The marketing value of packaging is a largely untapped frontier in OTC pharmaceuticals. Packages delivering cognitive value can support a great product—and drive sales.

Terms like “metered dosage” and “clinical trial” are staples of healthcare products. But for savvy marketers competing in the evolving over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical industry, concepts such as “sensory branding” and “transformative experience” are becoming essential additions to the list.
Today’s healthcare product aisles are stocked with more products than ever, and drug companies will need to leverage the marketing power of packaging or risk failure. That’s the viewpoint of some of the nation’s foremost branding and design thinkers. They cite two recent examples of healthcare brands that maximize the marketing power of packaging.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare, Moon Township, PA, is marketing its new alli OTC weight-loss capsules in a consumer-friendly starter kit whose design delivers a sensory experience by presenting the brand as the consumer’s ally during a weight-loss program (see related story on page XX).

New packaging for the Plan B emergency contraceptive reflects regulatory changes that now make the drug available in nonprescription form for women 18 and older. Barr Pharmaceuticals, Pomona, NY, markets the drug in packaging that is adaptable both behind the pharmacy counter and on the store shelf, saving the company money with a single package. The carton’s soothing colors and focus on product benefits give women peace of mind about their purchase.

These brands share the approach of leveraging packaging to tap the human senses and create brand perceptions. From a marketing perspective, opportunities then emerge for connecting with consumers on a much deeper cognitive level. Many marketers of food, beverage, and personal care products execute this tactic well. But GSK, Barr, and VasoActive are among exceptions to the rule in healthcare products because many drug companies still generally view packaging as a mundane product-protection device, according to veterans in the branding and design industry.

One of them is Peter Clarke, who has been designing packages for decades for companies like Procter & Gamble and Heinz. By failing to also consider the power of package design—in which structure and graphics work together—pharmaceutical companies are limiting the marketing impact and sales of their products, says Clarke,President of Product Ventures.

“Many pharmaceutical companies are so focused on equipment stability and regulatory requirements that they haven’t even begun to think beyond that and about such things as package design,” Clarke says. “If there’s an industry that’s not doing it right, this is the untapped frontier.”

Rx to OTC

Why is package design important in healthcare products? First, branding experts say, consider that many products formerly available only with a prescription are now also introducing a nonprescription format. And other pills, tablets, topical creams, and lotions have evolved into OTC products. For the first time, companies that make and market these products need to consider how they stack up against many competitors on the store shelf, where shoppers make their own purchase decisions. A well-designed package can make a product easier to find on crowded store shelves. Great design also cements the sale on an emotional level, where most pharmaceutical brands don’t operate. It can boost a shopper’s confidence in selecting the right product.

Packaging’s impact is underutilized in prescription medications as well. The right structure can make the package easier to operate and also simplify the drug-taking ritual. Overlay effective colors and graphics, and a product moves into another dimension. Consumer confidence improves, and packaging goes beyond serving merely as a container. It also begins to justify a branded product’s higher price point versus a less-expensive generic alternative.

Alli weight-loss capsules

If there’s an irony in the dietary aids aisle, it’s that the shelves are bulging with products that look remarkably similar, in a category marketing the notion that personal image is everything. GSK is taking a different route by leveraging sensory perception to introduce Alli as a branded diet-support system. Package design is essential in this strategy.

The impetus for the package design came when the company selected 400 overweight consumers to participate in research that shed light on the emotional aspects of dieting.

“It’s easy to look at alli as pills in a bottle,” says Donna Sturgess, Global Head of Innovation at GSK Consumer Healthcare. “We got very deep into the consumer experience, and we found that weight loss is a very emotionally charged category. We needed alli to be an honest voice and a transparent brand—here’s what you can expect if you follow the instructions.”

With consumer research in hand, Ideo developed packaging to gently guide consumers in the product’s use. GSK markets alli in a starter kit—a two-piece plastic container and lid. Inside the container, a white thermoformed tray contains a bottle of 60-mg tablets in the 60-, 90-, or 120-count sizes, a pill-carrying case, product usage pamphlets, a daily journal, a calorie and fat counter, and Quick Facts cards. The graphics card in the kit provides information for accessing a personalized diet action plan at www.myalli.com.

The primary container and tray also work on a sensory level. The white tray holding the product and collateral materials is easily viewed through the transparent lid. They are meant to be emotionally reflective as product users transform themselves during the dieting process.

“It puts forth a canvas so you can see yourself and create your own identity,” Sturgess says, citing similar packaging that has propelled Apple’s iPod brand. “We are harnessing the power of sensory perception for marketing. The idea is made concrete through the senses. It is really a fusion happening inside this space. We think we have humanized a drug.”

The four-color alli brandmark is prominent on the bottle’s white label. Different colors in the brand name correspond to the four emotional cornerstones of understanding the product and sustaining a product-use routine: What is alli? How does it work? What’s the plan? Are you ready?

With such attention to detail in the packaging, GSK believes the product’s price-value relationship is enhanced and warrants a retail price of $50 to $70 per kit.

Plan B emergency oral contraceptive

When Barr Pharmaceuticals was selling its Plan B birth control product in pharmacies, the brand was yet another in a long list that lacked true brand communication. But in August 2006, the company gained FDA approval to begin marketing Plan B as an OTC product as well, Barr decided that women 18 and older were old enough to purchase the product on the store shelf without a pharmacist’s guidance, and needed a package that would provide functional benefits and reduce their purchase anxiety.

Barr enlisted the help of IQ Design in restaging the brand. The creative team settled on a money-saving single-carton design for both the prescription and OTC versions of the drug. The dual-label package contains two pieces. The outer sleeve, believed to be SBS, includes white space on the back panel for the prescription label when the drug is sold in prescription form to girls 17 and younger. A hinged, billfold carton that also looks to be SBS contains two tablets enclosed with clear film inside a die-cut window on the billfold’s right panel.

From a consumer standpoint, the package, containing two 0.75-mg levonorgestrel tablets, makes Plan B more visually approachable when sold in either OTC or prescription form, says Carol Cox, Barr spokesperson.

“This was a deliberate decision for several reasons,” Cox says. “First, shelf space behind the counter in pharmacies is limited, and some pharmacies would not be able to accommodate shelving two separate products. Second, having a single package for the OTC and Rx product minimizes confusion for consumers and pharmacists. Third, the package has a new National Drug Code number from the previously Rx-only product.”

The package also contains prescribing information and a patient information booklet explaining Plan B and how and when to take the tablets.

The brand is easily identified by the distinctive graphic design of the carton, from Sharp Corp.

“We wanted the packaging design to have a confident and feminine quality feel to it,” says Leslie Tucker, IQ Design Principal and Chief Creative Officer. A proprietary logotype overlays a custom color design with a blue-violet background that gives way to a circular graphic using darker tones of the same colors. Printing is done in six colors. A side-by-side bright green swoosh bleeds off the carton. The effect exudes youth, and it calms and reassures women about their product selection, Tucker says.
IQ Design created custom spot channel color separations for both the outer sleeve and billfold to provide brilliant graphic reproduction.

Marketers of OTC products may want to consider technological advances that are giving materials more visual pizzazz. One advancement is in color’s impact in PET bottles. Ampacet has created polyester-based masterbatches that can give PET the brilliant effect of frosted glass, says Doug Brownfield, Strategic Business Manager.

The dye formulation is injected into the resin, and when using a thicker bottle wall with a slightly translucent liquid, marketers can even achieve a “liquid metal” visual effect. Production pluses are the color formulation’s simplification of PET processing, prevention of screw slippage, and resistance to clogs in the filling machine throat because of premature melting.

OTC healthcare product value in the U.S.
Value expressed in millions of dollars
2001 $28,672.0
2002 $29,034.2
2003 $31,096.1
2004 $32,123.8
2005 $33,506.0
2006 $34,520.5
2007 $35,206.4 projected
2008 $35,893.8 projected
2009 $36,624.9 projected
2010 $37,201.2 projected
2011 $37,620.5 projected

Source: Euromonitor International

By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief