Packaging is the ultimate vehicle for design: industrial, graphic, and typographic design are all put to the test to create an impression so meaningful that it converts currency into consumerism. This ...
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By Bill Wynkoop
As all parents know, the checkout area of a grocery store includes at least one strong reply of "No!" to your children because, of course, it is the gateway to a battery of candy, confection, gum, and chocolate.
Sweet tooths aside, it doesn't seem all that long ago that a stroll through this category offered little inspiration in the form of its packaging. Aside from Toblerone, Tic Tac, and a handful of others, most products were packaged in a fairly standard fashion—foil inner wrap for freshness, paper outer wrap for graphics.
To some extent, they felt like they were commodity items trying only to meet a certain price point with the sweet promise of the product holding the lion's share of the allure to the consumer.
Sparks of change
When the slide blister packs for gum hit the market, almost overnight the entire category shifted into variations of this package. So much so, that now it seems to be the standard for the entire category!
Consumers liked the two-piece components of this construction and the intriguing new method of product delivery. They liked the thinness of the package, the neat slide of the blister from the paperboard sleeve, and the pop of the blister when they accessed the gum. These elements all combined for a very welcome reception at retail and a welcome new dispensing experience during use. The amazing thing is that hardly anyone noticed that the price of gum went up considerably.
However, it didn't take long for the marketing and sales forces to take note, because soon other sub-categories were experimenting with packaging that offered a unique product delivery or an aural or tactile mnemonic that consumers could respond to.
My evidence comes in the next package that started to infiltrate the shelves, the click-lock carton. Mentos is the first to mind, adding this package to their standard foil/paper rolls of chewy candies. I have to admit that I have compulsive tendencies because when I have this package in my hand, I can't stop flipping it open and closed—I love the sound of the "click" and I love that I can do it with a simple snap of my thumb.
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