By converting its Knorr granular bouillon product line from a glass jar to a plastic jar, Unilever Bestfoods North America says it can more efficiently target the brand’s growing U.S. Hispanic market with an easier-to-handle container that also reduces lead and delivery times.

The non-breakable, proprietary line of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers, from Amcor PET Packaging, are amber in color to extend the light- and moisture-sensitive product’s shelf life. The plastic jar uses the same “footprint” as the glass jar in order to maintain the brand’s visual equities.

Unilever says that with a “significant portion” of Knorr’s product volume going into U.S. pantries, it made sense on the bottom line to move its packaging operations for the product line from Mexico to Amcor’s Kansas City, KS, plant.

Effective packaging can transform a product from a commodity to a status symbol, from a “me-too” offering to one that stands out on the shelf. Mintel, a market research and consumer data company, notes that over the past few months, it has seen an increasing number of packages that provide unique benefits to both the product and the consumer.

This development is particularly evident in beverages. For example, FreshBru has introduced extensions to its Seriously Twisted line of beverages. The bottles feature twist-off caps that contain a reservoir of flavor concentrate.

Simple Green joins the aromatherapy packaging trend with its Aroma Clean line of ready-to-use cleaning products in elegant, spray-style plastic bottles. The trigger sprayers contain stickers than emit the product’s scent when scratched.

The brand is positioned as “an environmentally safe, biodegradable cleaning choice,” and the packaging supports that proposition with clean and simple graphics. A color-coded box on the label corresponds to each of the five scents in the line. The label color also corresponds to the product scent.

If your product is small in size, Arlene Peltola, Innovations Marketing Manager at Hershey Foods, suggests that you look at pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, “because they are great for small-item presentation.”

Speaking at the recent Package Design 2005 conference, Peltola said that’s just what Hershey did in creating a package for Liquid Ice, in order to leverage a unique product form—liquid crystals—through packaging.

Links: Rexam Beverage Can Americas

How can a marketer add 4 oz of product to a package at no extra cost to the consumer? In bottled water, hiOsilver, Palo Alto, CA, does it by switching from a 12-oz glass bottle to a 16-oz aluminum can from Rexam BCA. The can provides the improved barrier that the product needs to maximize oxygen concentration, and it can be filled at three times the speed of glass bottles. Faster filling speeds help control the cost per unit.