Brand identity and packaging create premium Select line while also tying into the parent brand’s equity.

If you believe that color and graphics are the only ways that a marketer can differentiate products, look at what Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. is doing. The company is also using shape as a key product-identifying feature in the snack aisle. P&G’s example signals a new extension to the Pringles lineup of snacks—Pringles Select.

P&G chose a block bottom pouch for its Select line of chips, which is positioned as a premium snack marketed to consumers seeking “an indulgent taste and an escape from the day-to-day.” The pouches, which shimmer on store shelves, contrast Pringles’ familiar cylindrical snack-size rigid composite containers and plastic tubs in sleeve cartons for its single-serve chip products.

The foil-laminated bags are gravure-printed in seven colors by Sonoco Flexible Printing.

Graphics play an important role, too, says John Recker, Executive Vice President at LPK, the branding agency that designed the packaging. The design establishes a branding base allowing for flexibility in extending the
Select line.

P&G is rolling out Pringles Select in the Cinnamon Sweet Potato, Parmesan Garlic, Sun Dried Tomato, and Szechuan Barbecue varieties. The packaging denotes each flavor variety with its own proprietary background pattern set against a jewel-tone color to enhance clarity.

Photography of fresh and natural ingredients appears throughout the packaging to reinforce the positioning of Pringles Select as a premium and sophisticated product extension.

The design further strengthens subbrand communication by placing the Pringles Select brand name inside a shield that also contains an image signaling the origins of the products’ ingredients. P&G, recognizing the equity in the parent brand’s well-known Mr. Pringles animated character, places his image within the shield on Pringles Select packages to tie the sub-brand into the Pringles family.

This multitiered approach to branding accomplishes two marketing objectives for P&G. First, it distinguishes the new product line as an indulgent experience for refined palates. Second, the packaging’s graphic architecture provides flexibility in using Select as a sub-brand for future initiatives while cementing the sub-brand within the Pringles umbrella brand. These techniques mirror the approach P&G took several years ago in segmenting its Pringles brand through special holiday packaging and plastic tubs for its single serve packaging sizes of Pringles.