1. Strive for equitable use of the package. Ensure that a variety of consumers can use the package, regardless of differences in their physical abilities, behaviors, habits, and size. Kimberly-Clark's redesign of Huggies Baby Wash packaging features a "grippable" bottle with a large lid that mom can manipulate in one hand while holding the baby with the other hand at bath time.

2. Provide flexibility in use. Encourage designs that provide a choice in methods of product use and that accommodate right- or left-handed use.

3. Design for simple and intuitive use. Your design is successful if an untrained person can effectively navigate the design and understand the product immediately. Procter & Gamble’s Febreze Air Effects air freshener cans include a trigger and grip zone that guide the consumer to the appropriate grip.

4. Communicate perceptible information. Use different symbols and tactile finishes for redundant presentation of essential information, maximizing legibility.

Mountain Valley Spring Co., Hot Springs, AR, returned to its historic roots to improve the presence of its Mountain Valley Spring Water brand in the crowded bottled water category. Working with Flowdesign, the marketer redesigned the entire brand communications for its bottled water.

A retro bottle shape and graphics hint of those used in the brand’s original bottle style in the 1800s. The glass bottle’s shoulder bears the words “Since 1871” embossed three times around the bottle and “America’s Premium Water” embossed two times around. Retro-looking fonts and graphic spirals embellish the brand’s signature oval in the middle of the label. Custom illustrations of trees and mountains provide the backdrop for the label, printed in a light green ceramic ink that wraps 180 degrees around the front of the bottle. The design includes a slimmer bottle neck.

Getting the logo bright red proved challenging in applied ceramic labeling, because bright red ceramic inks require lead, which is banned in some areas of the United States. Vitro Glass, the bottle manufacturer, solved the challenge by using a ceramic label application process that doesn’t require lead-based ink.

The “Wal-Mart” effect is making its influence felt in case-ready meat, shifting the nature of meat shopping to fit its one-stop shopping convenience platform. Wal-Mart’s success with this packaging format may prompt other high-volume retailers, as well as grocery stores, to offer more convenience products in case-ready meat.

A study from management consultant Kline & Co. says this trend will result in a 6% increase in the use of high-barrier packaging films over the next several years as retailers continue to decrease the “footprint” in their stores for fresh meat while increasing their offerings of case-ready, marinated and nearly ready-to-eat meat selections. These convenience-oriented prepared foods eliminate steps in meal preparation for busy consumers.

“Wal-Mart has been a tremendous force in case-ready meat retailing,” says Sharon Derbyshire with Kline Research. “They really want to stock this product much like they do consumer goods—get individual packages in, put them in the bins, and sell them.”

In December, Shelf Impact! also asked readers the following question: How do you successfully balance relationships with your retail partners in their dual roles as merchant for your (your client's) brand and marketers of their own competing store brands? Twenty readers shared their thoughts, and here is a sample.

“Communication and win-win marketing.”

“I don't bring up the competition, but I offer similar, although slightly different, products.”

For a recent successful promotion, Paris, France-based lingerie leader Etam took the unusual step of packaging lingerie and denim clothing in limited-edition, custom metal “tins” from Crown Specialty Packaging, an affiliate of Crown Holdings Inc. The result? The entire stock sold out in 15 days.

Consumers at Etam retailers in France, Spain, and Italy purchased clothing packaged in distinctive 7 1/2 x 5 x 2 3/4 rectangular tins featuring graphics of prominent models and denim clothing. These primary packages were placed in 6 x 9” cylindrical tins with removable bottom ends.

Tin packaging reinforces Etam’s premium brand image, one which is “full of surprises,” says Marjoriie Courtet, Etam Director of Promotional Marketing and Special Events.

When I'm around great packaging, I turn into a giddy geek. My wife says I act like a little boy who finds a morbid joy in zapping ants with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. That’s why I connected quickly with the Little Learners Bug Catcher—I immediately “got it.”

The Little Learners Bug Catcher turns into a highly functional toy after the “dirt” and bug candy are consumed, and kids “get it” right away on the shelf. The package’s primary appeal is neon green worms and fire engine red ants flexo-printed on a transparent PVC shrink label. It is obvious to any adolescent boy that the gummy worms and ants packed inside are digging through chocolate cookie meal “dirt.”

What pushes the food-grade PET container over the top is its polypropylene lid holding two hinged magnifying glasses. After kids eat the spade-shovel portion of “dirt” in one overstuffed mouthful and play with and then eat the worms and ants, the container becomes a holding pen for bugs, grubs and spiders.

Time Direct Ventures found a way to “dress up” the experience of receiving a magazine subscription as a gift. “Our goal was to develop an innovative gift subscription product that consumers would be proud to give and that recipients would be delighted to receive,” says Deede Dickson, Vice President, Business Development, Time Inc.

First, Time created Giftscriptions, a gift subscription program that takes the form of a collectible guide describing 50 magazines and including redemption directions.

Then Time, working with brand consultancy TippingSprung, created a festive red gift carton in which to display the subscription guide.

An in-store point-of-purchase display repeats the graphic scheme on the cartons and signals a holiday-season impulse buy.

Sara Lee says new packaging graphics signaling attributes such as “fresh” and “clean” have boosted market share and sales of its Ty-D-Bol toilet cleaner.

Responding to a wave a competitors sporting more contemporary packaging with fresh brand promises, Sara Lee has leveraged the efficacy of the brand’s iconic “Ty-D-Bol Man” in the brand’s new packaging. Hanson Associates developed a design that translates across the brand’s range of products.

An illustration of the Ty-D-Bol Man anchors the packaging communications. The character’s icon is prominently incorporated into a new brand logo.

The 10th annual Brand Identity & Package Design conference will offer brand stewards and package designers the newest tools and information for mastering the art and science of package design and communications.

The conference, organized by the Institute for International Research, will be April 24-26, 2006, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. Shelf Impact! again will be a supporter of the event.

Shelf Impact! has obtained a sneak preview of the program, and the following are some of the speakers lined up so far:

Q: “Strategic development of a communications hierarchy is crucial when designing packaging. What packaging elements make this hierarchy achievable?”

—Marc Balara, Creative Director
Packaging and Graphics, K’NEX

A: K’NEX came to us with that question recently, and the brand’s new packaging demonstrates that communication hierarchies are important in leveraging brand strategy and should be carefully designed. Delivering consistent brand communications and personal, meaningful experiences to every consumer is priority No. 1.

Design Force used the red diagonal flow of the package to set up a communication system that indicates the skill level for each K’NEX model building set, as well as how many models can be built with the enclosed instructions. The imagery of a boy proudly holding his completed model provides the brand’s “wow” factor.

High-tech products are shrinking in size, yet their capabilities are becoming more sophisticated. One of the biggest challenges facing marketers of these products is to tell a compelling story and get essential product information on the packaging, which is shrinking in size along with the product.

For Rivet International, San Diego, the packaging answer was simple product descriptions and instructional diagrams, and minimal text. The graphics card inside the clamshell positions “techie” products as a lifestyle brand through graphics and imagery.

The design, created by Mires, a branding agency, makes the quality of Rivet’s products prominent and “positions Rivet as a cool, cutting-edge brand,” says Raleigh Wilson, President and CEO of Rivet. It extends the products’ appeal to mass-merchandise-store consumers.

Product formulation specialists at Prestone Products Corp. developed several new chemical formulations that led to an advanced level of car-care products in Prestone’s De-Icer line. These include windshield-washer fluid with a dirt blocker that helps repel road spray and other salty, wintery grime.

The marketing department at Prestone set about positioning the new, stronger product formulations that make consumers feel empowered in keeping their car surfaces cleaner. Prestone and Group 4, a branding and design firm, interviewed consumers and settled upon the positioning phrase “Take Back Winter” for the extension of the De-Icer brand.

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.

In the facial tissue wars, packaging is increasingly emphasizing convenience with a focus on the car. According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, which has identified this trend, a new round of convenience packaging either enables the driver to grab a tissue more easily or the packaging is slimmer and more discreet in size to fit into a car cup-holder. A new focus of attention with convenience-size packaging is the storage well in the car door.

The following packages reflect this trend:

• In Canada, Irving Tissue markets tissue under the Royale brand that comes packaged in a plastic, cup-holder-friendly container. The container’s snap-off lid provides the convenience of refills. The container’s 50 two-ply tissues dispense through a hole in the lid. The container carries a suggested U.S. retail price of $1.45.

CPGs want dead-on color accuracy while also improving package the printing-process. Prepress is where it all has to happen.

Printers use the term prepress to describe what happens between the final package design and the actual package printing. In today’s demanding retail environment, its importance has increased for brand managers as they strive to succeed in package development.

Here’s why: Brand managers have to be mindful of the packaging demands of not only consumers but now the most influential retailers as well.

“We see how often the CPG companies aren’t really in control of the package at times—it’s the big retailers,” says Mark Vanover, Director of Marketing at Esko-Graphics, a supplier of pre-press solutions for printers.

By helping to set up and manage a prepress process, a brand manager can ensure that the packaging colors match what consumer focus groups liked, as well as the specifications set forth by packaging engineers and designers.

Glidden raises the bar in value-added paint packaging with a polypropylene Quick Roll container. The container permits do-it-yourselfers to mix, paint, and store paint in a single container.

The 1.85-gal tub-like container, from Superfos, is slightly smaller than competing 2.5-gal paint cans, increasing user convenience on ladders. Quick Roll, carrying a suggested retail price of $30, requires a four-step process:

1. Stirring the paint thoroughly in the container.

2. Dipping a roller in the paint at the open end of the container.

3. Rolling away excess paint on the grid inside the container. Unused paint drips through gaps in the grid and back into the container.

4. Start painting.

Each month, Shelf Impact! concludes with a survey inviting your feedback on questions that are important to brand packaging professionals. We report the results on Screen 15 of the following month’s issue, and “You Said” has become one of the most enlightening features in Shelf Impact!

Two short survey questions following this month’s issue should interest anyone who is a decision-maker on the creative side of packaging. First, we want to know the most three important challenges facing your packaging team in 2006. Then, we invite you to take a few minutes to describe what steps you’re taking to overcome those challenges.