In This Issue

Rethinking package design beyond the billboard Why is consumer product packaging still viewed by many as a billboard?

Savvy brands quietly toning down the aisle 'noise' At one of our recent Shelf Impact! Package Design Workshops...

Packaging That Connects conference Innovative designs and trends, actionable insights, and sustainable solutions...

Package Gallery

Marketer makes a 'bee' line for versatile honey packaging

By Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World

When Hillsboro, KS-based Golden Heritage Foods LLC heard the buzz about DreamWorks Animation's feature film, Bee Movie, it jumped at the chance to create a bee-themed promotional package for its honey. The movie, a comedy featuring the voice of Jerry Seinfeld, follows the quest of animated bee Barry B. Benson as he ventures outside the hive.

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Golden Heritage's re-creation of Barry takes the form of a 2-oz contoured honey bottle bearing Barry's likeness on a colorful shrink-sleeve label. The petite bottle is a departure for Golden Heritage, whose typical retail bottle sizes range from 8 to 40 oz, along with even larger-sized institutional packaging.

CEO Dwight Stoller describes the inspiration for the 2-oz Barry's Busy Bee Pure Honey package this way: "Well, first of all, Bees are rather small characters. We thought that this would help personify Barry Bee. We thought it added to its cuteness and that children would be more attracted to it. We also saw it as creating potential for a lower-cost item to be used somewhat as a trial size, which fit with our objective to increase honey consumption by more users, especially young ones."

Suggested retail price is 99 cents.

The shaped polypropylene squeeze bottle stands 3.5 inches high and is supplied by Berlin Packaging. Golden Heritage created its own label graphics using style guides from DreamWorks Animation. The label is constructed of PETG shrink film and flexo-printed in four process colors plus four spot colors. A white, screw-on, flip-top cap from Seaquist Closures completes the bottle.

"One notable challenge was getting the required information and graphics on a very small label," Stoller says.

The 2-oz bottle is available across the country at mass merchandisers and displayed in a number of formats to offer multiple merchandising options.

"We like to see this placed somewhere other than the honey section because this product is primarily an impulse purchase," adds Marketing Manager Ben Gregory. "When people see this product in front of them, they're immediately attracted to it, so we like to put it in a high-visibility area. Another reason for placing it somewhere else in the store is the potential to automatically connect it with other usage. We see it do well at checkout, in produce, and in breads and bakery."

Rethinking package design beyond the billboard By Ted Mininni, President, Design Force Inc.

Why is consumer product packaging still viewed by many as a billboard? For its primary purpose, to stand out on the retail shelf with bold graphics and brand color? For its reason for being, to contain product? Or, to entice the consumer to pick it up and purchase it rather than competitors' products in crowded retail environments?

It's time to change this prevalent thinking. Packaging as a billboard is yesterday's idea. Today, we need to think beyond packaging as advertising space. Yes, it is essential to get, and keep, consumers' attention in retail environments. It's also true that packaging has to refer back to the brand and communicate that brand's unique attributes. But does it really have to shout to do that? Or, is it better to whisper? In the midst of the chaotic din at retail, what are consumers more likely to notice?

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Here's my point: Consumers are far more sophisticated now, and they are looking for something they can relate to. That something is packaging that is so well-designed that consumers want to interact with the brand it represents over and over again. Rather than containing mundane products consumers need to use, consumer packaging can deliver something so extraordinary that it adds enjoyment and pleasure. In this scenario, the package becomes a value-added perception for everyday items—so much so that it never gets tucked away.

Rethinking package design can lead to an all-important Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) with consumers—when they interact with the product. Adding a new aesthetic to functionality can bring success at the SMOT.

Look what is occurring at Procter & Gamble. Being customer-experience oriented, P&G marketers realized that consumers were using Febreze in experimental ways in their homes. As a result, Febreze air fresheners, plug-ins, candles, and ingenious pairings with other P&G detergents and household cleaners came about. Febreze is now poised to become a billion-dollar brand for P&G.

Now, P&G has leveraged its design-forward mentality to launch the Febreze Décor Collection to rave reviews. Stylish, clear packaging, with beautiful botanical or raindrop graphics, makes the latest Febreze line extensions stand out on shelves. Fresh aromatherapy scents are captured beautifully in soft graphics that whisper to consumers.

There are no billboards here. In laundry-care aisles packed with splashy, bold, and primary-colored billboard packaging, the Febreze DÈcor Collection is, literally, a breath of fresh air. It's easy to spot on shelves, and it connects quickly with consumers. The threshold for the First Moment of Truth—when the consumer chooses the product—is easily met here.

STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING Savvy brands quietly toning down the aisle 'noise' By Jim George, Editor

At one of our recent Shelf Impact! Package Design Workshops, I had a conversation with a design manager for a well-known marketer of consumer products. Her company has engaged in lively internal discussions about toning down the "noise" in today's crowded retail stores and wondered whether other companies were tackling this very topic.

She has plenty of company in this thinking.

Recently, a few marketers have begun to realize that they will lose the consumer's attention if they continue attempts to "shout" over competing brands. Today's consumers are savvier than ever. They can see right through yesterday's marketing keywords such as "new" and "improved," and they are searching for meaningful brand connections.

These observations bring me to a presentation at the FUSE conference that I recently attended. Eric Reynolds, Director of Marketing for Household Cleaning Products at Clorox Co., made the point that "the home-cleaning aisle in the grocery store is an unbelievable zoo, a complete and utter train wreck." It's a $7 billion category—with marketers at 480 consumer product companies pushing 7,200 home-cleaning products in all.

"Home-cleaning is one of the most anti-consumer places you'll find in the store," Reynolds continued. "We have all this hyperbolic language in our category. We're power and more power."

Clorox worked past this single-minded thinking by revisiting the notion that a brand is an idea and not just a functional product. As Reynolds said, "We have volumes of consumer data, but no wisdom." So the company watched its consumers clean, noting both what they said and did during the process, to understand their motivation for cleaning. Then Clorox interpreted that motivation.

The results, reflected in both packaging and at www.clorox.com, celebrate the Clorox consumer's "cleaner home, healthier lives." "She's germ-minded and thinks more broadly about family health," Reynolds says. "She is all about life's possibilities."

Packaging helps transform the Clorox consumer's cleaning mind-set from drudgery to happiness. The result? Clorox has added two points of market share with this new approach, Reynolds noted.

The takeaway here for brand owners is that all too often they find themselves in a shouting match with competitors simply because that's what they've always done. Be alert to such marketing traps and circumvent them by talking respectfully, rather than shouting, to your brand's consumers.

Lee Eiseman

Rob Walker

Packaging That Connects conference

Innovative designs and trends, actionable insights, and sustainable solutions will take center stage at the 10th annual Proof Presents ... Packaging That Connects conference Sept. 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, IL. Shelf Impact! is a media partner of the conference.

Speakers from companies including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Frito-Lay, and Colgate-Palmolive will explore the next generation of key trends and help you connect the dots in your package design through collaboration. Other presenters will provide insight into the do's and don'ts of the sustainability movement.

Among the scheduled speakers: Ed Foley, Packaging Technologist at Kimberly-Clark, will present "Package Technology Scouting—How to Find the Next Greatest Packaging Form Before Your Competition." Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute and Director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training, will give a featured-session presentation on "Colors That Connect: New Insights on Future Forecasts." Rob Walker, author of "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are," will discuss marketing and the new dialogue between consumers and brands.