In the hardware business, Elmer's Wood Glue is No. 1 in market share. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Elmer's Products Inc., Columbus, OH, decided the brand needed to look more contemporary to support its reputation as a reliable product.
This led to repackaging of the entire hardware line, including a new bottle design for Elmer's 40 SKUs of wood glue. The new bottle design features an ergonomic oval shape that's operable with one hand. It also features an offset neck with a push-pull cap and spout that's over to one side for easy pouring into cracks and corners. The spout has two size openings for both thick and thin beading and also reduces clogging (the previous design necessitated cutting the top off the cap).
In another striking difference from the old package, the new bottle incorporates a shrink-sleeve label, produced by Fort Dearborn Co. using a PETG film from Klöckner Pentaplast. Brian King, Elmer's vice president of Marketing, explains the decision to use a shrink label this way:
"We have four different bottle styles for our Wood Glue: 4 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz, and 16 oz. All together, there are 40 SKUs of wood glue in our hardware line. We had been using a pressure-sensitive label for the old bottle, which was limited.
"What appealed about the shrink sleeve is that it wraps 100% around the whole bottle. This allows for more product information, more consistent information to be displayed across the product line. Now we can tell a story on the label. In essence, there's sufficient space to tell consumers how to upgrade and get exactly the right glue adhesive they need."
Besides an expanded billboard, the package exhibits the gloss of flexible film for marketing impact.
The package was not without challenges, such as finding the best location for the film's seam on the bottle and the direction of the graphic design as the bottle goes through the shrink tunnel. Fort Dearborn decided to put the seam on the back right side.
In addition, the new bottle is taller and requires more shelf headroom. This dictated the height of the label and also demanded getting the best shrink possible. There is 67% to 70% shrinkage required, depending on bottle size. Key was the proper placement of graphics on the label to avoid distortions such as wave lines around Elmer's "house."
"Though you wouldn't notice if you were looking at the logo, it also changed some," King notes. "For one, the bull's head is a little larger. We have to walk the line with a bull that appeals to school children as well as hard-core construction guys."
Graphics requirements included four or five designs for each of the four bottle sizes, and even then, a particular size might have a few different vignettes (of print copy) for the same product. This meant the label might be either a nine- or 10-color flexographic press job. UV flexo is stronger with finer dots, so printing the vignettes was more consistent using this method rather than water-based inks.
The new packaging is rolling out in phases in 2008, and King mentions that the new bottle costs roughly the same to produce as the old one.
By Pat Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World
