Bottled wines typically achieve packaging distinction through the bottle shape or the label.

Let's face it.

Belgian sports drink marketer WCUP brings a new packaging concept to beverages in Europe with a 300-mL hybrid bottle made largely of flexible film. The company says the bottle structure answers sustainability demands with a carbon footprint 50% smaller than the PET container it replaces.

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

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.

In Germany, design's distinctive appeal on a glass bottle has given Bonn-based "true fruits" fruit juices a 72% market share among fruit smoothie drinks sold at gas station convenience stores.

The 250-mL bottles are marked by printed lines that act as visual indicators of the percentage of individual fruit portions contained within. The design emphasizes the clarity of the glass.

"The bottle is an important part of the product," says Marco Knauf, General Manager of true fruits. "It underlines the quality of the content and stands out strongly from the packaging monotony on the store shelves."

O-I designed and developed the flint glass bottle, which uses Applied Ceramic Labeling decoration for the ingredient amount lines and graphics. It's topped by a twist-off metal closure.

Suggested retail price is about $3.50 to $4.25.

The Global Package Gallery wants your package designs!

Here's a clever design in pouched microwavable heat-and-serve sauces and gravies. Royco sauces, from Master Foods, a division of Mars, in South Africa, are packaged in retorted pouches. Before microwave heating, the consumer snips the pouch corner for venting and pouring.

Home-meal replacement moves a notch higher in Sweden with environmentally friendly trays on ready-made meals from Gunnar Dafgard AB. Billy's Lasagne chilled meals come in molded wood-pulp packaging.

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.

With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.

—Henri Matisse

Theft deterrence and product visibility were key requirements in a two-part, snap-fit, thermoformed package for Microsoft's new Windows Vista software sold in select Latin American markets. The use of recycled PET sourced from industrial scrap adds a measure of sustainability to the new pack.

Spartech Packaging Technology makes both the base and lid. The base has a large undercut, into which the lid is snapped once the product has been loaded. A thief would need considerable time and dexterity to separate the lid from the base.

Also important to Microsoft was that the package be easy to load and close using existing assembly and packaging systems. Mission accomplished, says Patti Sullivan, Microsoft Senior Packaging Project Manager.

"As with any design and packaging project, there were rounds of testing and fine-tuning, but from start to finish, Spartech consistently delivered and met required criteria," Sullivan adds.

In Germany, Lambertz gains elegance on the store shelf with ebony-colored, rounded-corner tins for its premium Best Selection brand of chocolate biscuits. With a crackle finish, the tins emulate the look of rich leather.

A common consumer complaint in bakery products is that the containers are often awkward to carry. Frequently the cartons risk collapse or bend and damage the delicate bakery goods inside unless consumers balance the package in their hands as they carry it.

Soul Critic, a flavored malt beverage, is quenching thirsts throughout Mexico with a twist in beverage packaging. A distinctive triple label maximizes visual appeal in convenience stores throughout the country.

During the past baseball season in the Caribbean, the Presidente brand in the Dominican Republic conducted a Viva la Pelota!, or Hurrah Baseball!, campaign for its beer in 12-oz glass bottles with promotional sleeve labels. Presidente Regular featured sleeves printed with images of a ball and bat, and Light featured sleeves showing a jersey and bat.

Editor’s note: Global Package Gallery is a brand new Web site developed by Shelf Impact! The growing gallery currently contains more than 4,200 high-resolution package images from 37 countries, arranged by product category. Early subscribers include Unilever, Avon, Whole Foods, and a number of package design firms. But rather than us tell you about the gallery, we asked a real designer to review it. Here's what Kevin Saladyga had to say.

Pouches, PET, and aluminum packages are taking their place alongside glass as wine continues to innovate new traditions.

Betta Foods, an Australian manufacturer of ice cream cones and specialty confectionery products, is adding convenience to candy packaging with a resealable zipper on its Natural Real Fruit Flavored Liquorice AllSorts and Liquorice Bullets varieties.

"The benefit of a resealable feature is twofold, says "John Roumelle, Marketing Manager at Betta Foods. "It serves as a visual differentiating factor at point of purchase and it allows our brands to stand out based on the added convenience."

Working with Zip-Pak, Betta Foods adds the zipper to a BOPP/CPP pouch with a trapped print lamination. The packages are flexo-printed in eight colors.

According to Zip-Pak, the zipper costs about .125 cent on a 6"-wide package, compared with 12¢ to 15¢ for comparable food storage bags.

Plastic containers with handles have recently elevated convenience in the sugar aisle, which has been home to paper sacks for decades. In Canada, here is how another marketer improves convenience in sugar packaging.

Tate & Lyle Canada Ltd., Toronto, markets Redpath Half, a sweetener, in widemouth paperboard/foil composite cans from Sonoco. The cans hold either 210 g or 400 g of sugar and are made of 100% recycled paperboard with a high-barrier foil liner that locks out moisture and oxygen and keeps the granular sweetener free of clumps.

A tabbed, peelable membrane serves as both a security and freshness barrier, and adheres to the can rim.

Graphics feature gravure-printed labels.

Increased competition for space in refrigerated cases at grocery stores is shifting product marketers' focus toward food packaging that can deliver a long, ambient shelf life elsewhere in the store. French food manufacturer William Saurin believes it has a solution with its new range of ambient pâtés in innovative thermoformed packaging.

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.

Expo and conference to spotlight innovation, sustainability, co-packing, and global issues.

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.

In South Korea supermarkets, Daesang, a food marketer, has re- launched its Daesang-brand luncheon meat and pork products in rectangular two-piece aluminum cans closed with an Easy Peel® end, designed by Impress.

The salient feature of much of the new product development in children’s lunchbox and on-the-go foods is the prevalence of health claims and movement toward healthier foods. Marketers are leaning on packaging to help deliver messages about these benefits.

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).

Increasingly, it appears that products with a strong focus on simple packaging resonate best with consumers. However, the trick for packaging is to provide a relatively complicated solution in a very simple way. It’s even better when the solution is a bit playful.

That’s the case with My Dolmio Creamy Tomato Sauce from Masterfoods. Sold in the U.K. and Ireland, My Dolmio pasta sauces come in single-serve stand-up pouches. Of course, in the United States we would never have a product that also requires consumers to prepare pasta as a simple after-school snack, but that concept seems to work in the U.K. Kids cut open the pouch, pop it into the microwave, heat, remove, and pour. That’s where simplicity comes in.

Two features on this pouch help ensure success for kids and teens. First, the pouch’s curved “pitcher” shape helps ensure that when the container is opened, the heated contents will be less likely to “spurt out.” Second is the playful part. A thumbprint and the copy say “Hold me from here.” The pouch’s seal is wider in this area so that kids and teens can grab it there without burning their fingers—the sealed portion stays cool.

What a fun and easy-to-use package!

- By Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel International From Package Design magazine

If China’s urban consumer, also known as “Chuppies,” are on the radar for your brand, new consumer research from United Parcel Service may help you to define your target. Small and mid-sized product companies “need to set themselves apart from their competition and from the large multi-nationals, and market to a very specific niche,” Says Kevin McConnell, Senior Partner at O’Connell and Co., which handles general business matters in China.

UPS surveyed 1,200 consumers, and following are key findings:

· Moisturizer is the most attractive American beauty product to Chinese consumers; 73% say they are likely to purchase it in the coming year.

· 85% of Chinese consumers say that quality is critical in their purchase decision for imported products.

· Younger Chinese consumers are more open to purchasing U.S. products than their older counterparts.

Chinese consumers also have packaging preferences for U.S. products. High-income consumers prefer American or Western-style packaging, especially for beauty products. And 28% of consumers prefer blue packaging for American products, nearly double the next color choice-white, at 16%. In gift packaging, men like blue and black while women are partial to red and white.

Older Chinese consumers are more attached to Chinese icons on packaging. Younger consumers want to see company logos.

Chinese consumers rely on professional experts to deliver ad messages.

By Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel International
From Package Design magazine

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.

From fabric and skin care to energy drinks, new packages communicate what the product does

Mintel’s Global New Products Database cites several products that have recently come on the market. Each product’s packaging spotlights the product benefits.

In June, Shelf Impact! asked readers this question: “From a creative perspective, what is the reason, most often, that new packaging initiatives fail?”

Consumers’ cereal packaging needs (and those of frustrated bag-in-box cereal eaters everywhere) are about to be realized with the sleeve-in-pouch (SIP) package design. The brainchild of Hosokawa Yoko, the SIP design emulates the cube of a carton, offers the easy-open/reclosure attributes of a zipper, and capitalizes on the efficiencies of in-line form-fill-seal manufacturing.

Launches of new products have been particularly active over the last year in the facial-care aisle. The category is enjoying growth on two fronts: products formulated and packaged for men, as well as in-the-home, salon-style treatment kits.

The closure is often a forgotten packaging Component when positioning a product as high quality. Not for Milchwerke Thuringen GmbH. The subsidiary of Humana Milchunion Group has introduced an aseptic beverage carton in Germany with a three- piece screw cap that enhances perceptions of product freshness.

The company is using the closure on cartons of its Osterland brand of long-life, full-cream milk; long-life, low-fat milk; and long-life, skim milk.

A special masterbatch formulation, blended with high- and low-density HDPE and LDPE, gives Four Seasons Personal Lubricant what is believed to be Australia’s first glow-in-the-dark tube. The 35-ml tube, from Visy Industrial Packaging, includes a 35-ml flip-top closure.

With portable and convenience packaging dominating snack-food aisles at retailers throughout the United States, where can brand marketers turn in search of new brand growth? Datamonitor pinpoints Europe as a significantly underserved area for convenience snack packaging.

Europeans are known for missing meals, preferring to snack throughout the day. Datamonitor estimates that snacking will reach 522 billion instances per year by 2009, or 1.9 snacks per day per European consumer. But convenience snack-packaging options are few.

Some recent efforts to tap into Europe’s portable-snacks market have failed due in part to inadequate packaging, reports Food & Drink Europe.com. In 2005, Walkers Shots crisps struggled to find an audience. Product users say the packaging failed to communicate a clear marketing message and it confused them about the product’s potential benefits—one of which was usability. The crisps were packed in a tube designed to empty the contents right into the mouth.

The package design for Procter & Gamble’s Olay White Radiance, a skincare line marketed exclusively to China, communicates sophistication and elegance with visual cues that embrace Chinese women’s preference for simplicity in design and color.

This package reflects the Olay brand identity in China with clean lines using white, platinum, small volumes of color, and iridescent and pearlescent inks to signal product differentiation.

Brand design agency LPK won a design excellence award for its work on the package. The International Package Design Award was presented at the Health & Beauty America Expo.

Link: LPK

Anyone responsible for developing and maintaining worldwide brands cannot ignore the meteoric growth of the Chinese market. China is now a desirable marketing target for manufacturers around the world. Success in winning a share of it will require marketers and consultants to learn from companies familiar with the complexities and incongruities of the Chinese market.

How can U.S. marketers and package designers make their products sell in China? They need to understand that the Chinese population is spread out over an enormous area of land and has many levels of population and income. This may require modifying product formulations and packaging in order to make a brand appeal to a broader range of Chinese consumers.

Marketers and designers often rely on conventional avenues in package creation. Try finding inspiration in unconventional places and translating it to actual applications, recommends Martin Bunce of Tin Horse, a United Kingdom design firm.

“See it, see its use, and apply it,” Bunce says. “If it’s a really sound idea, you can describe it on the back of an envelope. You don’t need computer technology to design it.”

Share your marketing insights with your peers. Contact Jim George, 630/897-7158 or george@packworld.com.

Lowe’s Companies isn’t the first retailer to prod vendors into putting bilingual copy on packages. But its mandate on what to include and how to include it is one of the more comprehensive game plans for adding Spanish to packaging graphics.

Lowe’s is mandating bilingual copy on all consumer packaging it receives as of Sept. 1, 2005. The company devotes 11 pages of guidelines on how to do that in its “Visual Standards Guide—Signage and Packaging Guidelines.”

Consumer packages run from large corrugated cases to plastic bags for individual parts.

Want to improve your brand’s appeal to the fast-growing Hispanic market? Strive for simplicity and clarity, and consider injecting warm colors such as red-orange into your package design.

So says Marivi Chong, a bilingual communications expert and one of the leading package designers for the U.S. Hispanic market, at R. Bird & Co., New York. Hispanic by birth and heritage, Chong also says that brand managers should offer both smaller-size and “family-size” containers; the latter appeal to Latinos and Hispanics who prepare large family meals.

Chong points to MiCasa as a product whose packaging holds strong appeal for Hispanics. MiCasa, a private-label brand distributed by Foodhold USA, Landover, MD, was launched in 2003 in 80 of the 350 Stop & Shop grocery stores in the Northeast.