Packaging that Connects - Come together to understand and celebrate the packaging industry's truly innovative designs, trends, actionable insights and sustainable solutions presented by industry leaders and visionary thinkers. Mention code XM2029SI when registering to save 15% off the standard registration rates!
Institute for International Research |
Producing world-class solutions for a dynamic food packaging market.
Alcan Packaging |
- find design inspiration from around the world
- conduct a worldwide category audit for new design projects
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Global Package Gallery
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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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Hubs propel GSK as OTC design innovator
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) operates in healthcare products, which the design community considers to be possibly the last remaining section of the store in which packaging is generally falling short of its potential for impacting sales. GSK is one of the healthcare community's design leaders. A recent example: Packaging for its new alli over-the-counter (OTC) weight-loss brand provides some of the emotional support women need to get through a weight-loss program.
One focus of the product delivery system is the "Shuttle," a blue pill case included in the alli that women can carry with them to provide discreet, convenient compliance. How does GSK innovate effectively in the OTC arena? The company is making a commitment to innovation and enhancing speed to market with the development of innovation "hubs." Donna Sturgess, GSK Global Head of Innovation, described how the hubs work at the recent Pharmapack show in Paris, France.
"If your work touches one of our global assets, you are moved into the innovation hub," Sturgess explained.
Team members working in the hub include marketers sitting next to the R&D, packaging, and regulatory departments. GSK has found that by placing people in this manner in a creative space, the larger group can make significant gains in the way they innovate.
"If you are seminal to the operation of the brand, you are seated in the hub," Sturgess said. "E-mails have gone down, and the speed of decision-making has increased by 45 percent. The R&D people say things to me like, 'We actually know what's going on around the project.' The use of all players to inform decisions is up 18 percent since we moved to the innovation-hub model."
Sturgess further explained, "This has been extremely powerful to us in terms of driving our innovation agenda, and I think you can imagine how quickly it begins to change your speed to innovate, because you are without this structure of all these formal meetings and tons of e-mails."
How does this approach affect the role of packaging? "Packaging is at the very inception of the innovation," Sturgess said. "It's not an afterthought.
"It isn't that marketing turns up and says, 'We want you to create a package for this,' and the packaging person says, 'A year and a half ago, I could have given you many more options, but now your options are very limited.' With this structure, we can now operate teams in a way that everybody is there at the beginning of the innovation process. And everybody can make a positive contribution to the innovation."
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Research: 'Lack of time' stifling branding and packaging innovation
Packaging innovation is important for most brand owners; 86% of those surveyed recently say that marketing, branding, and packaging have a heightened role in product marketing efforts today. However, the processes that lead to innovation are either lacking or need to be refined to encourage creativity and bring new ways of doing things into the package-creation process.
So says a new survey from Paxonix, a MeadWestvaco company, produced with Consumer Goods Technology magazine. The survey data was developed in early 2008 and summarized in a report called Branding and Packaging: Processes Ripe for Improvement and Automation. Data used in the report came from a survey of top marketing executives and explored how packaging and branding processes contribute to new-product success.
The study determined "speed to market" as the most important business driver among the respondents. Another 32% suggested that "lack of time" was the main inhibitor to innovation in designing and developing branding and packaging strategies.
"Innovation has to be part of the overall process of providing product to the market," says Kent St. Vrain, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, at Paxonix. "However, it relies on having enough time in the process for innovative ideas to appear and be refined, tested, and implemented. With the pressures of speed to market, quality improvement, and a reduction in rework, it is clear that current processes do not contain this extra time."
Respondents also identified collaboration as essential to successful branding and packaging processes. However, when asked to enumerate the major obstacles, 30% respondents noted the existence of "too many revision cycles," as well as logistics and communication issues, another concern was issue of working in separate locations.
"Most processes in the marketing, branding, and packaging functions stifle creativity by having the people in the process spend too much time on administration rather than utilizing the creativity of employees," St. Vrain says. "Consumer packaged goods organizations that leverage automated packaging and brand asset management tools can help ease the burden of administration and free up employees to focus on innovation."
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More of Ted Mininni's thoughts on 'design beyond the billboard'
In our Aug. 7 issue, Ted Mininni, President of Design Force Inc., wrote a very insightful article called "Rethinking package design beyond the billboard." Ted's article received a high "hit" rate, but Shelf Impact! provided an incorrect link to Ted's full article. Click here to access the complete article.
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Package Gallery
A closer look at the newest trends in today's packaging.
Bilingual cartons translate into opportunity
Packaging is getting smaller in many product categories, heightening the communications challenge for brand marketers. The hurdles are especially tough when a package requires bilingual copy. WhiteDove Herbals, Boulder, CO, found a solution by using a standard carton creatively to serve both English- and Spanish-speaking consumers.
WhiteDove Herbals' eight-count packet cartons are printed in English on two consecutive carton sides and in Spanish on the other two sides, with a front panel and right-side supplement facts panel. This approach provides "reverse" merchandising capabilities, explains Peter Hay, WhiteDove Herbals Chief Operations Officer.
"Others have placed the English/Spanish on the front together, but this design has a nice flow to the box, and you can turn it specifically for the market, whether Spanish or English," Hays says.
WhiteDove Herbals conceived the idea for the design internally and Ascent Marketing executed it.
Hay adds that this approach enables WhiteDove to highlight package artwork without cluttering the bilingual copy. A "clean" package is essential for products that need to impart a healing or calming effect.
The company plans to add bilingual copy on the cartons this summer, when the 7.5-mL size debuts.
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Stunning graphics enhance the treasures on tea cans
Three brand owners rule more than half the market share in the ready-to-drink tea category—about 57%—but there's plenty of opportunity for the rest of the market, and Polar Beverages is making a run at it with a "fun" brand. The company is introducing Black Jack Beverage tea with razor-sharp graphics to create the "wow" factor on each can.
Polar Beverages achieved the intense graphic reproduction by improving the pre-press process. Working with Crown Beverage Packaging North America, Polar Beverages gained better dot spacing and reproduction of fine-detail images and text on the cans through a new pre-press-to-print process using proprietary separation techniques and high-resolution printing plates.
Gerry Martin, Vice President of Marketing at Polar Beverages, says graphics quality is crucial for the brand because each 16-oz aluminum beverage can features a design and color scheme that convey the distinctive flavors specific to the four tea varieties.
The back panel of each can follows the adventures of Captain Black Jack Crowley and his dog Grog as they capture treasure and rare teas. The cans include gold ends and black tabs for additional visual impact.
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Bottle as art grows Mountain Dew's market share
How is it possible to position a brand as premium in the crowded carbonated soft drink aisle? Turn to an aluminum bottle and to artists to create engaging, limited-time labels for 360-degree impact.
That's what PepsiCo Inc. has done in continuing Mountain Dew's Green Label Art series with 12 new label designs being introduced in 2008. "Six bottle designs were released nationally in February of 2008 and were available through early April. A new set of six designs will be released in August through October," says Nicole Bradley, Mountain Dew spokesperson.
Bradley notes that the 16-oz aluminum "bottlecan," from CCL Container, provides the premium product image the company sought for Mountain Dew, adding, "Aluminum provides the perfect canvas for high-impact graphics."
Aluminum bottles continue to find a greater presence in beverage aisles. Marketers such as Mountain Dew are opting for them for eye appeal, as well as durability, fast-chilling capability, and recyclability, and the introduction of aluminum bottles helped edge Mountain Dew's market share to 7.4% of the carbonated soft drink category in 2007.
View all of Mountain Dew's Green Label Art bottle designs.
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