If your objective is shelf distinction in your category, do what competing brands don't.

It's OK to break the rules, and Kodak does just that by packaging ink-jet print cartridges in standup pouches rather than in the folding cartons and thermoformed containers that dominate the category.

The cartridges are loaded into one of four pouch formats, each with Kodak's signature "Kodak yellow" color. The cartridges are developed for Kodak's new Easy-Share All-in-One printers.

"We couldn't bring this new print cartridge to the retail aisle in a package that looked like everyone else's. The package had to be disruptive," Shannon Monroe, Kodak's Worldwide Consumables Product Marketing Manager, tells Packaging World Editor Pat Reynolds.

The multi-layer, Doyen-style pouches are from Printpack, which also reverse-prints the graphics flexographically in up to six colors on an outer layer of polyester.

A project of this magnitude at Kodak, one of North America's most recognizable brands, required a collaborative effort with the brand, marketing, and packaging functions. The team began visiting stores to understand how its products would be displayed. That information provided clues to the package footprint available to designers. The result was packaging designed for shelf, rack, or pusher-arm display.

The packages are color-coded to identify black- and color-ink cartridges. Read the full article, and discover how Kodak is able to price its cartridges at about 50% less than competing brands.