A streamlined PET bottle for Kraft Foods' 50-plus salad dressings achieves a 19% reduction in weight over the previous packaging and also provides multiple consumer conveniences.

Let's face it.

Procter & Gamble is extending its Downy Simple Pleasures brand with a new line of "fabric enhancers" marketed under the Radiance Collection subbrand. The three scents in the line are formulated with assistance from perfume houses and delivered through a proprietary technology that deposits microscopic capsules of perfume onto fabrics during the wash/rinse cycles.

One strategy for creating a successful lifestyle brand focuses on a reinforced sense of well-being. One section of the store where this message can work well is household products, and a stellar recent example is WD-40's X-14 bathroom-cleaning products.

Land O'Lakes is expanding distribution for its butter brand while also marketing more directly to today's smaller households by reconfiguring the packaging.

Take a look around your product category for the true leaders.

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.

Salon Selectives is returning to store shelves after a four-year hiatus with new products and updated formulas among its 18-product line of shampoos, conditioners, and styling and treatment products. Packaging also updates the brand.

Why do we indulge the clearly undesirable tendency to create "me-too" products with mundane packaging to match? Recently, I came across some interesting perspectives.

A number of "attitude" beverages have been entering the market lately, and a new one demonstrates the power of the bottle and label working together. Melbourne, Australia-based Hazardous Fluids Pty. Ltd. is rolling out Sportsdrink + Bodily Fluids in the U.S. as an isotonic supplement drink designed for athletes participating in motor and power sports.

White-coated aluminum cans provide the canvas for labels with glitzy graffiti graphics that introduce AriZona Beverages' All City NRG green-tea-based, pomegranate-juice-flavored energy drinks.

Packages that intuitively inform consumers about the products they contain have an edge in boosting brand sales. A key tactic these packages share is the ability to focus on a single message.

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

What is the role of product packaging, given the fast-changing face of retailing and consumer demand now?

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.

The challenge for third-generation DelGrosso Foods: Increase distribution to gourmet supermarkets and specialty food stores. The solution: The company developed ultra premium, natural Italian sauces, marketed under the La Famiglia DelGrosso brand name, and then introduced them in packaging that reflects both the quality ingredients and family pride vested in the products.

Guardsman is a "heritage" brand in the furniture-care products industry. The brand was founded in 1915 in Grand Rapids, MI, and Valspar Corp. wanted to make it more contemporary.

If you're a brand manager or package designer, you can play an important role in creating packaging that achieves branding objectives and also uses less packaging materials or incorporates reusable or recyclable materials. So says Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Sam's Club Director of Packaging.

Over time, a brand can become "dated," and BeautiControl Inc., Carrollton, TX, reached that point with its 15-year-old Skinlogics Lip Apeel line. The company updated the brand with custom packaging that also responds to consumer complaints about products that dry out.

Some of the brightest branding and design minds in the business will highlight this year's FUSE: Design & Culture/Brand Identity & Packaging conference, produced by the Institute for International Research (IIR), will be April 13-16 at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, New York City.

Brand managers of healthcare products are beginning to use words like "efficacy" when discussing packaging options for their products—a sign that they view packaging as more than a carrier of the product.

A clever garden-spray-hose delivery system and a striking shrink-sleeve label give distinction to The Scotts Co.'s multipacks of Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed All Purpose Plant Food.

The no-mix, no-measure product and packaging heighten consumer convenience by minimizing steps during product use. A plant food hose feeding adapter (sold separately) has one screw-thread aperture that connects to the hose. A second aperture attaches to the top of the opened bottle. Water and plant food blend within the adapter for delivery through the feeding spray nozzle.

Nine-color rotogravure printing enriches the polyvinyl chloride sleeves around the 16-oz bottles. Fort Dearborn Co. provides the sleeves.

"LiquaFeed has been the most successful new product launch in the history of our company," says Carlos Hernandez, Scotts Marketing Director. "The innovative packaging design is an important part of the product's success."

Suggested retail price is $9.99 for a four-pack and $5.99 for a two-pack.

High-volume retailers are beginning to operate as brands rather than places, and this shift is profoundly impacting consumer packaged goods.

Some of the brightest branding and design minds in the business will highlight this year's FUSE: Design, Culture, Branding conference (formerly Brand Identity and Package Design). The conference, produced by the Institute for International Research (IIR), will be April 13-16 at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, New York City.

When a brand favored by professionals goes mainstream, communication challenges with the new audience can be considerable. The products are usually of premium quality, with a corresponding price point. The right packaging is essential in introducing the brand to mainstream consumers.

You've got limited education budget and time, yet you want the essential information about trends driving packaging that gets results with today's demanding retailers and consumers. If this describes you, Shelf Impact!'s Package Design Workshops are just for you.

About 70% of brand marketers launched new innovations or line extensions and 44% repositioned their brands in 2007. But marketers also say in a new survey that their main regret of 2007 was failing to invest more effort into understanding what makes their customers tick.

Product manufacturers are scurrying to show consumers they have embraced the “green” movement. Frito-Lay joins the parade. The company is adding a “Green-e” designation across the full line of its SunChips multigrain snack packs and becoming one of the first national consumer packaged goods brands to include the Green-e logo on packaging.

If kids and moms are core audiences for your brand, IQPC’s Kid & Mom Power Food & Beverage 2008 conference is for you, This is the 9th annual conference, and the theme is Creating Winning Campaigns for Moms that Excite Kids in Today’s Modern Health Age.
The event will be Jan. 29 through Feb. 1, 2008, at the Hyatt Harborside Hotel, Boston, MA. Shelf Impact! is a media partner for the conference.

Brand and category managers who want to grow market share should be paying close attention to two trends occurring in stores today. The first trend is an increase in more sophisticated store brands stressing value. The second one is the revival of the “center store.”

Speed-to-market is an essential advantage for any marketer of health care products. Sageant LLC received new labels in less than two weeks that reflect well on its brand of health supplements and vitamins. In the process, Sageant gained the flexibility to rapidly produce cost-effective label short-runs for sales samples and promotional campaigns, says Kelly Gaisford, Sageant President.

Coca-Cola’s goal: Reposition its Nestea brand to communicate a positioning of “feel-good freshness” to attract new consumers in the refrigerated beverages section of the store.

“Touchpoints” is a term that’s become popular in marketing and packaging jargon, and I’ve discussed it previously in this space. There are two definitions. In marketing vernacular, touchpoints describe each occasion a brand marketer communicates a brand message to a consumer.

Hispanics have purchasing power of $860 billion, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, and all I get on my package is the translation of the words “black beans” to frijoles negros?

Inspired by the company’s own century-plus heritage, a new PET bottle and label design add a twist while also reflecting on tradition for Mountain Valley Spring Water, from Mountain Valley Spring Co., Hot Springs, AR. The new look has expanded the brand’s distribution from independent home- and office-delivery distributors into retailers such as Whole Foods.

“We synthesized the pillars of our brand to be ‘quality,’ ‘heritage,’ and ‘Americana,’” says Jim Karrh, Chief Marketing Officer. “That means that everything we do, including our packaging, has to reflect at least one of those pillars—and do so in an authentic way.”

Created by Flowdesign, the new PET bottle combines the redesigned label of Mountain Valley’s recently redesigned glass bottle. Green-hued plastic and an hourglass profile give the PET bottle a contemporary flair. The top portion of the bottle mold depicts rolling mountains topped with pine trees and the words “Since 1871” embossed above the label.

Mountain Valley’s Veriplas Containers molds the bottle on-site, and Valley Label converts the glue-applied film label.

VasoActive Pharmaceuticals, Danvers, MA, has gained additional market distribution for its three OTC topical lotions—Termin-8 (for athlete’s foot), A-R Extreme (for temporary relief from minor sports-related muscular and skeletal injuries), and Osteon (for osteoarthritis and other muscle and joint pain)—by redesigning the packaging for more vibrancy, dimension, and color-coding. With new packaging, the brand’s OTC topical lotions signal product efficacy and health benefits over competitive products.

“Manifesting brand essence through packaging is powerful at retail,” declares Ron Pence, Pepsi Senior Marketing Manager for packaging innovation. The Pepsi brand reflects youth and vitality, and those virtues shine through on its new 20-oz bottle for the U.S. market.

Why can some products build an army of loyal consumers with little or no advertising and other brands require an expensive promotional campaign for success? Patrick Hanlon, Founder and CEO of Thinktopia, says true brands are belief systems with perceptible meaning to set them apart from commodity products.

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.

For Teen Everyday Skincare System skincare products, packaging is the messenger for inspirational messages and a bit of attitude.

"The products are for teens and pre-teens, and we wanted to have packaging that was both attractive and inspirational for these girls," says Susan Shand, CEO and Co-Founder of TESS, Santa Barbara, CA.

Messages printed onto various packaging components include phrases such as "dare to dream," "speak your mind," and never settle."

TESS is using 2-oz and 4-oz clear and white PET Boston Round bottles, from The Cosmetic Packaging Group, O.Berk Co., with white disc dispensing caps or fine-mist spray tops. The range of packaging also includes 4-oz clear PET wide-mouth jars with white caps. Color hues on containers and caps match brand formulations and colors.

Unilever's Breyers brand created a new ice cream product based on new processing technology that swirls extra silky, smooth ice cream together with a range of indulgent toppings. Marketed under the Swirls subbrand, packaging sells the ice cream's distinctive design pattern to consumers.

Smith Design created the identity and label design for the line of quarts in six flavors. The Swirls brand name, printed in whimsical typography on the label, highlights the product's swirl effect, evident through the clear plastic container.

Mouth-watering illustrations of fruit and toppings call attention to the ice cream's "freshly made" ingredients and accentuate the product's eye appeal at the point of sale.

In order to be truly effective, packaging has to literally deliver the heart and soul of the brand in a way that forges strong, emotive connections with the consumer. The days of delivering a hierarchy of features and benefits on packaging in a dry manner, sans emotion, are over. But where do emotive cues come from?

With this issue, Shelf Impact! begins a more inclusive era in dissecting the marketing strategies and trends driving packaging decisions today.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then why do so many brands choose to use so many words to get their message across to the consumer?

Innovation brings women to an aisle in the store—auto care—they don’t normally frequent, and integration of a network of vendors gives Honeywell a ‘virtual factory.’

Instead of working strictly from a packaging brief, Stuart Leslie, President of 4sight Inc., New York City, favors a more direct approach with consumers to satisfy their unmet needs, as he discusses in this chat with Shelf Impact!

Simoniz, Bolton, CT, has developed a line of car-care products with a high-performance formulation that creates high gloss on auto surfaces. The company is using packaging to bring branding dimension to the advanced product formulation as a communicator of value and a squeaky clean shine—and to enhance product protection in distribution.

For Teen Everyday Skincare System skincare products, packaging is the messenger for inspirational messages and a bit of attitude.

Unilever's Breyers brand created a new ice cream product based on new processing technology that swirls extra silky, smooth ice cream together with a range of indulgent toppings. Marketed under the Swirls subbrand, packaging sells the ice cream's distinctive design pattern to consumers.

In order to be truly effective, packaging has to literally deliver the heart and soul of the brand in a way that forges strong, emotive connections with the consumer. The days of delivering a hierarchy of features and benefits on packaging in a dry manner, sans emotion, are over. But where do emotive cues come from?

When Wall Street is pressuring you to quickly revive a recently purchased slumping brand, the tendency often is to default to tactics such as “me-too” packaging. That was anything but the case at Procter & Gamble.

If you work in research, strategy development or design, the ninth annual Proof: Market Research & Strategy Development for Package Design conference is for you. Produced by the Institute for International Research, Proof will be from Oct. 1-3, 2007, at the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago.

Brand design is so much more than the artistic veneer it once was. It’s about orchestrating and delivering a total experience based on a deep understanding of what the consumer wants. When orchestrated perfectly, the design provides brand differentiation and delivers an experience that’s positive, memorable, and unexpected. In the fast-moving world of consumer goods, the opportunity for direct consumer experience with the brand is minimal. That is why Procter & Gamble’s previous way of thinking about design—regionally organized package and product design focused on simple aesthetics and technical aspects—gave way to a global design strategy based on the totality of the brand experience.

Company Co-Founder Eric Ryan has been making the rounds at branding and design conferences, saying Method Products loves to break away from the utilitarian look as a way to challenge product category norms. The San Francisco, CA-based marketer has followed through on that approach in a number of household product categories, and is now bringing it to floor cleaner.

Claudia Kotchka is a 29-year veteran at Procter & Gamble. As Vice President of Design Innovation and Strategy, her job is to “build design into P&G’s DNA.”

The package is becoming essential in marketing, and a good brief invites critical thinking earlier from those with packaging savvy.

Brand identity and packaging create premium Select line while also tying into the parent brand’s equity.

Exclusivity sells because often, the package is the product. Shelves at Sephora, a chain of beauty products stores founded in France, showcased an eye-catching example during the 2006 holiday season.

By changing the label, store chain maintains local appeal of coffee brand ’ s small batches

Drawing inspiration from brand of yesteryear is now the future

Last month, Shelf Impact! also asked the following question: How do you validate the return on investment when using a contract packager for your package development? Here are some of your responses:

In southeast China, packaging for food that can spoil has to work doubly hard. Beyond brand communication, it has to protect the product from the region ’ s heat and humidity.

Customize and offering something extra. Tyson, General Mills, Hershey, and Keurig show what works.

It ’ s no secret that private-label brands have been gaining market share steadily at the expense of regional and national brands. But what ’ s striking about the latest independent study of store brands is that the growth is trickling down from food and beverage to non-grocery categories.

Anyone who creates packaging should take note of two significant trends occurring in the battleground that is the store shelf. First, the steady growth of retailer-brand products in food and beverage has begun to create a “ halo ” effect over non-grocery categories. Second, mega- retailers and specialty chains are stealing market share from traditional supermarkets, strengthened with shelves displaying an abundance of brands exclusive to their stores.

The Institute for International Research (IIR) has announced additional speakers for its 11th annual Fuse: Brand Identity & Package Design conference April 16-18, 2007, at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, in New York City.

More than half of all purchase decisions are made in the store, and clutter is the reality of the shopping experience. What should brand marketers and package designers think about to be successful in this environment? It boils down to 10 principles.

I recently had the occasion to visit Café El Marino in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. From its bustling plant in that seaport city, Café El Marino has become one of Mexico’s largest coffee producers in part because company General Director, Arturo Lizárraga Mercado, is a forward thinker. Mercado believes that one largely untapped opportunity in branding
is the cross promotion of related products. This is one approach, he believes, that could get products more into club stores and other high-volume retailers (HVRs).

The 12th annual Fuse: Brand Identity & Package Design conference will offer brand stewards and package designers the newest tools and information for mastering the art and science of package design and communications.

Morton International has begun refreshing package designs for its stable of specialty salts, which have been on the market for several years. This is a tall order that the Chicago-based company—historically not one for frequent packaging changes—is pursuing carefully. Why? The company’s flagship Morton Salt is one of the nation’s most trusted brands. Its dark blue-labeled, cylindrical basic table salt package is a staple in many kitchen pantries, and Morton doesn’t want consumers to lose identity with the core brand.

The Wm. Wrigley Co. challenged its Marketing Department to increase consumption among loyalists of the company’s Eclipse chewing gum.

Icon brands that stay relevant and create symmetry between products in the brand “family” continue to endure in consumers’ hearts. Gerber, a long-trusted brand, is a recent example with a new packaging system for all three of its lines, which help consumers to shop the category more efficiently.

Packaged goods become abstract when even the smallest supermarket stocks thousands of SKUs. In this disconnected environment, consumers gravitate toward products with identifiable origins.

For brands that have earned icon status, the single most powerful marketing tool is an identity that synthesizes authenticity and relevance.

An unprecedented 30,000 new products are expected to flood store shelves in 2006. One of the primary tactics feeding this staggering total is brand extensions. The thinking today is to build additional sales for a brand that has reached saturation in one category by introducing the brand through a new and related product in another category.

Package Design magazine seeks branding and design professionals to vote online to select its annual Makeover Challenge winner. Five teams have re-created new packages and a new brand identity for four SKUs of the Fresh Body Market brand of vegan-certified soap and lotion products.

Define your visual equities, design for the future, and trust your agency. These steps will help you to keep the forces of the familiar at bay.

Packaging managers from four leading consumer goods companies said during a panel discussion at the “Fuse: Brand Identity & Package Design” conference in April in New York that marketers and designers often work too independently of each other. This results in a creativity gap that can derail effective package development before the process reaches the packaging line.

Online marketing and emerging media experts lay out strategies for captivating the experiential consumer in an increasingly interactive world.

4C Foods Corp. boosted sales 7% for its 4C brand of seasoned salt-free breadcrumbs by refreshing the canister graphics to help reintroduce the long-time product’s benefits to diet-conscious consumers.

The redesigned canister graphics achieve two important objectives for the Brooklyn, NY-based marketer:

In March, Shelf Impact! also asked readers the following question: Under what conditions would it be beneficial for vendors to sell packaging innovation to you, the brand steward, rather than to your product's consumers?

    Here is how some of you responded.

    "Most of the time. Suppliers are rather shy about trying new things in my segment of retailing. And my company likes to be innovative, when it's truly meaningful innovation. Both the retailer and supplier benefit when innovation brings higher sales through a better display, lower sell prices, or both."

Shell Lubricants has about 45,000 “registrants”—patents, trademarks, etc.,—on file, two-thirds of them in consumer products. Dena Ladner is responsible for much of the packaging that incorporates those marks across Shell’s consumer product lines.

As Manager of North American Lubricants Innovation/D-I-Y Packaging, part of Ladner’s job includes keeping current on the ins and outs of intellectual property law and incorporating the proper ownership protections into Shell’s product and packaging, including design. At the recent Package Design 06 conference in Clearwater Beach, FL, Ladner passed along the following tips for protecting what comes out of the creative design process at consumer packaged goods companies:

1. Industrial design must be “uniquely attractive” and registered to qualify for legal protection. Protection lasts for up to five years, but can be extended another 15 years. In some countries, the design can be protected as a work of art.

2. Unless an agreement exists that stipulates ownership of agency-created work, the law stipulates that the creator owns the design.

3. Sometimes, in commissioning a new universal design for a package, an invention is created. To assure the most stringent protection of any inventions, the brand owner should consider applying for a patent, which lasts for up to 20 years. To qualify for a patent, the invention must be new, technically useful, but “not obvious.”

4. Trademarks are an effective tactic for distinguishing products. When a trademark is changed, the new one must be registered. “Invent the strongest word you can,” Ladner advises.

5. Assure that all employees and contractors have contracts that address their obligations pertaining to ownership and confidentiality in matters of intellectual property.

6. Assign someone to handle all confidential information, conduct due diligence, and conduct intellectual property reviews.

7. Work with your legal department every step of the way. “You don’t want to leave risk on the table because you weren’t careful,” Ladner says. “Make sure all patents have been filed, all agreements have been filled, and then do an annual review of your registrations.”

One consequence of failing to renew registrations is loss of product name ownership, Ladner says. The product names become generic.

“Shell Lubricants is a large company. We are always looking for opportunities, such as competitors failing to renew a registration,” she adds. On the other hand, she adds, “Frequently, people don’t know when they’re infringing on patents, and it’s your obligation to tell them when they are.”

CPGs want dead-on color accuracy while also improving package the printing-process. Prepress is where it all has to happen.

Printers use the term prepress to describe what happens between the final package design and the actual package printing. In today’s demanding retail environment, its importance has increased for brand managers as they strive to succeed in package development.

Here’s why: Brand managers have to be mindful of the packaging demands of not only consumers but now the most influential retailers as well.

“We see how often the CPG companies aren’t really in control of the package at times—it’s the big retailers,” says Mark Vanover, Director of Marketing at Esko-Graphics, a supplier of pre-press solutions for printers.

By helping to set up and manage a prepress process, a brand manager can ensure that the packaging colors match what consumer focus groups liked, as well as the specifications set forth by packaging engineers and designers.

Can the impact of dollars invested in a package redesign be measured on the bottom line? United States Beverage believes the answer is yes. The company markets and manages Seagram’s Coolers, a 20-year-old brand owned by Pernod-Ricard USA, Lawrenceburg, IN.

In our April 2005 issue, Shelf Impact! reported that with sales stagnating or declining across Seagram’s family of wine coolers, U.S. Beverage in 2004 had discarded the brand’s iconic appearance and restaged the brand as Seagram’s Cooler Escapes, with more contemporary graphics that accentuate the fun inherent in consuming the fruity, low-alcohol-content beverage.

In November, Shelf Impact! also asked readers what tactics you have in place to measure packaging “wear out” before product sales decline. Thirty-eight readers answered this question, and 15 of you said you have no process in place for measuring package wear out. Here are some of your responses:

“We have none in place. As manufacturers, we rely on feedback from our customers (e.g. Home Depot, True Value, Ace Hardware, etc.) with regard to packaging improvements and changes.”

“Ongoing online research.”

“Focus groups every two years to measure perception and acceptance by the consumer.”

“We're in the process of testing several options and doing feasibility analysis.”

“Close customer contact.”

“Packaging equity research.”

“We just keep an eye on sales and react as necessary.”

Shoppers bring unique mind-sets to each shopping trip based on time of day and other events in their lives. Time is more constrained on some trips than others. In spite of these variables, however, the marketer’s goal is always clear: communicate a clear reason to buy today.

Leadership brands answer all these challenges, and they follow four principles in retail stores. They understand the need to plan, capture, connect, and activate.

Principle 1: Plan. Design the right brand experience for a specific shopper, at a specific retailer. Shoppers behave differently based on the type of channel and retailer. Behavior changes when shopping for tonight’s dinner versus stocking up.

Principle 2: Capture. Drive attention through discontinuity. Know how shoppers navigate the category, and then create a unique category experience.

Retailers are increasing the sophistication and flexibility of their own brands—in part through strikingly upgraded packaging. Growth continues so strongly that private-label brands are challenging the marketing axiom that the only way to build brand equity with consumers is through widespread, national production distribution.

This observation comes from the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s 2005 roundtable report, and the numbers from both the association’s own studies, other reports, and from individual retailers support the roundtable’s findings.

• Store brands account for 19.6% of units purchased across all product lines and distribution channels, according to the PLMA. The figures exclude Wal-Mart, which no longer participates in retail data-reporting programs.

• Retail industry analysts interviewed for the 2005 Packaging Strategies report “Contract Packaging: Strategic Opportunities and Profit Potential,” estimated that in 2004 private-label brands accounted for about 40% of Wal-Mart’s sales.

Winning strategies will focus on the needs of retailers and the consumer as both shopper and product user. Co-packers will play a bigger role in the value equation.

Packaging today must answer increasingly sophisticated retailer needs and satisfy the consumer throughout the product’s life cycle—while still managing somehow to take cost out of the system.

Branding, marketing, and package design experts contacted by Shelf Impact! agree that packaging strategies aimed at answering these three challenges should guide product packagers heading into 2006. They believe these challenges will profoundly influence strategies for creating packages with the best marketing impact in the coming year and beyond.

The resealable aluminum bottle comes to Latin America with Hot Hangover Tea. Innovacion Comercial en Alimentos S.A. de C.V. markets the beverage.

The bottle, from CCL Container, features a threaded plastic sleeve that is fitted to the top of the container to accommodate tamper-evident, resealable plastic caps and to heighten visual impact.

The lightweight aluminum bottle enables the marketer to create a new beverage category in Latin America with Hot Hangover Tea. The label’s rich red color and bold fonts position the product as an invigorating drink with herb extracts and amino acids that help reduce the unpleasant sensations associated with a hangover.

The bottle holds 8.4 oz of tea.

Link: CCL Container

How can a regional brand of honey spread gain national distribution? Position it as a healthful and less-fattening alternative to butter and cream cheese.

That’s what Mel-O Honey Inc., Cannon Falls, MN, has done. It restaged its Mel-O-Crème brand of honey spread by altering the package size and materials, and expanding the package’s available color palette to intensify taste appeal.

“We needed a new brand identity that would not only resonate in today’s market place, but also introduce new peach and raspberry SKUs,” says Curt Riess, Mel-O Honey CEO. “We needed a label that would tell consumers exactly what the product is and why they should buy it.”

Studio One Eleven designed the look of the 7-oz polypropylene tub. The container matches the size of competing low-fat/cholesterol-substitute products and places the honey spread in store coolers. The new design also:

“Lovemark” just may supplant experiential branding as a marketing buzzword. Whereas experiential branding involves creating a brand with a unique emotional connection with a consumer, a lovemark is all about how you create that connection.

Marcia Roosevelt is Executive Vice President at Saatchi & Saatchi, which coined the term lovemark. With 20 years in new product development, she has come to believe that brands win consumers by creating a deep, meaningful relationship with them. Roosevelt contends that many brand managers have failed in the relationship game.

World Kitchen has extended its equity in bakeware into silicone products. For its new Baker’s Secret Silicone Bakeware sub-brand, called Baker’s Secret Flexible, the Reston, VA, marketer created an eye-catching e-flute paperboard sleeve, printed offset in five colors.

Silicone bakeware’s bending capability enables it to fit into small storage places. That is a strong point of difference with metal bakeware, and both the Baker’s Secret Flexible product name and the packaging communicate this difference on multiple levels.

First, rather than simply depicting standard graphics, the sleeve, designed by Anthem Worldwide, leverages the sub-brand name prominently. A wave-shaped die-cut pattern on both edges of the sleeve creates the imagery of a product having flexible properties.

“The product’s material properties offer the ultimate convenience,” says Jyoti Sharma, Baker’s Secret Flexible Brand Manager. “It’s oven-and freezer-safe, dishwasher-sturdy, even microwaveable. It bends and folds easily to store in even the most space-conscious kitchens.”

In an article in CMO magazine, Taddy Hall, Chief Strategy Officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, explains that creating a great and sustainable brand (and supporting it through packaging) requires that brand managers determine how consumers use brands in their lives. Hall offers nine ideas for creating a great brand.

1. Don't ask customers what they want or query them about product attributes. Those questions won’t provide insight into customers' needs. Only by observing how they confront the challenges of a particular set of circumstances can you identify their “jobs to be done.” From there, you can define a new category according to those jobs and develop a brand that's the perfect “hire.”

2. Beware of the major up-front advertising blitz. If a manager recommends mass-reach advertising to generate awareness and induce “trial,” be nervous. Big markets are needed to justify spending big bucks. Big markets are usually occupied and unavailable to new entrants.

This article was adapted from a longer article in the July/August issue of Package Design magazine

As Director of Global Design for Procter & Gamble Beauty, Elizabeth Olson sifts the bandwidth of consumer demand for the cues and clues that enable P&G Beauty to make emotional connections with consumers around the world.

The key to successful brand extensions is determining that they are consistent with the brand’s values. Not from the marketing department’s pointof view. From the consumer’s point of view, assessed through research.

Once the marketing department has effectively carried out this research, design can begin on the brand extension. The core equities of the brand and subbrand must be retained, using a visual system of segmentation. This can be done through one or more of the following five methods:

1. Color. Variations in color from package to package help distinguish one segment from another.

2. Architectural device. This is a common element engineered into the package design architecture that allows for a color, pattern, or textural change to distinguish one segment from another. An example of an excellent use of this technique is Post’s high-volume Honey Bunches of Oats cereal line.

Building brand equity is marketing’s most important job. Brands with high equity have higher share-of requirements, higher margins, and higher profitability.

Yet, Gordon Wade, Partner at the EMM Group, observes that brand equity scores long have been declining. In a highly informative recent workshop, Wade listed these reasons for the decline:

• The cost of conventional media is skyrocketing.

• The effectiveness of using conventional media is declining, and with it, return on investment.

Q: How can I create successful brand extensions?

A: Brand extensions can leverage a brand’s assets and equity by marketing new products or services. While this strategy offers significant strengths to brand extensions, significant risks can arise in diluting or severely damaging the brand. Typical brand extensions include basic line additions within the same segment—from Coke to Vanilla Coke, for example.

Many brand managers believe it makes sense to “transfer” the promise and equity of their established brand to another product. But that isn’t always true. In fact, many companies go too far in trying to extend their brand to products or services that are a poor fit and risk losing credibility in their flagship brands in the process.

The key to successful brand extensions is determining that those proposed are consistent with the brand’s core values. Not from the marketing department’s point of view, but from the consumer’s point of view.

At the grocery store where Dorothy shops, the retailer positions one row of its own store brand right in the middle of multiple rows of a competing national brand. Both packages look very similar.

Dorothy carefully arranges her shopping trip, and cash-off coupons are part of her planning. “It aggravates me to no end when I get to the check-out and I present my coupon, and I realize that I’ve picked up the store’s brand when I thought I was picking up the national brand,” she says. “I don’t have time to go back and get the brand that I have the coupon for.

“I have complained to the store manager, and it does affect how I feel about their store brand. I won’t buy it.”

We asked readers during May whether their marketing strategy included one-to-one packaging during the next 12 months. This approach includes tactics such as the Internet to let consumers, in effect, create their own brand by customizing the product formulation and some or all of the packaging elements.

Packages using one-to-one marketing have cropped up in categories such as health and beauty aids, bottled water. and soft drinks.

Fourteen of 44 Shelf Impact! readers who responded to this question said one-to-one marketing is a near-term strategic consideration at their company.

To manage contract packaging effectively, you have to use the right tactics. They differ for each project. They vary for each CPG and for divisions within each company. And they differ by product category.

But within all those variations, some key steps can deliver a contract-packaging project with solid bottom-line impact for a CPG. A new research report titled ContractPackaging: Strategic Opportunities & Profit Potential, from Packaging Strategies, outlines six steps to consider in any contract packaging effort:

1. Thoroughly assess the decision to outsource. The decision to use a contract packager is a complex make-versus-buy analysis where time is a critical factor, but it is not the only factor. The research report offers a matrix to assess factors such as competitive threats, capital costs, and return on investment. Consultancy Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions, one of the study’s principal contributors, says in the report that from a management perspective, each factor needs to be answered as part of a risk assessment matrix that looks at these aspects:

Q: How can design analysis be less subjective and more efficient while ensuring that the most effective strategies are identified, explored, selected, and implemented?

A: Translate your brand’s core attributes into colors, shapes, textures, graphics, and typestyles that best evoke your brand’s emotional connection with your consumer.

First, develop a “visual brand essence.” Determine what unique experience your brand can own, and then look for brands that own a similar experience in a related category. Which design elements can you leverage to make them distinct to your brand?

Second, define category cues and core mnemonics. Define visual cues that your category uses to train consumers toward defining product forms or benefits. Adapt these cues to work uniquely for your brand (“fast relief” in OTC).

In last month’s Shelf Impact!, Martin Bunce of Tin Horse, a United Kingdom design firm, said a sameness approach to package development is leading to a lot of bland packaging. So what’s going wrong? Bunce says the innovation focus has to shift.

He recommends connecting with values that drive consumers’ thought processes. His operative words are “feel,” “think,” and “do,” and the two accompanying charts describe two ways of approaching the relationship between the three of them.

Hewlett-Packard is leading a trend of consumer products companies seeking to outsource package development and its sizeable and diverse supply chain to contract packagers so it can concentrate on what it does best—market technology-based products to businesses and consumers.

Key is developing a partnership with co-packers that optimize its packaging with the right materials, understand regional variations, and create “horizontal integration” through alliances.

“We don’t do design anymore. We manage design. We check design,” says John Hayward, an HP Packaging Manager.

Brand identity consultants often position a single product or new product line. When the product is new, brand identity and image must be created from scratch. Often, these both must be re-created when the product is already in the marketplace.

A host of research is required prior to establishing a brand’s identity, and its ensuing package design. Category audits must be done to assess the competition at retail. The brand assets of the new product must be uncovered and its brand drivers identified. Consumer research into brand experiences that impact consumer perception and decision-making require analysis. Package design must honestly and directly communicate brand values, and connect with consumers.

Consider these two steps to help you succeed:

• Quantitative and qualitative research are crucial to creating and maintaining consistent category leaders. Formulate a pre-design process to lay the foundation for all brand identity and package design.

Q: How can you identify the brand drivers and uncover the brand assets critical to the pre-packaging process?

A: Uncovering what we call the “enjoyment assets” of a brand becomes the foundation for building a unique visual expression for that brand. Connecting consumers emotionally to a brand is essential. Connecting them to a product through enjoyment is powerful, bringing favorable associations to mind at the point of sale, and motivating purchase. When the brand promise is fulfilled in the consumer’s mind, brand loyalty results.

Even commodity products, which do not “own” enjoyment, can bring differentiating attributes into play. These enhance positive interaction with consumers to create enjoyment within the brand experience.

Increasingly, consumer product companies understand packaging’s power as the “silent salesman.” They’re diverting dollars into packaging that were formerly earmarked for other promotions.

Consider these seven keys for leveraging packaging as a marketing tool.

1. Bring packaging into the process earlier to deliver real value. The manner in which a package’s structure lets consumers fit a product into their lives is critical to a product’s use and success.

2. Make packaging a growth platform for marketing and organizational success. Investing in having your product and package better integrated into consumers’ lives will enhance performance, usage, and consumer loyalty.

3. View packaging as a brand lever and brand ambassador. How can the package fit into consumers’ lifestyles so they leave the product on their desks at work, or in the kitchen, or carry it with them? This is a valuable endorsement.