Packaging can be more than just wrapping
Packaging can be more than just wrapping
Great packaging can help set your brand apart from others. Consumer insights and looking outside your own category might provide inspiration. Here are some themes (improved utility, sustainability, engagement, personalisation and novelty) and examples that I have spotted recently:
Improved utility:
Amazon's Frustration-Free Packaging - Amazon's Frustration-Free Package, available only in the USA, is recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. Amazon currently offer a selection of toys and consumer electronics products in Frustration-Free Packaging, but says its vision is to offer our entire catalogue of products in Frustration-Free Packaging
Flexa - Dutch Akzo Nobel has launched Flexa Premium Paint Pot that incorporates a paint tray into the paint pot (it is also responsible for the automated Dulux Paint Pod)
Kellogg's Drink'n'Crunch - breakfast for consumers on-the-go. Designed to fit in a car cupholder, the pack comprises an inner cup which contains the cereal and the outer cup which contains the milk. Cereal rolls into your mouth from the inner cup while milk flows into your mouth through the ergonomically designed mouthpiece sip hole - "your mouth is the bowl". Available in the US
Sustainability:
Persil - Persil's Small & Mighty is just one of many new concentrated products - meaning consumers need to use less product and less space to store it. And the manufacturer benefits from reduced water and packaging materials usage, as well as lower distribution costs. And less packaging volume means less landfill or lower energy costs in recycling
Own brand fruit squashes - recently, I have noticed that several major retailers in the UK including Sainsbury's and Asda have introduced double-strength fruit squashes to reduce packaging and offer shoppers better value
Engagement:
Y water - is a new entry in the bottled water market. The Y Water range of drinks (Muscle Water, Bone Water, Immune Water, and Brain Water) are organic, low calorie and fortified with vitamins and minerals. The bottles are recyclable and 100% reusable as a "creative developmental aid" (a toy) - the bottles connect together allowing kids to build "just about anything"
Pangea Organics - another example from the US, Pangea Organics Ecocentric Bodycare produces 100% plant-based products. Pangea created a compostable, biodegradable molded fibre product box that loosely resembles an egg crate. And what is more, these product boxes incorporate organic seeds allowing consumers to slip off the label, soak the box in water and plant in the earth
Pepsi - in 2007, Pepsi ran a competition for anyone to create a design for a Pepsi-Cola can. The Design Our Pepsi Can promotion offered fame (on half a billion cans in the US), plus $10,000 in prize money. Visitors to the website were invited to vote for their favourite "user-generated" pack design. Recently, brands including Brahma InBev's Brazilian beer brand , Pepsi, Smarties (in Canada) and McDonald's in the US have all invited consumers to participate in packaging design competitions.
Personalisation:
Jim Beam Small Batch - Jim Beam's small batch bourbon is made for the "true connoisseur, every sip a testament to the work and love that has gone into each handcrafted bottle". These ultra-premium, small batch bourbons are made in limited quantities. The signature, batch number, crafted cap, and intricate design details on the bottle creates the feeling of a bottle of a whiskey made just for you, by your friend, the master distiller
And many companies now offer services to really personalise their products. For example:
Mars Direct - personalised M&Ms and Dove chocolates
Kleenex tissues
Novelty:
Sprout Organic Baby Food in the US is packed in pouches, a new format to a category dominated by glass jars and plastic tubs. It also has the additional benefit of having significant environmental benefits in terms of CO2 emission and solid waste disposal in pouches over traditional packaging
Method's environmentally safe home and personal care products in beautifully designed containers. In a utilitarian category, Method has created packaging that stands out and means consumer now have cleaning products they don't have to hide under their sinks and in their bathroom cabinets
Monday, 15 June 2009 14:15