From the GrabPack to the PortaBottle, new options are giving marketers more branding opportunities while also providing consumer convenience and eco-friendliness.

Qualitative research finds that parents trust glass for its health and environment benefits. Glass also heightens their assurance about the contents within the package.

Packaging needs to pull its weight as a product protector, especially with products ordered on the Internet. Bamboo is an emerging option that offers strength and sustainability.

From Chris DeLorenzo, a freelance designer, this concept for Beariez Granola features a package that fits in the hand and has the shape of a bear. Granola expels from the mouth flap at the top of the carton.

1800 Select Silver Tequila, from super-premium distributor Proximo Spirits of New York, NY, uses the brand's iconic, Mayan-pyramid-inspired bottle design to convey authenticity and luxury.

As the packaging and displays that designers create move downstream toward the store shelf, they are increasingly stopping off at a contract packager's facility for pack-out.

What could be easier for coffee or tea consumers than tear, tip, stir, and sip?

Packages across categories are getting smaller, and the trend toward more portable beverage and prepared-food containers will drive the increased use of plastics in rigid food packaging in the U.S. market.

Creative teams are looking for examples of new packages that provide real benefits for the environment. One recent example comes from Boho Vineyards, San Francisco, CA, which succeeds on the sustainability front by thinking "inside the box."

Lexus promo mailer has the high-end touch

"If you've ever searched a cluttered cabinet for one elusive spice and felt as if you are conducting an archeological dig, then you're ready for 'spice enlightenment,'" say Katie Luber and Sara Engram, self-proclaimed "cardaMoms" and Founders of TSP Spices Inc., Atlanta, GA.

A closer look at the newest trends in today's packaging.

If you want to operate at the forefront of sustainable packaging, the Greener By Design conference will offer you the strategies, tools, and markets to get there. The conference, hosted by Global Executive Companies, will be June 12-13, 2008, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, VA.

New packages coming on the market demonstrate that the move toward incorporating sustainability goals is accelerating. Kraft Foods is one company working to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging materials.

How much weight does the sustainability factor carry with consumers?

Sustainability is driving the excess from packaging materials, energy use, and waste. The challenge for brand owners will be to improve product protection and shelf impact while also using materials and technologies that lessen packaging's environmental impact.

In the Pacific Northwest, DANI Natural Products, Bend, OR, is marketing pure soy candles and "ECO" natural reed diffusers in clear containers made from corn-based polymers. The packaging, from NatureWorks LLC, is biodegradable.

The cotton-wicked, soy candles are 100% biodegradable and burn soot-free. The candle's glass receptacle bears a recyclable aluminum lid. After a candle is spent, the receptacle is reusable elsewhere in the home.

The natural reed diffuser oil also comes in glass receptacles with accompanying reeds, and it offers an alternative to traditional incense sticks. The oil provides a safe, flame-free way to slowly diffuse and distribute all-natural fragrances. The reed soaks up the essential-oil blend and is released during burning.

DANI distributes both products through retail boutique stores and at www.danibath.com. Suggested retail price is about $18 for the soy candles and $30 for the reed diffusers.

I recently struck up a conversation with a manager at a company that helps some major U.S. marketers produce consumer packaged products. Steps for integrating sustainability initiatives are wonderful, this manager said, but they quickly can break down in the "silo" mentality that's still prevalent at so many companies today.

It's all about stewardship, life, and energy, and it's playing out in the beauty and health and wellness categories.

One bottle shape, more than any other, has managed to not only differentiate itself from the pack but also to cross category boundaries to represent purity in products as diverse as dish soaps, high-end whiskeys, and perfumes. Remarkable!

What better time than this holiday season to serve up some thoughts on innovation by drawing parallels to food?
Design and innovation are passions of mine, in addition to food. Among their similarities, they both require a balance of science and art, and both often end with a somewhat unexpected, truly remarkable, serendipitous outcome. The following steps provide a glimpse at some core ingredients needed to produce successful brand innovation.

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 bottle and label work together in positioning the Aloe Breeze beverage line from Phoenix Beverage Co., Phoenix, AZ, as “the first USDA-certified organic drink line that harnesses the power of super-nutrient aloe vera and infuses it with exotic, naturally flavored waters.”

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.

You also had plenty to say about the following topic: Does your design process integrate graphic branding with structural functionality, or do you consider aesthetics of secondary importance?

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

Many of you had interesting answers to another question we asked: What do you think about when justifying whether a different package structure makes sense for the product you are working on?

Are Universal Design principles incorporated into your brand's package developed process?

What really is this thing we call packaging innovation, how is it nourished, and how can it be successfully woven into a company's approach to package design? This month, Shelf Impact! continues its discussion with Elizabeth Head-Fischer, Packaging Design Manager at Texas Instruments; Michael Livolsi, Package Design Consultant formerly with Unilever; and Arno Melchior, Global Packaging Director at Reckitt Benckiser.

Shelf Impact! also asked you last month to list, from a marketing and branding perspective, what will be the key “hot topics” for packaging in 2007. Sustainability and packaging materials and processes that protect the environment came up very strong. Here are some of your other answers.

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.”

Experience is the best teacher, they say. And because this adage is as true in packaging as it is anywhere else, Packaging World magazine used it as the basis for an exclusive online survey conducted this spring when Packworld.com asked packaging professionals for their wisdom, insights, and “eureka” moments.

Consumers strongly prefer glass for beer and liquor. The ‘cold threshold’ makes plastic ideal for water but not for beer. Soda lovers are divided on packaging choice.

Here's a worthwhile exercise: Ask yourself and your package design team, "What If?" The challenge is to use great packaging ideas being introduced elsewhere not as a template for your own projects, but as inspiration for what could be for your packaged products. If you had no budget and no limitations, how would you engage shoppers and create shelf space that really grabs a consumer and makes an impact? Here is a list of "What Ifs" to ponder:

Lebanon Seaboard is the top-selling brand in lawn and garden supplies, yet the company decided to survey consumers for their perceptions of the brand. The results told Lebanon Seaboard that the package had shortcomings in consumers’ minds and would require structural modifications. Among consumers’ observations:

As Wal-Mart ramps up its environmental sustainability initiative, the retailer is telling brand owners that they need to evolve into smaller packaging with reusable/recyclable materials within two years, or risk losing precious shelf space in Wal-Mart stores.

Dyna-Tabs, LLC plans to use convenient plastic packs of dissolvable strips to introduce more than 50 items that tap into wellness trends.

Wines in packaging that bring a fresh look to the aisle are leading category sales in U.S. grocery, liquor, and drug stores. Sales are up more than 50% for wine brands using wine-in-box packages and those with screwcap closures.

Agencies worldwide are toughening regulations on packaging. TT Club’s TT Talk newsletter cites the following examples:

From Performance Brands, Fiesta Sun shines in a dark brown tube from Artube, Iridium Industries. The label is decorated with a fabric-style PlushPrint material that emphasizes the effect of using the tanning product inside the package. The clever fabric material helped this package win 2005 Innovative Component/Process of the Year honors.

A slender, hourglass shape makes the Gluekos Performance Beverage 16-oz stand-up pouch, produced by Ampac Flexibles, hand- and pocket-friendly. The integrated fitment and valve guards against leaks. The package won a 2006 Flexible Packaging Association Gold Award and Highest Achievement in the Packaging Excellence category.

For Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB), the Hawaiian Punch™ and Mott's™ 128-oz PET bottles combine cost savings, environmental considerations, and ease of manufacture that maintains functionality as well as brand equity on shelf. The bottle design is a preform from Constar International that requires less resin in the bottle while retaining brand equity. The package won the 2005 AmeriStar 3M Integrity Packaging Award.

A new genre of packaging is challenging traditional cans and bottles for visual supremacy in flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs). Tubes and pouches are injecting “hip” into the category, reports Mintel’s Global New Products Database.

Following are three recent examples that reflect the leading edge of this trend:

• In Austria, Wenger Erzeugungs & Handels has introduced Go Wodka, a vodka-based drink of 4% alcohol-by-volume, in 200-mL metal tubes. The tubes feature shades of red or green to convey that the user is contemporary and sociable. The lemon-flavored drinks contain more caffeine than other FAB products.

Procter & Gamble Co. has opened up a new area of the package for graphics and branding information in introducing a cross-promotional package for Tide with Febreze Freshness to its stable of laundry detergents. P&G opted for a decorated cap with a shrink-sleeve label to attract consumers’ attention and to help them easily distinguish Tide with Febreze Freshness from other products in the Tide lineup.

A decorated cap gives the laundry detergent package distinction in a category in which the bottle caps are typically undecorated.

The shrink-sleeve wraps around the cap’s entire vertical wall. Label graphics are rotogravure-printed in five colors. Color-coded caps indicate the scent varieties.  Matching colors and an icon appear on the bottle label to reinforce the brand’s identity and indicate the product scent.

The shrink-sleeve cap also demonstrates that outsourcing some packaging operations makes sense. P&G determined that it required outside expertise to create the sleeves and attach them to the caps.

Energizer produced 1.5 million 10-packs of pink batteries that hit Target shelves in October to coincide with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Visit www.komen.org and www.energizer.com/sgk.

Jeffrey Roth, Energizer Holdings Inc.’s Brand Manager/National Promotions, says Energizer has a longstanding relationship with the local St. Louis chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Energizer has been a regular local contributor, but wanted to step up on a national scale.

Tapping its iconic pink Energizer Bunny, known for the ability to keep “going and going and going,” Energizer adapted the slogan to an inspirational message associated with fighting breast cancer: “The Power to Keep Going.”

A survey of 308 school-age children in four markets found that 94% of them preferred to drink milk from a plastic bottle rather than a paper carton.

A majority of the students said the plastic bottle is easier to open and drink from, and they perceived that milk tastes better when consumed from a plastic bottle. The students indicated that plastic bottles are more convenient to use, even though the traditional gable-top carton has, in recent years, added convenience features such as spouts.

Those findings are from a recent study conducted by Peryam & Kroll Research Corp. on behalf of the National Dairy Council.

Among the specific findings:

• Some 83% of school children said that milk in the plastic bottle was “better overall,” compared with the identical brand of milk packaged in a paper carton.

• About 86% of school children said the plastic bottle was “easier to drink from.”

• Some 67% of school children said the plastic bottle was “easier to open” than the paper carton.

According to Dairy Management Inc., more than one million students in 1,500 schools nationally drink milk in plastic packaging and in multiple flavors. This compares with about 400 schools that offered milk in plastic packaging during the 2003-2004 school year.

Foodservice company Raw Seafoods has plunged into retail markets with its Cape Cod Cuisine frozen foods, and Kane Kendall, Director of Marketing, says, “It’s been a totally different ballgame.”

With the laminated paperboard tray the company has chosen, the New Bedford, MA, fish packer is making an innovative splash in the dual-ovenable market. Eight products in the line use trays laminated with a polyester film of thin patterned aluminum, which harnesses and controls microwave energy by channeling it deeper into the frozen food for faster, more even heating. The tray technology comes from Graphic Packaging International.

The 8”x5 1/2”x1 5/8” tray is made from SBS board laminated with polyester/aluminum film. During microwave heating, the aluminum areas reflect the microwave energy into other areas while unshielded areas heat normally.

The complex honeycomb pattern of aluminum keeps edges from crisping while driving energy into the center of the entrée or other food product.

You want shelf “pop,” but time and the budget are considerations, too. As more marketers are turning to foil packaging or packaging accents, and each of these three issues presents a challenge.

Jeff Petersen, Executive Director of the Foil Stamping & Embossing Association, provides the following steps for achieving the best results when foil is part of the design equation for your package.

Desiccant manufacturer Süd-Chemie Performance Packaging, Belen, NM, is bringing its expertise in moisture absorption to the consumer market with Dri-It®, a line of humidity absorbers for use in homes, trailers, RVs, tents, and storage areas.

Dri-It protects consumer products from mold, mildew, odors, rust and other harmful effects of moisture.

The product’s package appeals to consumers in part by explaining why moisture protection is important, says Süd-Chemie Consumer Products Manager Tod Campbell. Art Rojas Design created graphics on a stand-up pouch to do just that.

The pouch is PET/metallized PET/linear low-density polyethylene. The metallized-PET layer is gravure-printed in seven colors and gives the product shelf life exceeding two years.

Schick eliminated the challenges of inconsistent peel force, delamination of lidstock during peeling, and lidstock tearing in packaging operations for its Xtreme3 disposable razor by switching to a lidding film that consistently adheres to and peels from a thermoformed tray holding the razors.

The adhesive lamination, from Curwood, contains polyester that’s reverse-printed flexographically in six to eight colors. The multilayer sealant is not dependent on machine temperature and dwell time, which avoids peeling.

The monolayer polyester clear trays enable consumers to see the razors inside the package.

Link: Curwood

Links: MeadWestvaco Corp.
Regia HighPack AG

Swiss marketer Chocolat Frey AG achieves prestige in chocolates by leveraging the look and feel of premium, one-side-coated paperboard from MeadWestvaco. The board also protects the marketer’s “large-format,” thin bars from damage. Regia HighPack AG, the converter, offset-prints the board in six to eight colors for more than 15 Chocolat Frey brands.

Chocolat Frey’s Beat Luthi says MeadWestvaco’s Crescendo board provides “an aesthetically pleasing surface, gloss, and good mechanical stability” that signals a quality brand.

Flexible packaging continues to increase as a material of choice for marketers, who see it as a desirable option for improving consumer convenience and safety in food packaging, and for designing more novel packages across categories.

These are two findings of interest to marketers in the Flexible Packaging Association’s (FPA) 2004 State of the Industry Report. The association says it expects flexible packaging shipments will increase 4.7% to $21.4 billion for 2004.

Links: Kapak
Spray Bottles

Spouted flexible pouches have added another dimension to consumer convenience. Hunter’s Specialties, Cedar Rapids, IA, marries a pouch with a trigger sprayer for its Wild Gamekeeper brand. The pouch, from Kapak, transports and displays dry granular product. Consumers can fill it with water in the field, creating a mixture that sprays onto just-harvested game, helping to prevent bacterial growth. The custom trigger sprayer, from Spray Bottles Inc., evacuates virtually all product from the bottom-gusset pouch.

Link: Anthem Worldwide

Consumers associate the words “innovation” and “performance” with Paper Mate. The brand wanted to leverage those attributes in reintroducing its FlexGrip sub-brand of pens with softer grips while highlighting its ShareGuard antimicrobial technology used in the grips.

Design firm Anthem Worldwide created a visual packaging hierarchy that achieves these goals. The FlexGrip and ShareGuard logos appear below the Paper Mate logo on the front panel. A graphic of a shield provides a distinguishing appearance. Finally, a blister card displays the pens in a fanned-out pattern to heighten visual appeal.