In This Issue

Six package design ideas for the 'New Economy' Some consumer brands are not going to survive.

Competition between national, private brands taking on new complexity Look down just about any aisle of the store and you will see evidence of private-label brands that really understand the very important role that packaging can play in a marketing campaign, particularly when the package is the sole marketing tool.

Package Gallery

New design, and a 40% sales boost, for Gentleman Jack

By Judy Rice, Contributing Editor

Brown-Forman increased sales 40% for its Jack Daniels Gentleman Jack line of premium Tennessee whiskey by broadening the brand's appeal beyond its primary market of 25- to 34-year-old white males. For Brown-Forman, the Lynchburg, TN-based distiller, the right package design played a significant role in the brand's sales surge.

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"The new bottle design clearly projects a more contemporary, sophisticated image that we believe appeals to a broader audience, including Hispanic and African-American consumers and a larger female following," says Master Distiller Jeff Arnett. "The new bottle design also has helped us increase the export rate for the brand."

Arnett outlined the package-design evolution: "We initiated the design process by providing Owens-Illinois with a conceptual rendering of the desired container. Using the rendering as a guide, O-I produced a Lucite scale model of the bottle. After approval, the model proceeded to the mold unit stage, and the first actual containers were produced. The unit sampling glassware was used to check for container functionality and to identify potential bottling line machine and material fitness attributes."

Arnett also points out that the new press-sensitive labels have an aqueous UV coating applied and cured onto their surface during printing. This coating is designed to improve the label's ability to retain its sheen and withstand scuffing and other environmental challenges.

The new cap presented a special challenge. It is a traditional plastic closure on its inside, but it incorporates a metal oversleeve. Arnett says, "It's a very high-end, contemporary-looking cap which fits with the redesign of the bottle and label. But our existing capping equipment could not handle the new closures."

After discussing options with Fowler Products Co. , a division of Pro Mach, Brown-Forman opted for a new capping machine that would run the new Gentleman Jack bottle format as well as two other formats on the same line.

Gentleman Jack products running on the new capping system are being packaged in four glass bottle sizes: 700 ml, 750 ml, one liter, and 1.75 L. The whiskey also is marketed in 50-ml, 200-ml, and 375-ml bottles.

INTELLIGENCE ON DESIGN Six package design ideas for the 'New Economy' By Ted Mininni, President Design Force Inc.

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Some consumer brands are not going to survive. Too few dollars are chasing too many consumer products. The economy is undergoing a major transformation. Consumers are saving more and spending less. This trend is going to continue, even after the economy recovers.

The upshot: brands that do not meet the expectations of today's consumers are being summarily dismissed. Now is the time for brand marketers to develop new strategies and the right tactics to ensure survival (read: relevance) in a fast-changing consumer culture and marketplace.

Rather than letting viable brands gradually lose share, marketers should put repackaging at the top of their list to achieve cultural relevance in the "New Economy." Consider the following six ideas for accomplishing this goal:

• Create unique, highly differentiated package structures that contribute terrific standalone value. Look at Method Home Care products for great examples.
• Develop packages that change product delivery systems for the better. Isn't adding convenience to consumers' lives a winning strategy?
• Leverage heritage brand assets that elicit consumers' fond memories and emotions to make these products overwhelming choices.
• Sell premium products' assets as affordable small luxuries. Isn't that meaningful to cash-strapped consumers who are eschewing extravagance?
• Help consumers simplify their lives. Isn't that something we all crave? Häagen-Dazs is great at it.
• Tout the cleaner, greener, and safer properties of consumer products where applicable. Surveys substantiate that this approach increasingly is resonating with consumers.

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Let's take a closer look at each idea.

The bigger picture associated with these six ideas is to view the economic downturn as an opportunity for your brands. The times are changing, and we must change with them to remain relevant. If we do nothing, we risk losing customers that might not return in the future. There is no time like the present to turn a disadvantageous economy for consumer products into an opportunity. By repackaging and leveraging those key assets that resonate most with the customer now, brands will differentiate themselves and prove their value.

Consumers are deliberating more at the retail shelf. They're more likely to change loyalties, purchasing those brands that increasingly mesh with their values. And, as we've seen, "values" aren't all about price. What are you doing with your packaging to fully leverage your brand values?

Read the entire article.

THINKING IN 360° Competition between national, private brands taking on new complexity By Jim George, Editor

Look down just about any aisle of the store and you will see evidence of private-label brands that really understand the very important role that packaging can play in a marketing campaign, particularly when the package is the sole marketing tool. The best private-label brands are gaining a stronger foothold against national brands, says Dennis Furniss, Partner at Kaleidoscope, because they are focusing on forging deeper consumer experiences while national brands are preoccupied with buzzwords such as "consumer loyalty" and are innovating without understanding the big picture.

In addition, there are two "behind the scenes" ways national brands are competing with retailers' own brands, and you may or may not be aware of them. But they directly affect national brands' ability to compete on shelf.

First, look what's happening right around you. Retailers' creative teams not only are becoming bigger but they're expanding to include top marketing and design talent being plucked from some of the biggest CPG companies. As a result, retailers are relying less upon outside agency assistance as their own packaging expertise improves.

Competition also might be coming from elsewhere within your own walls. Take a look at your production facility. You might raise eyebrows to see what products are running on your lines. They're increasingly likely to be private-label brands.

Why? Brian Wagner, Vice President at Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions, offers a couple of reasons: Production capacity might be shifting because product volume decreases for some national brands, heightened by the recession, increasingly have idled CPG companies' production lines. CPG companies are further heightening this shift by strategically outsourcing more of their production needs to companies such as contract packagers to gain flexibility with challenges such as short-run package formats.

On the other hand, CPG companies still need business to keep those increasingly idled lines busy. So while your creative team might be hard at work conceptualizing a new marketing campaign to keep your national brand on sound footing, your production facility might be running product lines that benefit retailers' own brands.

It all has become very complex, and it's clear that business as usual, both in the creative department and on the production line, no longer is enough to ensure success. It is essential to see and understand the whole playing field and avoid working with tunnel vision.