Patrick Sbarra is President of New Creature, an in-store marketing and P-O-P display company that helps Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and their suppliers to "sell more stuff." Here, he discusses factors that are impacting in-store packaging decisions.

Club-store sales have reached $115 billion and are increasing nearly 5% annually. The channel's growth presents opportunities to marketers who package their products to meet the special challenges of the club-store environment.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Today’s retailer demands continually challenge food manufacturers to innovate and respond to current in-store marketing trends. The pressure often falls to both the manufacturer and its suppliers to develop and implement solutions rapidly.

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).

Scott Carnie, General Manager of Costco’s East Coast Packaging operations, is the driving force behind a lot of packaging that’s unique to Costco’s shelves. He is open-minded when it comes to getting ideas.

Last month, we also asked readers this question: How will you respond to Wal-Mart's push for reduced packaging, with scorecards to track the results? Many of the responses basically said, “Whatever Wal-Mart wants, we provide.” Following are some of your thoughts.

“Right now, they are not ready for prime time. For example, PVC gets a better recycling score than recycled paperboard.”

“We have our own initiatives to sustain the environment, so we feel we are ahead of Wal-Mart's push.”

“What does Wal-Mart know about packaging technology besides who gives them the cheapest price, which may have no correlation whatsoever with the best package for the application and the environment?”

“We will respond very slowly and wait and see if this takes off.”

If you were to put a face to the packaging at Costco, it may be that of Scott Carnie, General Manager of Costco Wholesale’s East Coast packaging operations in Monroe, NJ.

Thanks in part to his efforts, the company’s packaging is a spectrum of colorful formats and innovation. A key color in Costco’s packaging palette is green, as in environmentally friendly.

Costco produces many of its own packages. Three recent examples:

· Costco launched its Kirkland Signature by Borghese private-label line of cosmetics (see www.packworld.com/go/view-21016).

· In September, Costco introduced a five- product line of Lexmark print cartridges in new packaging. The carded blister pack addresses theft and is eco-friendly. The packaging is Natralock™ material from MeadWestvaco, and it reduces the amount of plastics used while also making the product accessible. The clear plastic thermoform is molded of RPET. Costco thermoforms the recycled PET using tooling it made and heat-seals the products in the folded paperboard card.

· Costco is debuting an interesting take on Microsoft Xbox 360 packaging. It’s a large package that has appeared at Sam’s, but is adapted with a new design (see photo on this screen). Two thermoforms contain the game system and components and are wrapped within an outer frame of corrugated. Polypropylene strapping holds the frame together to provide closure for the corrugated and deter theft.

- By Rick Lingle, Packaging World

Anyone who is looking for evidence that huge sales gains are possible in a commodity category should study the success at Glaceau. The regional marketer restaged its Smartwater bottled water brand, expanded distribution in specialty food stores, supermarkets, and in Costco warehouse club stores in the central and southern United States—and sales increases are exceeding 100%.

Hewlett Packard’s move to RPETG gives its club store packs of ink-jet cartridges an environmentally friendlier edgs.

The warehouse club's packaging makeover features paperboard-blister hybrids.

A new package from Procter & Gamble reflects a growing tactic in club stores by adding a carrying handle on twin-packs of Downy Simple Pleasures liquid fabric softener. The handle, from PakTech, holds two 52-oz bottles of fabric softener and presents a more consumer-convenient package.

The twin-pack is easier to carry than a single, larger container, and two smaller bottles offer storage flexibility and require less storage space than a larger bottle.

The twin-pack’s HDPE handle is platinum pearl in color to match the caps. The PET bottles are tinted purple or blue to reflect the scent varieties.

Link: PakTech

The unique environment that club stores create makes packaging a critical component in any strategy aimed at generating sales in these outlets. Factors that must be considered include these:

• Pallets need enough pizzazz to sell brands in a drab merchandising environment where packaging is often the only selling tool.

• Marketers must respond to cost pressures to meet retailer price points.

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.

Bob Connolly, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Consumer Communications at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., dispels a belief among some marketers and packaging suppliers that there’s a “code to crack” in getting products on the retailer’s shelves. Connolly says success is possible by concentrating instead on four areas of prime importance to Wal-Mart and its shoppers.

• Ready, Set, Go!

Time is the new currency for consumers. Both Wal-Mart and its shoppers want packaging that saves them time. From Wal-Mart’s that means tactics such as time-saving secondary packaging. One example: PDQ product trays, which set up quickly and minimize waste that needs discarding. For consumers, it means packaging communication that lets them understand your brand message and select a product within six seconds.