The paucity of true packaging innovation troubles Jim Goodell, Chief Executive Officer of i4design. Goodell, based in San Francisco, is a world traveler in servicing the branding and package design needs of product manufacturers, and he notes the extensiveness of “me too” packaging dotting store shelves, especially in the United States. Goodell recently sat down with Shelf Impact! to expound on his views.

SI: What do you see that’s new and different in the use of packaging as a marketing tool?

Goodell: I’m struggling to find anything that’s innovative in the U.S. Most of what I’m seeing is occurring overseas. In this country, too many packages lack integrated graphics and structure to deliver an on-target message about their particular brand. Changing the package color is a cost-effective way to do a line extension, but it’s still the same box. Is it really delivering on the message of the new product?

SI: Where do you see innovation occurring?

Goodell: A lot of small companies are driving innovation. They are creating unique designs, including closures, to make the package distinctive to deliver a true experience. Cocktails by Jenn, those four-pack vodka cocktails, started out regionally. People seem to like the single-serve packaging, and the brand has gotten some critical mass and is turning into a national brand. Some bigger companies are driving innovation, too. I like Guinness’ Floating Draught System. Each can of Guinness Draught contains a small plastic ball, filled with liquid nitrogen before the can is sealed. After the can is sealed, the nitrogen vaporizes and pressurizes the can. When the can is opened, the pressure on the nitrogen is reduced, and it comes out of holes in the ball. The result is that the beer, when poured, has a better “head” than other beers and it delivers a consumer experience unique to the Guinness brand.

SI: If you believe that a lot of the real packaging innovation is occurring in other countries, do you see evidence that these packages are serving as a source of design inspiration for U.S. marketers?

Goodell: I see a lot of marketers looking overseas to emulate packages over there rather than letting them inspire their creative thinking. I don’t mean to sound gloom and doom, but there is a lot of looking at what’s already on the market overseas and simply reproducing it here.

SI: Five years ago, the prevailing belief was that a small fraction of marketers really understood packaging’s capability to sell a brand. We’re hearing that today, about 50% of all marketers “get it.” Do you agree with that estimate?

Goodell: It sounds reasonable. The ones who really get it understand that a brand is owned by its consumers. Some marketers that we work with truly understand this, rather than it being a case of them trying to protect the ivory tower. But there’s still a bit of myopic marketing going on.

In March, Shelf Impact! also asked readers the following question: Under what conditions would it be beneficial for vendors to sell packaging innovation to you, the brand steward, rather than to your product's consumers?

    Here is how some of you responded.

    "Most of the time. Suppliers are rather shy about trying new things in my segment of retailing. And my company likes to be innovative, when it's truly meaningful innovation. Both the retailer and supplier benefit when innovation brings higher sales through a better display, lower sell prices, or both."

One instinctual response to grouped words such as “protein” and “beverage” is “Yuck!”        

The natural resistance to such an unnatural combination must be overcome fast in consumer products. That’s what Protica Nutrition Research did for its concentrated, advanced-formula Profect protein drink.

Doctors are recommending the new product to aid in quick recovery from surgeries such as a gastric bypass. The product is also rolling out as a consumer nutritional supplement drink.

Key was creating a package that draws consumer interest. Packaging for Profect springs from scientific implications, as the primary package resembles a test-tube. Running vertically on the package label is another confidence-inducing “touchpoint”: “Virtually Unbreakable Container (Patent Pending).”

Perfecting the “vial” took some time as Protica felt it was essential to develop the tube with outer and inner walls as parallel to each other as possible on a 6-3/4” translucent, polypropylene tube holding 2.9 oz. One reason for this approach was to give the shrink-sleeve label an even surface to adhere to, so it wouldn’t slip off the smooth outer surface when subjected to temperature changes.

The vials are packaged in a custom carrying case resembling a bulletproof security briefcase that bodyguards often carry in spy thriller movies.

--By Ron Romanik, Editor
Package Design Magazine

A few seats still remain for the 10th annual Brand Identity & Package Design conference, which 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.

Besides previously announced speakers from Target Stores and consumer packaged goods companies such as Nike, Black & Decker, Frito-Lay North America, and Johnson & Johnson, IIR announces these additional speakers:

• Sharon Reiter Lindberg, Senior Design Manager at Unilever, will share her insights in “Global Brand Identity: Contemporizing Two Iconic Brands.”

• Michael Bierut, Partner at Pentagram, will discuss “The End of Brands and the Beginning of Something Else.”

From Performance Brands, Fiesta Sun shines in a dark brown tube from Artube, Iridium Industries. The label is decorated with a fabric-style PlushPrint material that emphasizes the effect of using the tanning product inside the package. The clever fabric material helped this package win 2005 Innovative Component/Process of the Year honors.

A slender, hourglass shape makes the Gluekos Performance Beverage 16-oz stand-up pouch, produced by Ampac Flexibles, hand- and pocket-friendly. The integrated fitment and valve guards against leaks. The package won a 2006 Flexible Packaging Association Gold Award and Highest Achievement in the Packaging Excellence category.

The Ted Klein 2005 Tube of the year is Johnson & Johnson’s Skin Crack Ointment, The 1'' HDPE diameter tube, from Alcan Packaging Cebal, features a satin-matte coating to highlight graphics and the product description. The blue flip-top cap dispenses the product accurately.

Kleenex Facial Tissues’ innovative oval carton improved the brand’s holiday sales, leveraging both package shape and a custom hologram of a pattern of ornaments. These elements deliver visual impact and value and have made the carton a 2006 Paperboard Packaging Council award winner. The oval shape in the container, produced by Smurfit-Stone, is different in the category.

Lenticular imaging by Xtreme Graphics adds a new dimension to an ordinary container for Houston Harvest popcorn products, winning the package the 2005 AmeriStar People’s Choice Award. The promotional package applies a 3-D printed lenticular lens to a tin-plated container, which is printed in lithography. The result is packages with optical illusions that call attention to the product.

For Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB), the Hawaiian Punch™ and Mott's™ 128-oz PET bottles combine cost savings, environmental considerations, and ease of manufacture that maintains functionality as well as brand equity on shelf. The bottle design is a preform from Constar International that requires less resin in the bottle while retaining brand equity. The package won the 2005 AmeriStar 3M Integrity Packaging Award.

Starbucks Coffee Liqueur’s glass bottle is shaped as a cocktail shaker to extend Starbucks’ brand equity to after-dinner cocktails, winning the Glass Packaging Institute’s Clear Choice Award. Applied ceramic labeling is used to print the “Starbucks Coffee Liqueur” wording on the bottle’s waist. Saint-Gobain Container provides the 1-liter bottles and Anchor Glass supplies the 750-mL bottles.

Winning Best of Show honors at the Institute of Packaging Professionals’ (IoPP) 2005 AmeriStar competition,
Sherwin-Williams Co.’s Ready-to Roll PP paint container oozes with convenience features. The package, designed by Group 4, is a 2.5-gal project pail that features an easy-off lid, comfort handle, and built-in roller tray.

Multifaceted show merges design, innovation, materials, and co-packing. Marketers and designers can get ideas for elevating packaging's role in product development.

Brand managers and package designers who want ideas for helping their packaging to play a more important role as part of an integrated value chain in product development and marketing efforts can get the answers they need at the Packaging Summit, May 16-18 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.

The event, organized by the Tarsus Group, will offer a conference and two side-by-side expos that will enable brand stewards to exchange ideas with their peers, materials suppliers, and companies that offer contract-packaging services. Co-packers are increasingly in demand at consumer packaged goods companies today.

“The Packaging Summit Conference educates packaging professionals about key issues and what packaging does for their products,” explains Stephen Krogulski, Packaging Summit business development manager. “The expos—Packaging Containers & Materials (CME) and Packaging Services (PSE)—provide inspiration for package development. The Hall of Packaging Excellence shows how education and inspiration lead to the execution of award-winning packages.”

Waiting for the right time to launch a product in packaging that’s popular elsewhere can give a new-product introduction an added marketing boost. Foster’s Group Ltd. followed this thinking in expanding the reach of its Crown Lager brand in Australia.

    Foster’s joined beverage marketers in North America who’ve shifted their brands—from beer to energy drinks—to aluminum bottles. But Foster’s waited to launch its Crown Lager in an aluminum bottle until the time when marketing impact could be maximized—with a “premium” package that befits the joy of holiday celebrations.

Waiting for the right time to launch a product in packaging that’s popular elsewhere can give a new-product introduction an added marketing boost. Foster’s Group Ltd. followed this thinking in expanding the reach of its Crown Lager brand in Australia.

    Foster’s joined beverage marketers in North America who’ve shifted their brands—from beer to energy drinks—to aluminum bottles. But Foster’s waited to launch its Crown Lager in an aluminum bottle until the time when marketing impact could be maximized—with a “premium” package that befits the joy of holiday celebrations.

Moët Hennessey wanted a high-end ice bucket to showcase three popular sizes of Moët champagne and tie into the color theme that the brand uses in advertising. In addition, the champagne marketer wanted its three packages displayed at the right height to highlight the brand while also providing the proper amount of ice for chilling each bottle size.

Hennessey achieved these objectives with an ice bucket bearing a false bottom that enables it to properly display the splits-, regular 750 mL-, and magnum-sized bottles of champagne in ice by rotating the bottle into different slot positions in the bucket.

Method gets custom-designed body wash bottles is stores within 18 weeks of concept by finding a principal vendor who understood and executed the marketing concept.

Creating a great design is one thing. But an often-overlooked next step in assuring the market success of any new package is aligning with suppliers who understand the marketing objective behind the design and can execute it under increasingly tight time-to-shelf requirements.

    One marketer that continues to set the standard for packaging that delivers on the brand message is San Francisco-based Method Home Products. The company is a small player in home-care products that has carved its niche by introducing a designer look to a category previously dotted by products in industrial-looking packaging.

    Method recently determined the time was right to extend its namesake brand into personal-care products. It had a distinctive bottle design for a line of body wash, created by industrial designer Karim Rashid. But it needed a packaging manufacturer to produce the right bottle and get the design from concept to shelf within 18 weeks.

Method turned to Amcor PET Packaging and its new personal care business unit to introduce its line of gel and cream body washes in 15-oz custom, tear-shaped PET bottles.

“As a small player, we didn’t want to be thrown in with the big boys,” says Gerry Chesser, Method’s Vice President of Operations.

Method supplied Amcor with 3-D models of the bottle style it wanted. However, the bottle design’s gentle curves presented a challenge in blow-molding. Amcor made the bottle workable for its blow-molding operations by using special design software and through Internet conferencing with Method.

Dental ancillaries are increasing in importance as consumers become better educated about oral hygiene. The category offers significant potential to grow and add value to the oral hygiene market, according to an analysis by Mintel's Global New Products Database.

    Increased availability and a choice of dental ancillaries such as dental floss, interdental brushes, bacteria-removing sprays and gums, and tongue cleaners have exploded onto the scene. Further, Mintel reports, increased consumer interest in cosmetic dentistry has brought about more convenient at-home whitening kits.

    Packaging is helping to bring about differentiation in dental ancillaries products. In dental floss, World’s Best International is taking convenience to a higher level with its Brushpicks toothpicks, introduced in the United States under the Doctor’s brand. The product removes plaque and food debris by using a rounded safety tip that protects gums, and tiny bristles that brush away food particles. A slender, plastic carrying case provides the portability benefit. The case holds the toothpicks, and it includes a chain attachment.

Tefft Cellars Winery eliminated “bulging” with its bag-in-box wine packaging---and created a more sophisticated look---by converting from conventional corrugated fluted cartons to Z-flute paper-based cartons for its Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon 4-liter wines.

The two-ply, laminated wall structure improves compression strength and enables the cartons to hold up better when stacked during distribution and storage. Graphic Packaging International supplied and converted material, and printed the carton flats in six colors through sheet-fed offset printing.

Tefft Cellars is saving about 40% in material costs by switching to the Z-flute cartons.

Blue Keld, a British marketer, packages its namesake brand of ice cubes in resealable bags that guard against melting and product damage. Graham Cheesebrough, Marketing Director, says the bags can be run at high speeds, enabling Blue Keld to meet production schedules and satisfy growing demand for the brand.

The 70-micron-thick, coextruded polyethylene film bags are resealable, 1- and 2-kg packages that incorporate zippers supplied by Zip-Pak.

Cheesebrough says, “We use only spring water to make our ice and wanted packaging that would reflect the high quality of our product.”

Timberland Co. leverages the pressure-sensitive label on cartons of its footwear products by featuring “nutrition” information that reflects the footprint the company makes in creating the shoes contained in the package.

Labels include an environmental impact section that defines energy needed to make the shoe, a community impact section detailing the company’s stance on child labor hours and community service, and a manufactured section that identifies country of origin and factory name.

The one-piece corrugated cartons include 100% recycled post-consumer waste fiber and are printed with soy-based inks. The cartons are hinged or locked together using die cuts.

Canada-based Sun Valley Foods believes consumers will pay a premium for nutritional foods in packages that serve them conveniently. It also believes its in-pack vegetable steamer for its Smith’s brand delivers this value.

Sun Valley Foods markets 9-oz broccoli, 12-oz vegetable medley, and 16-oz carrots or zucchini at a suggested retail price of C$3.49 to $3.99. Refrigerated shelf life is 12 days.

The Simple Steps for Produce package, developed by Cryovac, uses a Multivac tray lidding system. Graphically speaking, the packages gain “pop” from a windowed paperboard sleeve bearing rich photography of the products in the line.

By converting its Knorr granular bouillon product line from a glass jar to a plastic jar, Unilever Bestfoods North America says it can more efficiently target the brand’s growing U.S. Hispanic market with an easier-to-handle container that also reduces lead and delivery times.

The non-breakable, proprietary line of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers, from Amcor PET Packaging, are amber in color to extend the light- and moisture-sensitive product’s shelf life. The plastic jar uses the same “footprint” as the glass jar in order to maintain the brand’s visual equities.

Unilever says that with a “significant portion” of Knorr’s product volume going into U.S. pantries, it made sense on the bottom line to move its packaging operations for the product line from Mexico to Amcor’s Kansas City, KS, plant.

A special masterbatch formulation, blended with high- and low-density HDPE and LDPE, gives Four Seasons Personal Lubricant what is believed to be Australia’s first glow-in-the-dark tube. The 35-ml tube, from Visy Industrial Packaging, includes a 35-ml flip-top closure.

As the number of products continues to proliferate, available shelf space for new packages is shrinking.

Can anything be done that won’t perpetuate physical parity and a de-emphasis of personality for your brand? The answer is yes, if you think innovatively about package structure.

Consider milk. Instead of just “regular milk,” the typical cooler in today’s supermarket contains these varieties: 1%, 2%, skim, fortified, flavored, soy, non-dairy, lactose-intolerant, goat’s milk, and organic. With no space, perhaps your brand won’t be ordered, or one of your SKUs will be cannibalized to make room for a different brand.

What can you do to ensure that your package works in this environment?

Here’s what Gary, a sales associate at Stop & Shop, might do. A large shipment of regular milk cartons has arrived at his store, and he needs to display it. The problem is there isn’t any room left.

Gary rationalizes that each carton is square in shape and has a triangular-shaped gable top. In the cooler’s lower bay, Gary turns some cartons upside-down and places them on top of upright cartons. They fit perfectly. On higher shelves, he lays cartons down and rotates them 45 degrees. Again, they fit perfectly. Gary also discovers that the cartons can be stacked another layer higher.

So, foremost, your product needs to find a place on the shelf. But then the shape needs to be flexible enough to adapt to many configurations.

Once in the store, your product’s packaging needs to exude visual aesthetics or use “language” that leverages the brand’s positioning and serves as an iconic element in the shopper’s mind, regardless of its “misplacement” on the shelf. No matter how it is displayed it has to look like it was supposed to be stocked that way.

Unilever may be onto something in the quest to maximize space on cluttered store shelves. At Wal-Mart, Unilever has introduced its All Small & Mighty brand. The 32 fl oz of liquid inside each bottle is 3X concentrated. That means 32 fl oz of All Small & Mighty, retailing for $3.97, cleans 32 loads of laundry, while 100 fl oz of regular All cleans 32 loads for $4.37.

All Small & Mighty fits perfectly with Wal-Mart’s lowest-price/value proposition. From a packaging standpoint, here’s the real deal. Twenty-one of the 32 fl oz All Small & Mighty bottles fit in the same shelf space as eight of the 100 fl oz All bottles. In identical shelf space at my local Wal-Mart, the retail ring per shelf set is $83.37 for All Small & Mighty vs. $34.96 for regular All.

This scenario appears to be a winner all the way around. Wal-Mart improves sales per square foot. With fewer out-of-stocks, Unilever sells more bottles of detergent. Consumers see the brand as innovative and view the lighter, smaller package as easier to carry and space saving in the home.

This marketing tactic is a natural to extend into other household cleaning products. Can it be adapted for other categories? A glut of products is eroding shelf space in virtually every category, so the ability to manipulate a product to reduce the package size might make the difference between a retailer stocking your brand or someone else’s.

--By Jim George,
Editor-in-Chief

One challenge with “case-ready” food products is preventing leaks. Sea Star Seafood Corp., Marlborough, MA, believes it has come up with an answer in seafood with heat-sealed, film-covered trays, similar to packaging found in case-ready poultry.

Star markets the 20 varieties in its line of seafood products either with no coatings or with home-style coatings. Each package contains 12 oz of product and is stocked either in the freezer case or the refrigerator at grocers and club stores. Packages of frozen products are vacuum-sealed and trays of refrigerated seafood are sealed with a clear-film overwrap.

“We haven’t done testing yet on the effect on shelf life, but we have seen, informally, that it seems to extend the shelf life,” says Stuart Strong, Vice President of Marketing. “But officially, we’re still saying it’s a five-day shelf life.”

The leakproof packages work with the “home-style” product message to support perceptions of a gourmet brand.

Sea Star packages also rise a step above many case-ready packaged products by leveraging the label as a branding device. The label contains a redesigned logo and minimal text, and its triangular shape guides the eye to the product itself. Nutritional and other regulatory information appear on the back-panel label.

Sea Star markets the line under its own Beacon Light line in grocery stores and under private label brand names in club stores.

With portable and convenience packaging dominating snack-food aisles at retailers throughout the United States, where can brand marketers turn in search of new brand growth? Datamonitor pinpoints Europe as a significantly underserved area for convenience snack packaging.

Europeans are known for missing meals, preferring to snack throughout the day. Datamonitor estimates that snacking will reach 522 billion instances per year by 2009, or 1.9 snacks per day per European consumer. But convenience snack-packaging options are few.

Some recent efforts to tap into Europe’s portable-snacks market have failed due in part to inadequate packaging, reports Food & Drink Europe.com. In 2005, Walkers Shots crisps struggled to find an audience. Product users say the packaging failed to communicate a clear marketing message and it confused them about the product’s potential benefits—one of which was usability. The crisps were packed in a tube designed to empty the contents right into the mouth.