What are the differences in packaging design between the U.S. and Europe?

Shape is the differentiator on another package in the beverage aisle with Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Beverages' 21-oz angled glass bottles of Rose's Mojito. The brand is a line of non-alcoholic mojito mixers.

With reports stating that Europeans recycle only 7% of the estimated nine billion plastic milk bottles they purchase each year, sustainability efforts are gaining a foothold. One U.K. supermarket chain is doing its part to advance the "green" movement.

When suppliers talk proactively with the right people, the result often is packaging that stands out in a crowd—with money-saving efficiencies along the way.

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.

Mass customization is an effective way to solidify brand loyalty, and Miller Brewing Co. offers a novel idea in the beer aisle.

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.”

Wonder Tablitz Corp., Walpole, MA, is performing a sustainability sleight of hand with a new line of household cleaning and deodorizing products that yields 96 oz of liquid product per each empty 32-oz bottle sold. The Wonder Tablitz™ line of four cleaning solutions relies on the company's patented effervescent-tablet technology and a custom spray bottle that holds tablet refills to provide consumers with an environmentally friendly and effective cleaning system, the company says.

Using a color-matching firm, Maybelline, New York, NY, created a custom look for its new Define-A-Lash line of mascara products. Anodized packaging components were created by electrochemically converting an aluminum metal surface to its oxide.

During the anodizing process, oxygen combines with the aluminum, forming aluminum oxide on the surface. Then the aluminum is dyed. The anodizing process maintains the brand equity in the packaging’s color by preventing fading, chipping, scratching, and peeling.

The mascara package features an aluminum cap that is anodized with precision color matching by Anomatic Corp. This process creates a seamless flow of bright green from the cap to the plastic base.
To accommodate the package design, Anomatic and Techpack, which supplied the tubes, created the cap to exacting specifications.

Suggested retail price is $7.99 at department stores.

The challenge: The Stratis Group, Caldwell, NJ, wanted to reinforce the essence of Hawaiian fruit on the label to boost sales for its Hilo Gold Noni Juice. The solution: a decorative full-sleeve shrink label to stimulate maximum purchase impact.

Can a package in the self-grooming aisles really influence which product a guy buys?

Demand is growing globally for health-in-a-bottle products—those sold in daily dose formats on the basis of health claims, as a segment of the umbrella category of products that help maintain intestinal health. Marketers are introducing more health-in-a-bottle products as consumers appear increasingly interested in looking after various aspects of their well-being by consuming a health drink each day.

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

In a recent reporting period, Europe accounted for 40% and Asia Pacific 26% of new product introductions in the fabric care and detergents sub-category, substantially more than any other region around the globe. During this period, reports Mintel’s Global New Products Database, a growing number of brands have been focusing on healthful benefits; product anti-bacterial claims increased by 33%, and packaging is supporting the marketing claims.

If you make health foods fun through creative marketing, will kids swallow it?

The Ted Klein 2005 Tube of the year is Johnson & Johnson’s Skin Crack Ointment, The 1'' HDPE diameter tube, from Alcan Packaging Cebal, features a satin-matte coating to highlight graphics and the product description. The blue flip-top cap dispenses the product accurately.

1. Strive for equitable use of the package. Ensure that a variety of consumers can use the package, regardless of differences in their physical abilities, behaviors, habits, and size. Kimberly-Clark's redesign of Huggies Baby Wash packaging features a "grippable" bottle with a large lid that mom can manipulate in one hand while holding the baby with the other hand at bath time.

2. Provide flexibility in use. Encourage designs that provide a choice in methods of product use and that accommodate right- or left-handed use.

3. Design for simple and intuitive use. Your design is successful if an untrained person can effectively navigate the design and understand the product immediately. Procter & Gamble’s Febreze Air Effects air freshener cans include a trigger and grip zone that guide the consumer to the appropriate grip.

4. Communicate perceptible information. Use different symbols and tactile finishes for redundant presentation of essential information, maximizing legibility.

Mountain Valley Spring Co., Hot Springs, AR, returned to its historic roots to improve the presence of its Mountain Valley Spring Water brand in the crowded bottled water category. Working with Flowdesign, the marketer redesigned the entire brand communications for its bottled water.

A retro bottle shape and graphics hint of those used in the brand’s original bottle style in the 1800s. The glass bottle’s shoulder bears the words “Since 1871” embossed three times around the bottle and “America’s Premium Water” embossed two times around. Retro-looking fonts and graphic spirals embellish the brand’s signature oval in the middle of the label. Custom illustrations of trees and mountains provide the backdrop for the label, printed in a light green ceramic ink that wraps 180 degrees around the front of the bottle. The design includes a slimmer bottle neck.

Getting the logo bright red proved challenging in applied ceramic labeling, because bright red ceramic inks require lead, which is banned in some areas of the United States. Vitro Glass, the bottle manufacturer, solved the challenge by using a ceramic label application process that doesn’t require lead-based ink.

Glidden raises the bar in value-added paint packaging with a polypropylene Quick Roll container. The container permits do-it-yourselfers to mix, paint, and store paint in a single container.

The 1.85-gal tub-like container, from Superfos, is slightly smaller than competing 2.5-gal paint cans, increasing user convenience on ladders. Quick Roll, carrying a suggested retail price of $30, requires a four-step process:

1. Stirring the paint thoroughly in the container.

2. Dipping a roller in the paint at the open end of the container.

3. Rolling away excess paint on the grid inside the container. Unused paint drips through gaps in the grid and back into the container.

4. Start painting.

A growing challenge facing packagers today is creating a “billboard” on measured-purchase products that are displayed outside of the package. While consumers can examine the product before deciding whether to purchase it, marketers lose billboard space when the product itself rests on a hook or display shelf.

Black & Decker, Towson, MD, believes it has solved that challenge by revamping the design of point-of-purchase (P-O-P) communications for its power tools. Sara Simonsen, Brand Manager, says, “Our main objective was to look consistent, to put more emphasis on the Black & Decker brand, and have the P-O-P be easier to understand from a consumer standpoint.”

The ability to quickly understand product features and to differentiate between brands in higher-priced tools such as electric hedge trimmers is important to consumers. Equally important to brand owners and retailers alike is packaging elements that are durable enough to withstand the wear and tear when consumers repeatedly pick up a product to inspect it in the store.

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

In order to reward early buyers of the Xbox game Jade Empire. Microsoft Corp. created a limited-edition, collectible package that sparkles with 3-D holography.

The game comes in a DVD case holding two CDs and an instruction booklet. The case features a holographic 6-pt paper insert from Vacumet Corp. The paper is lacquer-coated, micro-embossed, and metallized to impart the holographic effect.

The holographic “nine-up” sheet is offset-printed in six colors plus UV varnish and die-cut by AGI Media Services.

Precise registration gives the graphics razor-sharp edges. Technicolor did the assembly and packaging.

Links: Vacumet Corp. AGI Media Services Technicolor

The energy and sports drinks category is both growing and evolving rapidly. Globally, the category saw 493 new-product launches during the first nine months of 2005, compared with 609 for all of 2004, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database. In North America, the 180 product launches during the January-September period had already exceeded the 174 introductions for all of 2005.

Following are some factors driving the market:

• All-natural products continue to increase.

• Marketers are increasingly emphasizing amino acid and electrolyte content.

• Fruity flavors are popular.

• Functional ingredients, such as Co-enzyme Q10, are adding value to energy drinks.

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.

In the June issue of Shelf Impact!, a panel of package designers and design managers lamented the challenges that the realities of their jobs place on achieving effective package designs. This month, we balance those views with one perspective from inside a retailer.

Spirits and liqueurs are two “hot” segments in alcoholic beverages, for two reasons, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database. First, advanced distilling, filtering, and aging techniques are giving products better taste, color, and aroma—and perceptions of uniqueness. Second, good-for-you and organic options appeal to some consumers.

The right package is essential in supporting either strategy in an increasingly crowded market. Mintel reports that 1,121 new spirits and liqueurs brands were introduced worldwide between January 2003 and March 2005.

“Sell the emotion.” Those words are all the rage in marketing circles. Michael Livolsi, Senior Packaging Design Manager at Unilever, validated this point in a panel discussion (see screen 10) at the recent Brand Identity & Package Design conference in New York.

Livolsi said, “How do you get that emotion in a commodity category? It’s merchandising and packaging.”

What Livolsi and others are saying is that marketers have to become storytellers. There’s simply too much clutter on the store shelves to enjoy success merely by being like everyone else.

Some marketers are failing in their effort in telling stories that sell the emotion. One axiom of this strategy is that the story has to resound with every touchpoint. But if my mail is any indication, in practice this is occurring inconsistently at best among some brands. They’re not truly authentic, and nothing kills a brand faster in a consumer’s mind than when they suspect they’ve been misled.

This particularly insightful exchange on branding and the possibilities for playing on the psychological impact of packaging took place in April on a Design Matters show broadcast on Business.VoiceAmerica.com:

Cheryl Swanson, Founder, Toniq: “Brands remind us we are human, they tell us what we like to do. Brands remind us of our childhood and simpler times, a safe zone or a zone of happiness.”

Sherwin-Williams Co. revolutionized packaging in a category with its user-friendly Dutch Boy “Twist & Pour” plastic, hand-held paint container. But after enjoying an initial surge in sales vs. traditional metalpaint containers, “comp” sales improved only slightly.

Stuart Bedford, Director New Business Development, says this scenario taught Sherwin-Williams a lesson: Product and packaging changes are short-lived; consumers adjust quickly and their expectations are altered.

In the face of competitive “me too” paint containers, Sherwin-Williams continued to move forward with Twist & Pour “sized to the project” packages. These extend Dutch Boy Twist & Pour into quart-size and 2 1/2-gallon containers.

Can you increase your brand’s “touchpoints” while also decreasing the “touches”? Leading integrated marketing communications thinking says you’d better, if you want to survive in today’s cluttered yet constantly evolving store environment.

Touchpoints has become a baseline term over the past several years in marketing and packaging circles. On the one hand, touchpoints refers to each occasion when you can convey a message about your brand to consumers.

The term also addresses the package itself and the physical contact consumers have with it. It ranks high in the hierarchy of package design, as designers are delving into areas beyond the obvious visual connection between consumer and package and examining how consumers relate both functionally and emotionally to packaging.

“Dead on” packaging innovation can change how consumers use a product. That can put a new spin on a product category, building equity for a brand as an innovative leader.

This tactic not only boosts market share, it presents opportunities to build incremental sales by creating usage occasions–and retailer benefits–for a product that previously may not have been possible.

Two recent packages demonstrate how technical innovation helps satisfy unmet consumer needs or enhance consumer perceptions of a product.

Like it or not, consumers constantly scrutinize your brand, and a lot of this scrutiny happens at the store shelf. So pay attention, perfect, and continue to reinvent your brand through great packaging. Avoid the inevitable—packaging “wear-out.”

Pre-emptive action requires long-term strategic planning. Understanding your category, the needs of your consumer, and the competitive environment holistically are key to rethinking your approach to packaging. Strategic thinking upstream will enable you to evolve, refresh, and reinvent your brand downstream. This ensures that both your brand and your packaging stay competitive and fresh in the mind of the consumer.

Factors that signal the need to change your packaging strategy are often a complex mix of market trends, shelf placement, brand positioning, and market influences. What are some of the indicators driving this decision?

Wal-Mart is keen on packaging that shows the value of a product with simple communication that gets harried consumers through the store faster. Spectrum Brands, wanting to convey the longer-lasting attribute of its Repel brand of insect repellant, features cans, bottles, and blister cards in forest green with photography of a thick, lush forest, says Angela Proctor, Product Manager.

In Wal-Mart’s view, the packaging signals a different category of repellant, apart from “everyday” competitors. Wal-Mart stocks Repel in its sporting goods department—away from the clutter of competitors in the housewares department.