How can packaging raise the bar for exclusive salon products? By positioning them as "lifestyle brands" to drive the overall marketing strategy, both in salons and in homes. Mario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas offers an engaging example of how to do it in exclusive, personal-care products.
When recently introducing six new products to its Nature's Alternative brand lineup, Mario Tricoci also took the opportunity to give the brand a new look. The 19 SKUs in the Nature's Alternative family of cosmeceutical skin-care cremes, lotions, and serums present a new look to maximize emotional impact.
The line's various packaging dimensions allow for shelf variances at each of Mario Tricoci's 20 salons in Chicago, IL, and elsewhere in the Midwest, where the brand is marketed exclusively. In addition, the clever use of design maximizes the package "billboard" on salon shelves by extending the stylish Nature's Alternative logo over two stacked cartons. Triumph Packaging Group produces the SBS cartons.
This approach enables Mario Tricoci to display the packaging as a stunning planogram to maximize branding inside its salons, says Mary Stover, New Business Development Manager at Eight Marketing Communications, which designed the new packaging for Nature's Alternative. After consumers use the products, the visually striking packages double as bathroom accents.
The branding also extends to PET jars with polypropylene caps and the Refining Serum package. PKG Group produces the Refining Serum package.
The idea, Stover says, is to support the notion of "simple, precious" products. But the packaging's benefits extend beyond that, adds Elaine Sauer, Spa Director for Mario Tricoci.
"The new packaging now reflects the freshness of our natural ingredients, such as pumpkin seed oil, peppermint, and eucalyptus, with very powerful healing properties," Sauer explains. "Our skin is one-of-a-kind, which is why we designed Nature's Alternative packaging to help guests identify their skin-type needs."
Color-coded packaging identifies the brand's skin-protecting, skin-reviving, skin-clarifying, and skin-cleansing product lines. Consumers are pampered as they open the cartons as well. Using foil lamination, the inside panels heighten the perception that the product user is entering her own world of elegance.
By Jim George, Editor
