Suave’s redesign shows that cost savings don’t have to compromise consumer wants.

Product marketers often ask how to validate the value of package design for senior management. For Unilever’s Suave brand, the answer comes by letting the new design pull itself into the market through quantifiable cost savings and consumer benefits instead of the marketing department pushing a design that fails to link anticipated benefits to the overall business strategy.

Unilever succeeds by meeting two internal objectives in restaging its Suave Naturals and Suave Professionals lines. The company communicates a price-value relationship more effectively to consumers while also reducing production costs. Input from a cross-functional team guided the process, and Unilever has achieved the following results:

- The company increased dollar sales volume for the Suave Professionals line by 51% and unit volume growth by 12%, even with a retail price increase for the line.

- Dollar sales volume for Suave Naturals increased 3% and unit volume grew 2% during the new packaging’s first 12 weeks on the shelf.

- Consumer perception of product quality for both lines has improved significantly in the new packaging.
Unilever has sustained Suave’s leadership in the value hair care segment.

Unilever achieved these results by integrating shape, color, and texture, while avoiding frivolous decoration, to communicate Suave’s niche as a quality product at the right price.

“Not only is the major redesign of our relatively generic bottle a major win for our consumers, but the added production efficiencies and cost savings for Unilever made it a true win-win situation,” says Eric Yoch, Senior Brand Development Manager at Unilever.

A critical initial step in beginning the redesign of Suave packaging was writing a design brief. The team, including external vendors, shaped the basis for packaging that would reflect the Suave consumer’s definition of value and reduce packaging costs.

Structural packaging firm 4sight collaborated with Unilever’s internal market research team to study the mind-set of Suave consumers and then create the design. Stuart Leslie, President of 4sight, explains. Value, in the Suave consumer’s mind, is multi-dimensional. It considers quality, variety, and performance at an appropriate price.

Unilever opted to give Suave bottles subtle sophistication. The slimmer bottle has curved, sculpted proportions resembling the female hourglass shape.

Bottles in both the Suave Professionals and Suave Naturals lines are both PET and high-definition polyethylene, provided by Matrix Packaging and Alpha Packaging. The HDPE closures are from Seaquist Closures.

The shape of each bottle also considered production needs. The packaging’s wider cap and lighter-weight materials enhance shelf presence and reduce production costs. Unilever says both the bottles and caps use less resin and the design increases filling speeds.

“Most people associate a cost savings with a compromise at the shelf to consumers. We found that you can have both at the same time,” Leslie says.