Panasonic Revamps Packaging for Women's Shaving Line

Question EverythingPanasonic, which markets products with a focus on technology, wasn't sure that selling technology was the best way to market its women's products. The company looked to packaging to reach women, which led to packaging tactics that ultimately may extend across the breadth of the company's consumer electronics lines.The challenge started with redesigning a line of battery-powered electric shavers and pore cleansers for women. The shavers were marketed under the Smooth Operator sub-brand, and the pore cleansers under the Finishing Touches sub-brand.The products were packaged in folding cartons on which four-color graphics emphasized the products' technical features. Different SKUs within the line each had their own packaging graphics, which hampered brand identity across the lines. The redesign grew from "zero-based" thinking that questioned every aspect of this packaging. Panasonic's brand team and design consultant concluded that the sub-brands didn't connect with women because they were dated. A new sub-brand, Progressions, replaced them. It connected better with women and provided alliteration: "Panasonic Progressions."Jennifer Manno, product manager at Panasonic, explains that beyond the branding, "the biggest focus of new packaging was to emphasize 'designed by women for women', especially on the razor line." That's selling a benefit and solving a problem, rather than selling technology.Color and shape were essential tools in creating packaging that would more readily entice women. For instance, the choice of color -- a pink-violet that reaches across the entire line of razors and pore cleansers -- stems from an audit of the category's packaging. It was a color that Panasonic could "own" because no one else used it.Shape was another key design element. A stylized outline of a woman's legs is used for the shaver, and a stylized profile of a woman's face for the pore cleanser. Leslie Tucker of I.Q. Design Group, New York, says the graphics are based on photos but softened to look like drawings: "You don't want to have an actual woman's body as an illustration. Women will tune out a body that's not like theirs."This image shape, moreover, gets attention on a shelf set of rectangular cartons because it bisects the background diagonally, adding a dynamic element.Furthermore, all SKUs for both the shaver and the pore cleanser were brought into the same graphic format. The result was a graphic mass that creates an on-shelf "billboard" that helps the entire line stand out.The revamped packaging broke new ground for Panasonic, so I.Q. Design Group and Panasonic decided to conduct post-design testing to get consumer reaction to the graphics. The testing resulted in the addition of icons that show the products in use. "In the testing, we saw that some women just weren't connecting... they just didn't understand how to use the product," Tucker says.The research also gave Panasonic ammunition as the company sold the product into retail chains."Buyers liked that we were focusing directly on women," Manno says, but they wanted proof that the graphics worked.Following the design's rollout, Panasonic saw sales increase across a range of retail outlets.Adding That Extra Touch for RetailersPanasonic's newest package addresses the needs for retailers. The graphics are the same, but cartons were discarded in favor of clamshell blisters, which are said to deter pilferage.The brand marketer's post-design testing was a smart move. As a consultant, I've heard many packaging disaster stories in which the common thread is that consumers didn't react the way the designer thought they would. When critical graphic elements are discarded from earlier designs, or when the wrong color is chosen, the result can be lost equity.As a result of its success for lines of "women's products," Panasonic may incorporate some of the philosophies it used in other consumer electronic lines. As Manno quips, "Women buy a lot of television sets." Jim Peters is a writer and consultant with 25 years in the packaging field. He is president of J. Peters Associates Inc. Click here for his contact information.

Panasonic Revamps Packaging for Women's Shaving Line

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