Great packages require at least 18 months, but economic pressure too often speeds up the design. Approach innovation as a cross-functional process, two gurus say.

In a recent survey of 250 Shelf Impact! readers, two-thirds of the respondents say that a year or less is sufficient time to get a truly innovative package from concept to finished product on the store shelf.

Some would say this is wishful thinking. “It’s very naïve for people to think you’re going to do something truly groundbreaking in six to 12 months,” says Peter Clarke, President of Product Ventures, a structural design firm that has worked on many category-changing packages over the past 20 years.

Clarke acknowledges that innovative packaging needs to get to shelf as quickly as possible. But he says designs that meaningfully marry package and product require more time than many product manufacturers are giving them.

“A shape change or a functional difference in how the package works requires 18 months,” Clarke explains. “If the package needs new equipment and new components, you’re looking at three-plus years.

Clarke emphasizes that innovation should be approached as a process rather than as a step in package development. Kevin Leibel, President of Innovation Management, a consultancy, concurs.

“It’s not a bolt of lightning where you say, ‘Here’s a great idea,’ ” Leibel says. “You need to look at macro trends and understand how packaging complements what’s inside.”

The following three screens contain packages that succeed in achieving this objective.

Heinz Fridge Door Fit. H.J. Heinz created a more hand- and space-friendly bottle called Fridge Door Fit, and increased ketchup consumption 68% in the past year on the products it has upgraded to the new bottle, says Wendy Beitsinger Joyce, Senior Brand Manager for Heinz ketchup.

Consumers told Heinz they often didn’t have enough ketchup in their homes and that the dimensions of the former 64-oz ketchup bottle, 11 1/8”x4 7/8”x3 3/4”, made extra “stock-up” bottles a space-guzzler in the pantry.

Consumers told Heinz they wanted a more versatile large-size ketchup bottle that would be easy to store and use frequently. Heinz, working with Product Ventures, designed the Fridge Door Fit bottle to be stored upright or upside down.

The 64-oz PET bottle, from Graham Packaging, is more slender, at 10”x5”x3 5/8”, than its predecessor. These more consumer-desirable dimensions, plus a wide, flat-top cap, give the bottle the storage flexibility that consumers want.

Amenity men’s personal care line. The reintroduced line of Amenity men’s personal grooming products shows that understanding how consumers use a product can provide clues to effective design. First, the company established a psychographic profile of the target audience. Next, Amenity created a formula called Pro-Form 6 to solve men’s facial care challenges such as acne and dry skin.

Turning to the packaging, Amenity focused the design around five requirements that men identified in the research. It works quickly, minimizes product waste, extends product shelf life, holds up well during travel, and looks masculine.

For its gel facial cleanser and after shave and face moisturizer, Amenity selected dispensing units from Kaufman Container. Men gave the metered-dose dispensers the thumbs-up because they could receive the precise product dosage they wanted by pressing once on the pump. In addition, the airless dispenser extends product shelf life and eliminates product contamination.

Read further insights about packaging innovation.

A realistic timeline for bringing structure to innovation

Product Ventures provide the following general packaging innovation timeline, which could total as long as 21 months in some scenarios:

· 3 to 4 months: Ethnographic and focus group research, design and refinement, engineering, and prototyping.
· 1 ½ to 3 months: In-home use testing with target consumers to validate package design.
· 2 to 5 months: Tooling.
· 3 months: Package, line, and distribution qualification.
· 3 to 4 months: Scale up to meet retail distribution volumes.

By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief