What really is this thing we call packaging innovation, how is it nourished, and how can it be successfully woven into a company's approach to package design? This month, Shelf Impact! continues its discussion with Elizabeth Head-Fischer, Packaging Design Manager at Texas Instruments; Michael Livolsi, Package Design Consultant formerly with Unilever; and Arno Melchior, Global Packaging Director at Reckitt Benckiser.

Shelf Impact! also asked you last month to list, from a marketing and branding perspective, what will be the key “hot topics” for packaging in 2007. Sustainability and packaging materials and processes that protect the environment came up very strong. Here are some of your other answers.

The 12th annual Fuse: 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.

Morton International has begun refreshing package designs for its stable of specialty salts, which have been on the market for several years. This is a tall order that the Chicago-based company—historically not one for frequent packaging changes—is pursuing carefully. Why? The company’s flagship Morton Salt is one of the nation’s most trusted brands. Its dark blue-labeled, cylindrical basic table salt package is a staple in many kitchen pantries, and Morton doesn’t want consumers to lose identity with the core brand.

A solid ball of detergent, Oxi Clean “Toss-n-Go” is no ordinary laundry product. Its packaging, a thermoformed clamshell inside a conical paperboard sleeve, is equally innovative. Amid the ever-so-predictable jugs and cartons in the detergent aisle, brand owner Church & Dwight’s conical sleeve packaging with the protruding ball in the front really stands out.

Just when packaging was making major marketing inroads, along comes sustainable packaging. While terms such as shelf impact, "First Moment of Truth" (FMOT), and sustainable packaging are not mutually exclusive, they are not in total alignment either.

Back in 2000, a new term found its way into branding lexicon. We had entered the “design economy.” Time magazine painted an elegant portrait in describing it as “the crossroads where prosperity and technology meet culture and marketing.”

Popular thinking among today’s package-creation teams is that the package must work for the consumer as both shopper and user of the product.

Scott Carnie, General Manager of Costco’s East Coast Packaging operations, is the driving force behind a lot of packaging that’s unique to Costco’s shelves. He is open-minded when it comes to getting ideas.

The leading edge of in-store pizza marketing is shifting to the refrigerated aisle in supermarkets, with fresh deli pizzas, and focusing less on the freezer case. Uno Foods, Brockton, MA, offers a good example of how packaging is playing a pivotal role in this trend.