Maybelline New York wanted a distinctive package that connotes style for its new Dream Matte Powder compact product, so it went beyond color and special effects and also selected a sophisticated packaging structure.

Over time, a brand can become "dated," and BeautiControl Inc., Carrollton, TX, reached that point with its 15-year-old Skinlogics Lip Apeel line. The company updated the brand with custom packaging that also responds to consumer complaints about products that dry out.

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.

Exclusivity sells because often, the package is the product. Shelves at Sephora, a chain of beauty products stores founded in France, showcased an eye-catching example during the 2006 holiday season.

It ’ s no secret that private-label brands have been gaining market share steadily at the expense of regional and national brands. But what ’ s striking about the latest independent study of store brands is that the growth is trickling down from food and beverage to non-grocery categories.

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.

Susan Kropf, President of Avon Products Inc., has a message for brand managers, designers, and retailers. You need to spend more time walking in consumers’ shoes if you want to make your products more than just functionally relevant to consumers.

Laboratorios RTB in Spain got the distinctive package it wanted to launch its Giorgi Fix Out Shampoo with an unusual closure design that works as a “tag team” with the bottle shape to convey the essence of a rocket ship.

The product manufacturer says it achieved the unusual look by selecting a conical push-pull dispensing closure from Crown Zeller and then designing a bottle to complement and highlight the closure.

Giorgi uses HDPE 250-ML bottles and plastic film labels across the product line. The packaging is produced in bright yellow and blue to match the brand’s colors.

Link: Crown Zeller

Cosmetics marketers are using French in their packaging to court U.S. consumers who associate the language with sophistication and glamour—even if it is spelled wrong.

Marketers are enhancing their packaging with non-English words and phrases as U.S. cosmetic exports soared 41% in 2004, says United Press International.

Leisure Time’s sales rise 17% with packaging inspired by HBA products. The bottles’ ‘softer’ look and texture deliver the ‘ahh’ moment that pampered luxury homeowners crave.

Sales of the Leisure Time brand of spa and hot-tub water care products were exceeding the category’s annual sales increases of 3 to 5%. Consumers viewed the premium-priced products as high quality.

Yet the brand’s owner, Atlanta-based Advantis Technologies, made a bold move by redesigning the packaging. The company believes its new packaging communicates a more sophisticated message about the product quality to well-to-do consumers.

The redesign has produced several results:

• The packaging helps to deliver the brand’s magic “ahh” moment, both visually and through surface texture, which spa owners—who are used to enjoying the finer things in life—expect.

• Sales have risen 17%, and distribution has increased at spa dealers.

• The line is “displacing” some competitors’ brands from some dealers’ store shelves and retaining Leisure Time’s position as the category sales leader.

Glossy, full-body PVC shrink labels provide multiple marketing benefits while decorating plastic tubes of Mentholatum Co.’s Natural Ice brand of Original, Cherry, and Sport medicinal lip balms.

First, the labels enhance security. They secure both the cap and the body of the tube, and a horizontal perforation breaks when the cap is removed. Second, the labels eliminate the printing and storage costs associated with stocking silk-screen tubes in assorted designs.

The shrink labels, reverse-printed rotogravure in four or five colors, are from Seal-It.

Link: Seal-It Inc.

Package shape and color support the message behind Hair Concepts’ Curly Sexy line: “Make the most of natural and created curls.”

The curvaceous design of the aluminum bottle, created and printed by CCL Container, fits easily in the hand. The cobalt blue container, printed dry offset in six colors, is accented with silver and red graphics. Transparent inks provide the container’s metallic look.

“The shape was not only attractive but helped introduce the product concept, planting the idea of curls early in the consumer’s mind,” says Donna Federici, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sexy Hair Concepts.

Link: CCL Container

The Curve brands of men's and women's fragrances reflect the rectangular tin cans that hold every product in the line. The newest line extensions in metal “tin” containers, from Independent Can Co., seek to entice a younger audience than earlier packaging in the flagship Curve line, which launched in 1996.

Liz Claiborne uses pastel hues, razor-sharp images, and shimmer on the store shelf, explains Paul McLaughlin, Liz Claiborne Creative Director. Under bright fluorescent store lighting, the colors seem luminous. The shiny surface also reflects shadows of nearby darker objects.

Link: Polyair

The essence of Smashbox Cosmetics is sleek and sophisticated. The marketer’s products, available in stores and online, reflect that brand imagery by coming in transparent, “smoky” black bubble pouches from Polyair to complement the brand’s “funky” color scheme.

“We wanted something with a little flair,” says Chuck McKnight, Smashbox Vice President. “We’ve been able to improve our image with the consumer without sacrificing quality or economy.”

The pouch seals by removing a film strip and pressing on a adhesive area at one end.

Designer Denis Boudard created packaging for US Beauty Group Coty’s new Daring for Isabella Rossellini fragrance and beauty line using the same bottle shape as IsaBella, Coty’s previous fragrance. But attention to color and finishing—and a new brand name—make the Daring brand appealing to a different audience.

The design features a heavy glass bottle with a purple base and a contemporary-looking twist closure to create perceptions of originality and elegance. Those attributes, Boudard says, appeal to independent and audacious women.

The packaging is available in European markets.

In a glamour aisle like cosmetics, brand managers especially want packages that distinguish their brands. But the budget is important, too. One answer to both challenges is a trend toward materials that offer the upscale look of glass, without the cost.

Two recent cosmetics packages show how this trend is playing out. Both Merle Norman and G. Candiani are introducing cosmetics brands whose packaging includes components using Eastman Chemical Co.’s Glass Polymer, a thick-walled resin that resembles glass without sacrificing clarity and chemical resistance. The resin allows designers wider latitude in the look of a package. For brand managers, the resin provides a favorable economic alternative to glass.

On jars of Merle Norman’s Luxiva Wrinkle Smoother night cream, the Glass Polymer delivers a distinctive shape for a 2.2-oz jar. The company believes the resin delivers the high-end aesthetic qualities of glass.

“Merle Norman chose the Glass Polymer because it gave us the design freedom we never had before, and inspired us to create a unique, eye-catching design,” says Rick DeLao, Vice President at Los Angeles-based Merle Norman.