Contact us today and let us take the problem off your hands. Read some of our past solutions and review our product lines.
VisiPak |
Learn how to critique your own packages and how to design packages that sell! Shelf Impact!'s Package Design Workshops offer an interactive day with designers and marketing pros from all industries.
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
Global Package Gallery
|
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. |
|
WD-40 finds the emotional bull's-eye in bathroom cleaners
By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief
One strategy for creating a successful lifestyle brand focuses on a reinforced sense of well-being. One section of the store where this message can work well is household products, and a stellar recent example is WD-40's X-14 bathroom-cleaning products.
Consumers told researchers for WD-40, San Diego, CA, that the bathroom has distinct cleaning challenges requiring special cleaning products for quick touch-ups and deep cleaning. WD-40 centers the branding architecture around its X-14 line as "the bathroom expert." Foremost, bold packaging colors and graphics signal "clean." The packaging gives the brand family visual cohesion and extends to collateral materials and the brand's Web site, www.thebathroomexpert.com, creating a cleaning clearinghouse that offers tips on everything from removing tough mold and mildew to education on proper cleaning techniques to bathroom-safety ideas.
The packaging highlights the concept of quick cleaning—a simple spray and wipe—versus deep cleaning—down-on-your-knees scrubbing. The insights needed to create different products and signify these two cleaning styles through packaging were gained from qualitative research. WD-40 conducted in-home ethnographic research, "shopalongs" with consumers, and focus groups, says Heidi Noorany, WD-40's Director of Marketing. Among the variables that were tested were package shapes to support the brand positioning.
"Sales for the X-14 line were fine in our old packaging, but we knew we had a lot of upside potential because these products are so good," Noorany says. "The old positioning of the brand was based on efficacy and product strength. We felt we had an even better chance to communicate benefits with the new packaging."
New, forward-leaning bottles across the X-14 line feature a customized, swirl-shaped neck with a matching trigger sprayer, from Continental AFA. The bottles are used for bathroom cleaner, shower cleaner, and mold and mildew remover. An X is embossed into the mold of the royal-blue-colored bottles. The plastic bottles are from Patrick Products. The pressure-sensitive bottle labels, from WS Packaging Group, heighten the sense of cleanliness with a starburst above the brand name. Nozzles on cans of foaming bathroom cleaner, from CCL Container, spray an 8"-diameter area.
Paperboard cartons for the toilet bowl cleaner, from JR Cole Industries, resemble the bottle shapes to unify visual equity across the brand.
"There's a lot of positive emotion in getting results using both products," Noorany says. "X-14 now says to people, This is a brand I can turn to for my whole cleaning needs. You understand how I clean.'"
|
Planning smart retail package design
Patrick Sbarra is President of New Creature, an in-store marketing and P-O-P display company that helps Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and their suppliers to "sell more stuff." Here, he discusses factors that are impacting in-store packaging decisions.
Q: How do you think packaging design differs between club stores and mass merchandisers?
Sbarra: The primary consideration is the buying environment itself. In the mass environment, there exist 100,000-plus SKUs, versus 4,000-plus at a club. At mass, the unit package is relatively small in comparison to club. Being smaller, it will be picked up, handled, and turned around more as the shopper examines it and possibly the SKU next to it to learn more.
In the club environment, the items are more likely to be presented in bulk and in much larger boxes than at mass. As most of these large boxes or units will not be handled by the consumer, it is critical that the hierarchy of decision-making information is presented on the panel directly in the consumer's line of sight.
Q: How can a consumer packaged goods company be flexible enough to produce different packaging formats for different retail environments, while still being cost-effective?
Sbarra: The advances in technology and digital printing, along with the willingness of forward-thinking packaging manufacturers to change their processes, have made the mass customization of packaging a reality. Smaller CPG companies, as well as more nimble, large CPG companies, are capitalizing on this technology to gain a competitive advantage.
Q: What packaging trends are emerging in the high-volume retail environment?
Sbarra: We see three basic trends. The first is sustainability—reducing unnecessary packaging and waste.
The second is RFID, whereby tags are moving from pallet to case to unit packaging. Tracking the package, in real time, from the shop floor through the supply chain, onto the shelf, and through the cash register helps every entity that touches the package add value, reduce cost, and compress time.
The third trend is simplicity. This means reducing the visual clutter on packaging that creates an obstacle for the time-starved consumer. The trend is toward less cluttered but more compelling graphics and clear copy.
|
Package Gallery
A closer look at the newest trends in today's packaging.
Fabric-care brand links fashion with fine fragrances
Procter & Gamble is extending its Downy Simple Pleasures brand with a new line of "fabric enhancers" marketed under the Radiance Collection subbrand. The three scents in the line are formulated with assistance from perfume houses and delivered through a proprietary technology that deposits microscopic capsules of perfume onto fabrics during the wash/rinse cycles.
These benefits deliver pampered luxury to consumers, and P&G opted for a cosmetics-like bottle design to reflect the brand essence. The PET bottle includes a rippling swath that encircles the body and neck, creating a silken fabric effect. Metallic bottle finishes of lavender, teal, and rose distinguish the three scent varieties. Each bottle contains a two-piece metallic-gold, screw-on polypropylene pour spout and dispensing cap.
The clear, heat-transfer label includes abstract design elements resembling henna tattoo artwork that "create intrigue and invite consumers to experience the amazing breadth of scents," says Arun Kori, Downy Simple Pleasures Brand Manager.
|
Chicken pack bids adieu to tray
Murray's Chicken, New City, NY, is elevating eco-awareness to a higher level in case-ready meat by introducing a film package for fresh poultry that eliminates the use of polystyrene foam trays.
The film is a proprietary, multilayer structure from Winpak. Steve Gold, Murray's Chicken Vice President of Sales and Marketing, says the film resists punctures and abrasions and also provides high gas and oxygen barriers.
The film offers a 15- to 17-day product shelf life, features a proprietary leak-resistant seal, and is freezer-safe.
On the package front, Murray's Chicken takes two actions to gain consumer trust. First, the company logo appears in a prominent size. Second, the front panel also serves as an educational billboard about the package's eco-friendly advantages.
|
Bottle's sidewall made of film
Belgian sports drink marketer WCUP brings a new packaging concept to beverages in Europe with a 300-mL hybrid bottle made largely of flexible film. The company says the bottle structure answers sustainability demands with a carbon footprint 50% smaller than the PET container it replaces.
Minimal material uses, says bottle supplier Aisapack SA, translates to less processing energy and lower transportation costs. The three-part container includes a reclosable threaded cap. The three parts are a molded bottom and shoulder and a three-layer film lamination.
Bottle assembly resembles the tube-making process, in which the body is cut from rollstock and formed into a tube before having top and bottom pieces welded in place.
WCUP's isotonic drink is available in cycling shops, fitness clubs, and football clubs in much of western Europe. Company CEO Anita Van Genechten is so impressed by consumer response that she has completely replaced the line's PET containers.
|
|
|
Package
Gallery
