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One-day package design workshops from Shelf Impact! offer the latest trends and strategies for designing packages that deliver bottom line results.
Shelf Impact's Package Design Workshops |
- find design inspiration from around the world
- conduct a worldwide category audit for new design projects
- inspect minute details with high-resolution imagery, multiple views
- conveniently arranged by product category
- new images uploaded daily
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Shelf Impact! Advisory
Board
Laura Bix, PhD
Assistant Professor, School of Packaging
Michigan State University
Marie Curi
Brand Consultant
Curiousity, LLC
Dennis Furniss
Vice President, Strategic Branding
BrandScope
Robert Hall
Vice President of Brand Development
Boston Beer Co.
Michael Livolsi
Brand Identity and Packaging Design Consultant
Brian Wagner
Vice President and COO
Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions
Rob Wallace
Managing Director
Wallace Church, Inc. |
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Shrink-sleeve strengthens Elmer's face-lift
By Pat Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World
In the hardware business, Elmer's Wood Glue is No. 1 in market share. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Elmer's Products Inc., Columbus, OH, decided the brand needed to look more contemporary to support its reputation as a reliable product.
This led to repackaging of the entire hardware line, including a new bottle design for Elmer's 40 SKUs of wood glue. The new bottle design features an ergonomic oval shape that's operable with one hand. It also features an offset neck with a push-pull cap and spout that's over to one side for easy pouring into cracks and corners. The spout has two size openings for both thick and thin beading and also reduces clogging (the previous design necessitated cutting the top off the cap).
In another striking difference from the old package, the new bottle incorporates a shrink-sleeve label, produced by Fort Dearborn Co. using a PETG film from Klöckner Pentaplast. Brian King, Elmer's vice president of Marketing, explains the decision to use a shrink label this way:
"We have four different bottle styles for our Wood Glue: 4 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz, and 16 oz. All together, there are 40 SKUs of wood glue in our hardware line. We had been using a pressure-sensitive label for the old bottle, which was limited.
"What appealed about the shrink sleeve is that it wraps 100% around the whole bottle. This allows for more product information, more consistent information to be displayed across the product line. Now we can tell a story on the label. In essence, there's sufficient space to tell consumers how to upgrade and get exactly the right glue adhesive they need."
Besides an expanded billboard, the package exhibits the gloss of flexible film for marketing impact.
The package was not without challenges, such as finding the best location for the film's seam on the bottle and the direction of the graphic design as the bottle goes through the shrink tunnel. Fort Dearborn decided to put the seam on the back right side.
In addition, the new bottle is taller and requires more shelf headroom. This dictated the height of the label and also demanded getting the best shrink possible. There is 67% to 70% shrinkage required, depending on bottle size. Key was the proper placement of graphics on the label to avoid distortions such as wave lines around Elmer's "house."
"Though you wouldn't notice if you were looking at the logo, it also changed some," King notes. "For one, the bull's head is a little larger. We have to walk the line with a bull that appeals to school children as well as hard-core construction guys."
Graphics requirements included four or five designs for each of the four bottle sizes, and even then, a particular size might have a few different vignettes (of print copy) for the same product. This meant the label might be either a nine- or 10-color flexographic press job. UV flexo is stronger with finer dots, so printing the vignettes was more consistent using this method rather than water-based inks.
The new packaging is rolling out in phases in 2008, and King mentions that the new bottle costs roughly the same to produce as the old one.
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Packaging Summit to cover several key areas
Innovation, sustainability, and global issues will be among the focuses of the fourth annual Packaging Summit Expo and Conference.
The Institute of Packaging Professionals is sponsoring the trade show, which will be May 13-15 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL.
Conference hours will be 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. May 13 and 8 a.m. to noon May 14 and 15.
Innovation and sustainability are the two conference topics on May 13. On the innovation front, Brian Reilly, senior director of the Innovation Institute at Georgia-Pacific, will present "Packaging Systems Strategy...Nine Steps to Profitable Sustainability." A roundtable of panelists will function as a "think tank" on how to execute a packaging-innovation strategy. Panelists include Peter Clarke, president, Product Ventures; Dave Carlstrom, senior director, Global Packaging Design and Innovation, Clorox Co.; Kathleen McKnight, director, Client Innovations, Jones Packaging; and Greg Zimmerman, global design leader, 3M Co.
On the sustainability side, Scott Young, president, Perception Research Services, will discuss "Packaging and the Environment...the Shopper's Perspective Shapes Strategies."
On May 14, presentations will focus on how to think in global terms. Paul Lewellen, senior director supplier development, Wal-Mart International Merchandising, will give an overview of "Wal-Mart's Strategy...on Global Packaging Reduction."
If you work on a team that creates package designs internally, but the packaging production and filling occur outside of your company, you need to know how your designs affect the production line. You'll want to hear how to do it right from Dwight Sevaldson, contract operations manager at General Mills. On May 15, he will present "Five Steps...in Managing Contract Packaging."
View the full conference agenda and learn other details about the Packaging Summit.
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Package Gallery
A closer look at the newest trends in today's packaging.
High-impact sleeves sell the realism for frozen treats
Well-executed packaging graphics can "sell the taste." In the highly competitive chilled-foods aisle, f'REAL! Foods, Orinda, CA, achieved this objective when switching from preprinted cups to shrink sleeves for its 10-oz serving of frozen dairy products sold at convenience stores. The family line uses polyvinyl chloride sleeves, provided by Fort Dearborn, gravure-printed in nine colors to maximize visual impact through the glass doors of cooler cases.
These changes give the brand an edge versus competitors, a key objective of the package redesign, says Jens Voges, f'REAL! Director of Operations.
"With our smoothies, we wanted to convey the fact that we had real fruit in a natural product," Voges says. "Printing photographs of real fruit was a huge advantage, something that we couldn't have done with offset printing.
"Likewise, with the milkshakes, we were looking to position them as old-fashioned, the way real milkshakes are made. We wanted a realistic, silver-metal cup look. Again, that wasn't possible with offset printing."
The sleeves are shrunk around custom-molded, tapered, high-impact polystyrene cups, supplied by Fabri-Kal.
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Shapely pouch heightens heat-and-serve convenience
Here's a clever design in pouched microwavable heat-and-serve sauces and gravies. Royco sauces, from Master Foods, a division of Mars, in South Africa, are packaged in retorted pouches. Before microwave heating, the consumer snips the pouch corner for venting and pouring.
The "Heat & Pour" pouch design's wide side seal serves as a "heat-free handle," and a punched hole in the contoured handle area permits easy gripping. This benefit eliminates the step of pouring sauce into a serving dish after heating.
Beyond the package's functional value, its intuitive shape also gives the brand shelf appeal. Die-cuts and graphic design create the resemblance to a gravy boat.
"This move into a pouch provides key innovation, allowing further strengthening of our brand position, and driving consumer satisfaction in line with marketing trends and changing demands," says Craig Marsh, Senior Packaging Buyer Commercial at Mars Consumer Products Africa.
CLP Packaging Solutions designed the pouch, which includes a high-barrier PET layer from Toray Plastics.
The line contains five sauces and one variety of gravy, and each pouch contains four servings. Suggested retail price is $1.66.
The pouch earned Highest Achievement honors in this year's Flexible Packaging Association awards competition.
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Home-meal replacement packs go green
Home-meal replacement moves a notch higher in Sweden with environmentally friendly trays on ready-made meals from Gunnar Dafgard AB. Billy's Lasagne chilled meals come in molded wood-pulp packaging.
The SilviPak tray is made from 100% virgin fiber with no recycled paper content. The material can be molded into a variety of shapes and sizes and then covered with a film barrier layer.
Packaging for Billy's Lasagne includes a dual-ovenable tray coated with a barrier layer of CPET, replacing an existing paperboard tray. Secondary packaging consists of a flexible-film bag.
"Extended shelf life is important for our products, and our paperboard tray cannot handle modified-atmosphere packaging like the SilviPak can," says Anders Wretman, Dafgard Product Manager of Packaging. The tray can be recycled with other paper products.
"SilviPak is also stable, with excellent insulation properties. This is a clear advantage for consumers, who can hold the tray without burning themselves."
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