from Milliken Chemical to give the bottle an aesthetic edge amid an ocean of competitors in bottled water. The caps bear translucent screw closures from Bormioli Rocco.
Clear, colorful caps replace opaque caps that were either aluminum or polypropylene with solid pigments.
Package shape and color support the message behind Hair Concepts’ Curly Sexy line: “Make the most of natural and created curls.”
The curvaceous design of the aluminum bottle, created and printed by CCL Container, fits easily in the hand. The cobalt blue container, printed dry offset in six colors, is accented with silver and red graphics. Transparent inks provide the container’s metallic look.
“The shape was not only attractive but helped introduce the product concept, planting the idea of curls early in the consumer’s mind,” says Donna Federici, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sexy Hair Concepts.
Procter & Gamble created a new product—Swiffer CarpetFlick—for quick and easy carpet cleanups in between vacuuming, and the packaging communicates the convenience message.
Working with design agency LPK, P&G produced a carton bearing a curved, die-cut window to provide a view of the carpet sweeper and four cleaning cartridges inside the package. The color orange differentiates CarpetFlick from other quick-clean products in the Swiffer family.
Three small photographs on the carton’s front panel illustrate the “flick, trap, and toss” cleaning steps using the product. The cartons are printed offset in six colors.
