Specially designed Diet Coke cans are supporting a heart-health campaign and strengthening Coca-Cola’s reputation as a supporter of special events.

Coca-Cola Co. developed an innovative way to embellish its sponsorship of the Olympic Games by leveraging packaging. Specially designed cans and bottles of Coca-Cola gave the company a window to tie the brand’s identity together with the ideals of wholesomeness and the positive aura of the Summer Olympic Games in August in Beijing, China.

When you think of the label's potential broadly, it can wield marketing muscle as a sophisticated and strategic weapon that offers brand managers another way to justify investments in packaging to senior management as a core element of product-marketing efforts. Why? The label's value advances beyond its traditional role as a decorative add-on.

How is it possible to position a brand as premium in the crowded carbonated soft drink aisle? Turn to an aluminum bottle and to artists to create engaging, limited-time labels for 360-degree impact.

By instituting a liquid-nitrogen injection packaging process, AriZona Beverage Co. has extended the shelf life of its products by 12 to 18 weeks. That change enables the company's inventive promotional products to stay on the shelf longer than normal.

Three brand owners rule more than half the market share in the ready-to-drink tea category—about 57%—but there's plenty of opportunity for the rest of the market, and Polar Beverages is making a run at it with a "fun" brand. The company is introducing Black Jack Beverage tea with razor-sharp graphics to create the "wow" factor on each can.

Know your consumer—and even those who aren't your consumers. That has been a recurring theme among branding and marketing professionals whose thoughts have graced Shelf Impact!

Coca-Cola’s goal: Reposition its Nestea brand to communicate a positioning of “feel-good freshness” to attract new consumers in the refrigerated beverages section of the store.

“Manifesting brand essence through packaging is powerful at retail,” declares Ron Pence, Pepsi Senior Marketing Manager for packaging innovation. The Pepsi brand reflects youth and vitality, and those virtues shine through on its new 20-oz bottle for the U.S. market.

Final registration is being taken for the 8th annual “Proof: Market Research & Development For Package Design” conference, Sept. 25-27, 2006, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.

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.

After a long design incubation, Pepsi-Cola relaunched its Mug brand of root beer with a new label designed to appeal to both teen boys and their mothers who buy soft drinks for them.

The result? A 3% increase in sales of the brand.

The old packaging design centered on an illustration of a drink mug with foam running over the top. Pepsi marketers, however, identified a mid-teens boy as the target for Mug root beer.