Packaging Trends: Shaping Impact at the Shelf

Creating unique shapes for packages has become such a hot tactic for marketers that as many as one of every three redesign projects now relies on shape as a means to differentiate brands on shelves."As recently as five years ago, 90% of all the new packaging systems that we tested only involved changes in graphic design," says Scott Young, president of Perception Research Services, whose company specializes in assessing consumer perceptions about packaging. "Today, about one-third of them involve a structural component."Why the growing emphasis?First, shape is a powerful way to generate recognition on store shelves. Designers generally consider color to be the first design element that consumers recognize, but at least one designer believes that, in today's crowded retail environment, shape may be the primary identifier. "When you see an object from afar, the eye probably detects shape before color," suggests Simon Williams, chief executive of New York-based Sterling Group. "Both are critical factors in creating the beginning of a dialog with the consumer."In recent years, the color explosion both in print graphics and as tints for plastic bottles has visually saturated store shelves. It is much harder to get the impact from color today than was possible even five years ago, because a sea of color is now commonplace. With the color option so effectively exercised, packagers are moving more toward shape as the tactic for differentiation.Secondly, the technology used to deliver shape is getting better -- that is true for plastics, for flexible packaging, and for paper-based packages, even in metal cans. In many ways, designers are just beginning to learn how to leverage the available technologies.Another factor spurring the focus on shape is the number of case histories demonstrating significant gains in market share for well-executed projects. Although the Dean's Chug story is more than five years old, it has become a textbook example of effective use of shape. The brand's redesign produced a 30% increase in sales of white milk and doubled the sales of chocolate and other flavored milks, with the container's shape as the primary driver. While a number of other dairies have entered the field with shaped containers since, the package's groundbreaking design gave Dean Foods a unique marketing position for at least three years before competitors begin to emulate the tactic. That is a huge lead-time by contemporary marketing standards.As the emphasis on shape expands, it is being seen in all forms of packaging: plastic, glass, paper, and metal.Plastics and GlassPlastic and glass bottles easily lend themselves to unique configurations, and cosmetics and beauty aid products have been on the leading edge of using shape as a way to improve consumer perception about a product's value. When looking at the power of shape to define a brand in the beauty aid category, Pantene hair care products from Procter & Gamble represent one of the best examples.First, the brand's plastic packaging uses shape to solve a major complaint from consumers: how to distinguish between the shampoo and the conditioner while in the middle of a shower. It does that by turning the conditioner package upside down, so the consumer has a design cue. This tactic illustrates an axiom among good designers: use shape not only for aesthetics, but for a functional purpose.The Pantene line's unique shape also strongly differentiates it from other shampoos and conditioners on the store shelf. It so strongly identifies Pantene that it gives P&G a vehicle to extend the brand with assurance that its equity carries over to new versions.In one example, P&G teamed color with shape to extend brand equity and help shoppers clearly understand the characteristics of a new SKU. P&G introduced Pantene for Women of Color with packaging that relies on the characteristic Pantene shape. However, the new version uses a bronze bottle rather than the cream color used for the original line. The bronze color clearly signals that this is a specific version of the product for a specific user.A similar teaming of shape and color comes from a Welsh company, Ty Nant Spring Water Ltd, which markets carbonated and non-carbonated spring water. The bottles are elegantly curved containers that clearly express the premium proposition. However, in a striking contrast, a cobalt blue bottle holds the non-carbonated version and a red bottle is used for the carbonated version.Another example of a successful shape in the beverage sector is POM juice. The success of this pomegranate-based beverage is based largely on the unique shape of the glass bottle used to package it. The packaging from Los Angeles-based POM Wonderful emulates the shape of stacked pomegranates, and has helped the company earn space on grocery store shelves -- particularly in upscale groceries such as Whole Foods.The move of some juices from paperboard cartons to plastic carafes illustrates another advantage of shape in packaging. Shape can change the consumer's perception of a product's character. Products such as Simply Orange have moved from PET plastic carafes to add an element of festivity that better positions orange juice as a beverage to go with a meal. Juice marketers are benefiting from improved expertise among container manufacturers, which are getting better at delivering shape in PET containers. The Simply Orange carafe incorporates detailing that would not have been possible a few years ago.PaperboardPaperboard suppliers have also seen the emerging value of packaging shape. Among the recent successes in paperboard cartons is the Swoops snack candies from Hershey Foods.Swoops is a wafer-like, chocolate-coated confection, a different product than the typical mini-bars or balls in the category. The challenge for Hershey was to introduce a new candy snack and use packaging to differentiate it.Most packages in the category are stand-up pouches that use vibrant graphics on the flexible material to provide brand differentiation. To introduce Swoops in a stand-up pouch with high-impact graphics would not have illustrated the product's uniqueness. So Hershey opted for a shaped carton with rounded corners rather than the square corners almost always used in paperboard containers. The decision required that a new packaging line be set up to form and fill the packages.In stores, the Swoops package stands out dramatically from the stand-up pouches in the category. Sales figures imply the package's ability to differentiate on the shelf.In some cases, a new shape helps define the consumer's perception of an entire product category. One example is the prism-shaped container manufactured by Tetra Pak being used by a number of healthful beverages. The containers feature an eight-sided paperboard carton with bevels that give them a unique configuration. The container is a close relative of the ubiquitous juice box, and similarly holds aseptically packaged liquids. But the shape is different from juice boxes, and so helps defines new beverage categories without transferring the recognition factor already established in kid's juices.Horizon Organic milk was one of the first products to use the Tetra Prisma container. One of the latest examples is Vita Coco, a brand of coconut water packaged in a 250-milliliter container with a six-month shelf life.CansEven cans allow a certain amount of shaping alternatives, although at an increased cost. However, with the right rational and improved market share, the additional costs can pay out.One of the more recent examples of shaped cans comes from the WD-40 brand of spray lubricant. The San Diego-based company introduced a shaped can for the Chinese market, where the popular brand was frequently counterfeited. The previous package was a straight walled can carrying the company's colors, logo, and other communications -- a format that counterfeiters found easy to duplicate. The new, shaped aerosol container comes in 8- and 10-ounce sizes and is more difficult to duplicate. WD-40 also used the container for a 50th anniversary promotion in the U.S.One company that has used shaped cans to establish its market niche in the U.S. is The Comfort Food Co. The Massachusetts outfit markets Harmony Bay Coffee in keg-shaped cans to differentiate the brand on shelves.One of the more spectacular attempts at using shaped cans to differentiate a brand was Coca-Cola's foray in the late 1990s. The company test-marketed cola in cans with a gentle shape that echoed the brand's classic contoured bottle. Package development even went so far as to put die-cut openings at the corners of paperboard carriers to display the can's shape and deliver shelf impact.But Coke withdrew the package from the marketplace after the test. At the time, a spokesperson explained that the added market share gained from the new packaging simply did not justify the added cost required to shape the cans.

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