In This Issue

What if...a breakout bathroom product could enhance functionality and aesthetics? The bathroom products aisle is full of products competing primarily on the basis of color and graphic design.

Failure to test can be costly 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!

Package Gallery

Inside Wal-Mart, Sam's Club: Successfully balancing branding and sustainability

If you're a brand manager or package designer, you can play an important role in creating packaging that achieves branding objectives and also uses less packaging materials or incorporates reusable or recyclable materials. So says Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Sam's Club Director of Packaging.

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Zettlemoyer-Lazar offered Packaging World and Shelf Impact! an exclusive interview to discuss branding and sustainability, and to discuss in detail Wal-Mart Stores' packaging scorecard, which officially took effect Feb. 1.

Talking with Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor at Packaging World and Contributing Editor to Shelf Impact!, Zettlemoyer-Lazar mentioned two packages on shelves at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club that brand managers and package designers can examine as models for successfully balancing the branding/sustainability equation.

• Owners of national brands that are designing packaging for sustainability should take a holistic approach. Evaluate both the package and the product, Zettlemoyer-Lazar advises. She cites General Mills as one company that succeeds by re-engineering the physical attributes of the noodles for its Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper meals. These changes enable General Mills to reduce packaging size by 20%—without sacrificing product quality or eroding consumer preference. "The company increased the density of the pasta shapes so they could be packed more tightly and in a smaller box," says General Mills' Kirstie Foster. "We also reduced the number of pouches in each carton."

  Foster says the new packaging saves 890,000 lb in paper fiber and reduces greenhouse gases by 11% annually. It also eliminates 500 trucks from the road and increases shelf pack-out by 20%. These benefits enable retailers to stock the same amount of product in less space.

• Zettlemoyer-Lazar notes that Sam's Club's work on its own sustainable packaging can provide direction on sustainable packaging, too. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have been working with their own suppliers to improve the environmental impact of packaging for their own private-label products. Packaging for Member's Mark milk is one example. For the last three years, the milk has been produced using both a more sustainable production process and materials with environmentally friendly features, says Mike Ellgass, Sam's Club Director of House Brands.

Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar

In another example, packagers produce the 96-oz PET container for Member's Mark apple juice with 100% renewable energy from hydroelectric plants. These factories use moving water to generate electricity. The mill providing corrugated material for the packaging, and the converting process used in producing the bottle, have increased energy efficiency 35% by integrating new technologies throughout operations, Ellgass says.

Vendors transport nearly all of the apple juice in corrugated cases made with 85% post-consumer materials. The remainder moves into distribution in cases that use 25% post-consumer materials. All pallet caps and tier sheets use 65% recycled materials.

Besides cost savings, Zettlemoyer-Lazar points out, the Member's Mark packaging still exudes branding power. The graphic impact of the materials is sharp, providing visual impact at the point of sale.

Read on for Zettlemoyer-Lazar's update on Wal-Mart's packaging scorecard.

INTELLIGENCE ON DESIGN What if...a breakout bathroom product could enhance functionality and aesthetics? By Robert Croft, Managing Partner Swerve Inc.—Design For Brands

Editor's note: With this issue, we welcome Robert Croft, a design industry veteran with a gift for seeing "what could be," and the ability to translate those ideas into workable, visual packaging concepts. His What if... columns will publish periodically in Shelf Impact!'s e-newsletter and in printed inserts of Shelf Impact! in Packaging World magazine.

The bathroom products aisle is full of products competing primarily on the basis of color and graphic design. The notion of a closure and a flat base on either the bottom or on the cap is a given. From a structural design standpoint, the competitive set focuses on soft, tactile materials, various material transparencies, and polymer fillers combined with an easy-to-squeeze shape and a supportive form language. The most innovative structural feature that you will find might be a custom cap with a soft-touch feel.

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Our concept in this issue addresses the following thought. What if a bathroom product chose to break out of the typical structural paradigms?

An obvious way to break out is to opt for an inverted package with no flat base. Part of the problem with bathroom products is the lack of storage space in the shower area. The idea of clipping the bottle to the wall in between uses, or using the package as a dispenser, has definite advantages.

Admittedly, the merchandising of such a design would have to be done with a tray to support the package, but this has been done before in many other categories.

Our concept (as depicted in the illustration) uses a sleek sculptural form to provide a platform for a shower gel product for men. The sculptural shape is suspended on a cradle that can be adhered to the bathroom wall. The cradle features a "limpet clamp" designed to appeal to the gadget-orientated male. The idea is similar to the clamp used for satellite navigation systems in automobiles.

With this new level of functionality, the design is immediately transported to the role of dispenser/appliance, and the "dumbbell"-shaped ergonomics provides a nonslip-grip area and an ownable aesthetic feature. Indeed, the standardization of such a feature could lead to a utility patent, aka, beachfront property in the package design world!

The cradle provides the ability to move "goop-in-a-bottle" products up to a convenient height and eliminate messy rings and cluttered bath space. Additionally, the system encourages repeat purchases and consumer buy-in to a system of personal-care packages that share the same revolutionary underpinnings.

This idea shows how designers can challenge traditional paradigms to arrive at a breakthrough solution. By challenging the notion that "all bottles need a flat base," several new and valuable functional features have been realized. Additionally, the introduction of the floating sculptural form provides a new and exciting element that could be leveraged with packaging graphics and advertising.

STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING Failure to test can be costly By Jim George, Editor

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!

When this important guiding principle in the creative process is given short shrift or bypassed all-together, any mistakes that are made can be costly. Case in point: A U.S. beverage company has come under fire from some consumers for recently releasing beverage cans and bottles bearing a label design which depicts a scene that some consumers interpreted to be racist.

The company says its intentions were pure in creating a visual architecture to capture the brand's essence. But in branding, perception is everything. The marketer has pulled the offensive packaging off the shelf, issued an apology, and announced it is preparing to return the brand to stores with a new label.

In this case, the company has learned a costly lesson. It has had to absorb the expenses of pulling the old packaging, commissioning an artist to design a new label, purchasing new or additional materials for the new label, producing the label, and putting the product back into distribution.

All I can add is this: Make every effort to talk to consumers before bringing any package to market. They might offer perspectives that never crossed the minds of those on your creative team. Even if the budget is extremely tight, you can leverage friends, family, and acquaintances as your "focus group." Just remember to recruit people that represent the market demographic you're after.

Run your ideas past your consumers, and also test them among those who don't purchase your brand. You can gain valuable insights that might help you avoid a costly "back to the drawing board."