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 When
is a brand not simply a brand, but a classic emblem of consumerism?
When it stands for products so deeply trusted that shoppers purchase
them as much by instinct as by preference. Because it controls some
of the best regarded, most instantly recognizable product identities
in all of retailing, Hershey Foods Corp. well understands what it
means to have achieved this kind of iconic status among purveyors
of mass-marketed products. That's an enviable position for any brand owner to occupy, but it comes with a caveat. The Hershey brand—like any other—must continually adapt to changes in the consumer marketplace, an image-conscious arena where a brand and its packaging are identical. The challenge for Hershey is to update the look and the composition of its packages without obscuring the traditional brand identity to which the 109-year-old company owes its preeminence. At Hershey, modernizing or launching a package is a complex decision that has to mold marketing, manufacturing, and design considerations as harmoniously as squares in a chocolate bar. The choice of packaging material must support the intended look, feel, and durability of the container, and the developmental workflow must be cost efficient from concept to distribution. Assuring that the recipe will be foolproof is the responsibility of Hershey’s package development group, a team of production specialists under the direction of packaging veteran Sandra (Sandy) Hand at the company’s headquarters in Hershey, Pa. Hand’s team aren’t designers, and design aesthetics is only one of the factors that she and her group weigh as they coordinate dozens of package launches and product promotions affecting hundreds of packages every year. Nevertheless, Hand’s comments on the process as a whole offer package designers many insights into the relationship between creative goals and the requirements of mass manufacturing - knowledge that’s fundamental to working successfully with consumer giants like Hershey. Standardizing the Selection Hand says that whenever the package development group tackles a new project, its first concern is to make the best call with respect to packaging material. In the past, she says, the group tended to select packaging materials on a project-by-project basis. Now, however, Hershey is moving toward standardizing its choices so that the same kinds of material can be used for as many packages as possible. Hand says that her group, which does all of the specifying, is “always trying to find a more cost-effective (packaging) structure without impacting marketing, manufacturing, or product quality.” The task is every bit as complicated as it sounds. When creating a package, Hand says, the choice is between accommodating the design to the chosen packaging material or basing the selection of the material on the design. In either case, the goal is to “use a cost-effective substrate that will run on our production lines” without problems stemming from mistakes in the planning phase. Not only must the design and the material make a good match aesthetically—the package must also have suitable “barrier properties” against moisture and oxidation that could have negative quality effects on the product inside. Yet even when the product’s packaging requirements are challenging, says Hand, her group tries not to “overspecify” solutions that could exceed project parameters and undercut cost efficiency. This sometimes obliges Hershey to ask designers to rethink to their initial concepts.  She
notes, for example, that in the past, Hershey often utilized metalized
film because it offers “significantly better” barrier protection
qualities than other substrates. Designers like it because it’s
attractive and because it enables them to achieve special effects.
But metalized film is also more expensive than other materials, so
Hershey plans to reduce its use in the future and has not made a wholesale
commitment to it. Thus, says Hand, the answer to designers’ request
for metalized film might have to be “no” when equally suitable
but less costly alternatives are available.Hand points out that her team includes no graphic designers perse. Once Hershey’s marketing department has initiated the design or redesign of a package, it outsources the creative and turns the project over to the package development group. Then it is up to Hand’s staff to coordinate the interaction between the outside vendors and the company. Her team also directs the internal workflow, including the proofing and approvals. "Opportunity" To Better Educate Hershey currently does business with a number of package design firms. Hand says, however, that the list of design providers is being shortened so that Hershey can be sure of optimizing its relationships with those that remain. Hand sees strengthening ties with outside designers as an “area of opportunity,” and she says that narrowing the list will further enable her group to spend more time educating a more manageable number of firms. According to Hand, the goal is for all of the firms to receive written guidelines for production requirements, and for them all to have contacts on the package development staff so that their questions and concerns can be addressed as early in the process as possible. Because of the extent of the Hershey product line and the promotion-packed nature of the company’s marketing calendar, the pace of project coordination for the Hershey team is relentless. Hand says that in 2003, her group managed packaging workflows in about a dozen brand redesigns; the development of over a dozen “limited editions” of existing products; the launch of more than 15 new items; and the production of more than 15 events, promoting an average of 10 products each. Because Hershey has more “seasons and promotions” in its marketing agenda than many other consumer product companies, says Hand, “the volume that goes through here is tremendous.” The Hershey Packaging team begins each project by sharing production guidelines and technical parameters with the chosen designer. Hershey also makes a point of involving its printers from the outset to avoid complications later on. “The last thing you want to do,” says Hand, “is to find out that something can’t be printed after its design has been approved.” The team also calls in Hershey’s prepress service provider and the materials converter (a company that processes the substrates into printed material for manufacturing) assigned to the project.  The
prepress house preflights and manipulates the designers’ digital
files and, in many cases, makes the plates for printing. The prep
house, says Hand, in combination with Hershey, has also developed
an “electronic artflow system” that helps her team to steer
projects through internal review, including approvals by the marketing,
legal, and procurement departments. With these imprimaturs in hand,
Hershey can give the prep house the go-ahead to make color separations
and submit proofs for sign-off by the Hershey team.Hershey prints most of its packaging with flexography, a direct-impression method that is well suited to flexible films and other packaging substrates. Gravure, a costlier but extremely efficient high-volume process, is used for packages with very large runs or demanding graphics. According to Hand, reverse-printed lamination is the graphic reproduction technique most often specified. An example of this is the Hershey’s milk chocolate bar, in which the text is trapped between two layers of film for a high quality, glossy appearance. Timing Is Everything  In
the launch or the repositioning of a consumer product, minimizing
time-to-market is always crucial to success. Hand’s team measures
the project timeframe from initiation to delivery of packaged samples
to the field sales force, and the turnaround is brisk: typically four
months, according to Hand, if flexible materials and standard packaging
types are used. Developing other kinds of packaging can take longer.
A case in point was the rollout of the Reese’s Mini Pieces tubular
container, a process that spanned nearly a year because the package
was made of rigid plastic and required custom molds. Another factor
that can add complexity to the scheduling, says Hand, is the fact
that Hershey aims to introduce new products to the trade six months
ahead of their consumer release. Meeting
the deadlines requires continual testing of work in progress. Consumer
focus-group testing takes place first, but it’s not the only
or even necessarily the most critical form of scrutiny that a new
or revamped package will undergo. Hand says, for example, that if
pre-production “sensory evaluation” shows a product to be
more sensitive to air and moisture than first thought, the discovery
could force a change in the choice of packaging materials. She adds
that if testing does not begin in the earliest stages of development,
costly and time-consuming “compromises” might be unavoidable
later on. According to Hand, Hershey’s packaging prowess successfully passed its biggest test in last year’s repackaging of the company’s signature product: the classic milk chocolate bar. Sold to generations of chocolate lovers in a traditional foil-and-paper wrapping, the product was ready for a transition to sealed flexible film. But first, says Hand, Hershey had to establish “how open to change the consumers actually were.” Focus groups and internal perspectives on consumer preferences led to the decision that changing the packaging material and the package configuration was as much as consumers were prepared to accept. Therefore, says Hand, the graphic design was left basically as-is, retaining the evocative colors and distinctive logotype that consumers know so well. Without Skipping A Beat
Flexible film was found to satisfy Hershey’s
strict standards both for preserving product quality and for providing
the “tamper evidency” demanded by a safety-conscious marketplace.
The challenge lay in mass-producing the new packaging. Hand says
that owing to the milk chocolate bar’s enormous production
volume, Hershey had to purchase new machinery in order to manufacture
and wrap the bar in line. What’s more, the production moved
across town to a different manufacturing site. Hand says that Hershey
made a “clean break” by shifting all production to the
new line at once, so that production of the popular bar was instantly
converted to the new packtype. That made a flawless execution all
the more imperative as supply was relying upon a successful start-up
of the new package and new equipment. |
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© 2004-2008 ST Media Group International. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without consent from publisher.
DECEMBER 4, 2008
1:00 PM EASTERN
This special 90-minute webinar will feature up-to-date insights into the market forces affecting package design and sustainability. Registration is FREE for the first 100 participants. An $89.99 fee applies for all subsequent registrants. Attendees will receive a copy of Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design (a $49.95 value) by Wendy Jedlicka.
Keynote Address by:
MINAL MISTRY
Project Manager, Sustainable
Packaging Coalition/GreenBlue
COMPASS is an online software tool for packaging designers and engineers to compare the environmental impacts of their package designs.
