'Try Me' and 'See Me' Tactics Expand

Brio Puts Finger on Pulse of ExcitementMarketers currently leveraging the "try me" packaging approach are doing so because they hope that the package the shopper picks up is the one that goes into the cart.For a long time, makers of paperboard cartons have been able to add windows and holes to shells. Increasingly, marketers are recognizing just how useful these techniques can be, and so the number of "involvement" packages on store shelves is growing.One good example is the Wooden Railway North Pole set from Brio Corp., Germantown, WI. The 2004 holiday promotion featured a battery-powered lighted Christmas tree inside a paperboard carton. The unique selling point was that the tree lit up as part of a holiday wooden railway layout.To emphasize the selling point on store shelves, packaging featured a die-cut window that showcased the tree. It was under the flap of a fifth-panel carton that offered room for promotional copy and images. A die-cut hole in the middle of the back panel let shoppers put a finger inside the package and press a switch to light up the tree. It is a tactic that will sway curious consumers who are already interested in the product and want to know more about what they are buying. It provides a demonstration to satisfy curiosity.From a package-manufacturing standpoint, the cost of adding the "try me" feature is negligible -- it merely requires adding a die-cutting rule to a manufacturing process the carton has to pass through anyway.From a design standpoint, this package illustrates two different viewpoints in getting consumer attention. The additional fifth panel is a device that adds sell copy and graphics on the front panel for impact. Furthermore, the windowed carton also adds impact on shelf. The conflict is this: Is the actual product displayed through the window a better attention-getter than the added graphics? When the fifth panel covers the product, the strategy is that the graphics will work better. But seeing the actual product is often considered a powerful message in itself.I wonder if there isn't a way to get the power of both graphics and a look at the product itself. One approach could be to add a die-cut window in the fifth panel so the product still shows through. Another might be to shorten the fifth panel, letting the product show through in an area of the carton left uncovered.Upscale Graphics for Lowe's Private-Label LightingLowe's, North Wilkesboro, NC, is adding graphic pizzazz to packaging for its Portfolio brand of light fixtures. Its high-intensity, four-color graphics replace a more subdued look that previously characterized the line. The private-label line includes multiple SKUs running from simple one-bulb fixtures to chandeliers. The updated look began appearing in late 2004 and continues to replace older graphics as new packages fill the pipeline.The latest graphics also are bilingual, as a precursor to Lowe's mandate that all packaging be bilingual by September 2005. The design is consistent with recent trends in high-volume outlets -- relying on strong images and strong color to stand out on shelves. The fixtures are made in China, and the graphics reflect a general upgrade of printing capabilities there.Snack Pack Adds 'See Me' Feature "See me" packages, like their "Try Me" counterparts, also respond to the belief that shoppers like to see what is inside the package they are buying.A new snack-size multipack of dried fruits from Sunsweet Growers, Yuba City, CA, adds a "see me" feature in an innovative way. Each retail-sized, 7.3-ounce package is a flat-bottom bag that holds eight individual pouches for on-the-go snacking. The bag gains shelf impact with crisp printing on a metallized film surface. It leverages both gloss and color.In addition, the Sunsweet package features a window at the bottom of the back panel that lets consumers see the individual pouches inside the bag.Traditionally, creating a window in a metallized flexible film requires a demetallizing process that adds cost to the package. In this case, however, there appears to be a new technique at play -- one that creates the window in the printing process without the need for the additional demetallizing step. The one-step process improves costs because it reduces environmentally unfriendly waste generated in earlier demetallizing processes.The window on this package addresses a frequently heard consumer complaint: that they have problems distinguishing between product varieties or packaging options that the package's exterior doesn't make readily apparent. Color and shape are frequent visual clues to product or packaging differences, but the technique of letting shoppers see what is inside the package is a tactic that works, too. Buyers of these individual-sized packs can quickly tell that they are buying single-serving sizes -- not bulk dried fruit -- inside.Innovation Creates On-Pack PremiumGeneral Mills, Minneapolis, turns a traditional in-pack promotion into an on-pack promotion with a technical "tweak" that let it print a heat-transfer image directly on the outside of a cereal box. The innovation uses inks that transfer from the carton to a fabric when a hot iron is applied. Consumers simply cut the image area from the paperboard carton, position it on a T-shirt and iron-on the image.The technique does away with separate heat-transfer pads that had to go inside the box. Those pads introduced the complication of sealing them inside a plastic pouch before inserting them in the box. From a shelf-impact standpoint, Kellogg's gets added emphasis on the carton back panel, increasing visual appeal. The Shrek 2 promotion included six different images on cereal cartons for such brands as Lucky Charms and Trix.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.

'Try Me' and 'See Me' Tactics Expand

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