Procter & Gamble Co. has opened up a new area of the package for graphics and branding information in introducing a cross-promotional package for Tide with Febreze Freshness to its stable of laundry detergents. P&G opted for a decorated cap with a shrink-sleeve label to attract consumers’ attention and to help them easily distinguish Tide with Febreze Freshness from other products in the Tide lineup.

A decorated cap gives the laundry detergent package distinction in a category in which the bottle caps are typically undecorated.

The shrink-sleeve wraps around the cap’s entire vertical wall. Label graphics are rotogravure-printed in five colors. Color-coded caps indicate the scent varieties.  Matching colors and an icon appear on the bottle label to reinforce the brand’s identity and indicate the product scent.

The shrink-sleeve cap also demonstrates that outsourcing some packaging operations makes sense. P&G determined that it required outside expertise to create the sleeves and attach them to the caps.

Michael Fox, a P&G Packaging Engineer, says the complexities of properly attaching a shrink sleeve to the cap made the decision to outsource sensible. Rather than purchasing additional equipment and taking on the additional burden of managing the operation itself, P&G outsourced the cap-decorating project to Multi-Color Corp. and its contract-packaging subsidiary, Quick Pak.

Read more about how this package was developed.

Jim George,
Editor-in-Chief