In This Issue

When commodities become brands, 'loyalty' beyond reason' builds value and sales In today’s struggling economy, marketers need to come to terms with a new reality.

Insights from 'in-context' brand discussions If you really want to know how and why consumers purchase and use your product, Heather Maxwell recommends holding these discussions “in context.”

Institute slates design seminar at Clemson The Sonoco Institute will lead the seminar Streamlined Package Design Nov. 3-5 at Clemson University’s Printing and Research Center, Clemson, SC.

Package Gallery

Coca-Cola sets personal record with Olympic-themed packaging

By Jim George, Editor-in-Chief

Coca-Cola Co. developed an innovative way to embellish its sponsorship of the Olympic Games by leveraging packaging. Specially designed cans and bottles of Coca-Cola gave the company a window to tie the brand’s identity together with the ideals of wholesomeness and the positive aura of the Summer Olympic Games in August in Beijing, China.

 

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The company accomplished those objectives by creating Olympic-themed cans and bottles bearing a multitude of design variations that were marketed in region-appropriate packaging to more than 150 countries.

Coca-Cola, Atlanta, GA, has been a continuous sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1928. It has never produced Olympic-themed packaging on such a grandiose scale.

The packaging’s graphic elements and guidelines incorporate brand elements from both the East and West. The company’s approach positioned Coca-Cola as an active participant in the Beijing Games, rather than a passive sponsor, says Kevin Tressler, Director of Worldwide Sports and Entertainment Marketing at Coca-Cola.”

“Packaging is the best way to interact with consumers,” Tressler adds. “The broadest aspect of the program is the rollout of commemorative packaging that, more than anything else, indicates the company’s support of this year’s Olympic Games.”

Coca-Cola, working with Schawk and its Anthem Worldwide division, created eye-catching color bands, rich graphics, and text in different languages on 12-oz cans and on limited-edition, 20-oz PET, contoured-glass and -aluminum bottles.

The graphics feature the Olympic rings, the date 08.08.08 representing the start of the Beijing Games, and other imagery associated with Coca-Cola’s Olympics sponsorship.

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Special labeling features Chinese characters used to phonetically pronounce Coca-Cola. The characters form the trademark for Coca-Cola in mainland China. Along with the Chinese rendition of the trademark in the familiar Coca-Cola Spencerian script, the traditional spelling of Coca-Cola in the local language also appeared on commemorative bottles or cans.

In the U.S., collectible cans and “FridgePacks”—paperboard cartons dispensing 12 cans—began appearing May 19. The cans took the form of a six-pack featuring photography of various U.S. gold medalists. In other countries, special packaging rolled out in languages such as Ethiopian, Russian, Thai, and Mandarin.

The 20-oz bottles featured festive labels in multiple languages, including those of the U.S., Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Korea, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Anthem worked with Coca-Cola to create, refine, and coordinate the overall design strategy. Michael Coleman, Managing Director of Anthem’s Chicago, IL, office, tells Shelf Impact! that Anthem offices globally collaborated with Coca-Cola on the design parameters. They decided on several design systems, with eight to 12 SKUs in each design system. Each region had sufficient latitude to adapt the central artwork to suit local cultures and remain within the confines of the overall design strategy, Coleman explains.

INTELLIGENCE ON DESIGN When commodities become brands, ‘loyalty beyond reason’ builds value and sales By Rick Barrack, Chief Creative Officer and Partner, CBX

In today’s struggling economy, marketers need to come to terms with a new reality. Your true-blue, perennially loyal customers are cheating on you. They have developed a wandering eye—and they are checking out other brands, including private-label, with gusto.

Consumers are looking everywhere for ways to save money. Comparison shopping, and the cost savings it can yield, is one easy way to do so. Purchasing private-label is another. Store-brand sales now account for one of every five items sold in U.S. supermarkets, drugstore chains, and mass merchandisers. According to the Private Label Manufacturing Association, sales of private-label products are up by $5.4 billion in 2008 vs. 2007, to a record $74 billion.

Most at risk for customer loyalty fallout are commodity brands. Less expensive, seemingly equal counterparts surround everyday products like toilet paper, dog food, and bread at every turn, making a switch away from your product all too easy and attractive. Is it possible under these conditions to retain and gain brand loyalty, and also to build value for your commodity brand? The

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answer is yes, with caveats that consider today’s consumer and marketplace. The key to being a standout in a crowded commodity category and keeping/finding new customers is showcasing a real point of difference or an innovation, and clearly communicating it to consumers. This is the best way to build brand value and engender loyalty. Brands cannot compete on price alone but must give consumers a reason to understand why their brand sells for a higher retail price.

Here are three brands that do a good job of communicating value:

1. Evian has an extremely loyal consumer base. The bottled-water brand positions itself as the first mineral water from the French Alps, a place suggestive of all things clean and pure. Evian was the first to package water in plastic bottles (1969) and then brand it. The brand’s packaging graphics prominently feature the Alps, along with text reinforcing the purity message.

2. Sugar in the Raw is packaged in a brown color, instead of the category’s usual white, to exploit its unique qualities and stand out from the competition. Before the days of chic organic products, Sugar in the Raw surprised consumers with its chunky brown granules to make consumers wonder: Is this what real sugar looks like? The natural brown-colored carton, with a logo that stretches across the entire package, allows it to claim a leadership position. This approach makes regional players like Domino look generic.

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3. Kibbles ’n Bits dog food focuses on “what a dog wants.” The brand promises a delicious, satisfying meal experience while also recognizing the fun and meaningful experience of owning and caring for a dog. All aspects of the brand’s package design—from the colorful and playful brandmark and the selection of specific dog breeds and photography, to the free-flowing presentation of the product pieces—reinforce this concept. Packaging helps the brand sell the message about dog food that not only meets basic requirements of taste, nutrition, and quality, but also bears relevance to the dog owner’s life and relationship with his or her dog.

STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING Insights from 'in-context' brand discussions By Jim George, Editor

If you really want to know how and why consumers purchase and use your product, Heather Maxwell recommends holding these discussions “in context.” By doing so, you can make more informed decisions in package design.

Success requires talking on-site to shoppers and store associates about your brand, says Maxwell, Consumer Insights Associate at General Mills. Brand marketers and designers are doing that universally, right? A little informal polling shows something quite different actually is happening. At two recent conferences, audiences consisting of brand, marketing, and design managers were asked whether they do in-store research. A lot of hands went up when those managers were asked if they visit stores. Far fewer hands rose when attendees were asked whether they talk to people in the store as they shop or stock shelves.

At a recent conference called PROOF: Packaging Connects, Maxwell explained that in-context discussions about your products push those who are responsible for package design and development into their product’s “habitat” in the store. These discussions also reveal the gap between what consumers and store associates say and what they do.

Case in point: General Mills noted good initial returns for one of its products during package-design testing at a grocery store, but then sales mysteriously slowed. Maxwell visited the store and happened upon a stock clerk who revealed his inability to keep the product stocked fast enough on a shelf near eye level. He solved the problem by moving the product to the top shelf, where fewer consumers noticed it and could reach it. As might be expected, sales dipped.

“Conventional research would not have detected this as the reason,” Maxwell said.

Useful in-context insights also were gleaned in conversation at our table over lunch during PROOF. One man said he uses a box cutter to reduce the carton size in his pantry as his kids eat their cereal. A woman revealed that she uses tongs and other kitchen utensils to grab onto holes she pokes into cartons she stores on the top shelves of the narrow pantry in her high-ceiling kitchen. Each of these compensating behaviors has potential implications for package design.

What insights can you glean from your own in-context discussions? The answers may help you solve consumer challenges or fill a gap in your category—and increase sales.

Institute slates design seminar at Clemson

The Sonoco Institute will lead the seminar Streamlined Package Design Nov. 3-5 at Clemson University’s Printing and Research Center, Clemson, SC.

The seminar will outline the opportunities and challenges of contemporary package design. It will illustrate the value of understanding design theory, virtual tools, and new technologies to maximize product and package innovation, efficiency, and sustainability.

Target attendees include packaging professionals such as marketers and related titles who are responsible for product/package development.