Can design help bring a 20% to 25% sales premium at retail over competing brands?

Procter & Gamble thinks so, and it is using a packaging strategy that's consistently proven to be one of the most engaging topics at Shelf Impact!'s Package Design Workshops: the need to understand your consumer and then to look beyond your own category for adaptable packaging ideas.

P&G does just that in communicating the cleaning power of its reformulated Cascade Complete All in 1 ActionPacs automatic dishwasher detergent. The product is being introduced nationally in August. P&G leverages the brand's blue and green product colors in both the product gel and on the label. The clear polypropylene container—it offers a different look amid the category's paperboard containers and opaque bottles—lets consumers see the product.

The packaging, which P&G designed by working with LPK draws inspiration from beauty care products by leveraging a "jewelry box" design to make the Cascade detergent a more exclusive brand.

"Women who purchase Cascade already buy premium products in other categories," says Keara Schwartz, P&G Design Manager, citing the company's consumer research. "She values performance and experiences, and that translates across categories."

The pressure-sensitive label (suppliers not disclosed) exudes performance by using the brand's signature blue and green colors in a swirling, vortex shape to convey the product's ability to get dishes sparkling clean. This soft, feminine shape gives women confidence that the product will get their dishes clean in one cycle through the dishwasher, and provides the package with the visual impact that can make it a decorative item on kitchen countertops, says Ryan Dullea, Assistant Brand Manager for Cascade.

The detergent gel is filled in a vortex shape inside the ActionPacs dissolvable pouches to extend the branding approach. The package "sells the quality" elsewhere as well. When using a thumb to depress the pop-up PP lid, consumers can feel the Cascade logo, which is embossed onto the lid.

P&G is the forefront of engaging consumers through design, and Cascade Complete is its latest package designed to elevate a commodity product into a lifestyle brand.

Jim George, Editor in Chief