Grabbing Their Attention At The Last Second: The Advantages of Paperboard Packaging
by Heather Neese

The retail shelf—it’s the final moment in your marketing campaign and your last opportunity to promote your product before purchase. It’s in those final few seconds of face time with the consumer that they are either drawn to your product or sent on to the competitor. According to Wal-Mart, consumers must “get it”—the promise behind the package—within three seconds and up to 15 feet away from the shelf. Today’s self-service marketplace places greater demands on product differentiation, making the design and graphics of packaging even more critical for product promotion and efficient use of limited shelf space. So, is it any wonder that packaging plays such a crucial role in the success of any product?

To capture the consumer’s attention, brand marketers consider product image and visual appeal among the most important features of a successful package. Paperboard’s receptive surfaces allow for excellent print and graphics, making products easier to spot and read. Consumers want recognizable brands, and people often rely upon the package’s visual impact and design to help them locate a product amidst a wall of alternatives.

Value-added processes transform a simple paperboard stock into a creative package that differentiates your product from competitors. When it comes to brand enhancement, the billboard-like surfaces give paperboard folding cartons a unique advantage over other forms of packaging. Specialty inks (fluorescent, metallic, etc.), coatings, and foil stampings are easily applied to paperboard’s surfaces, adding an eye-catching element. Paperboard can be embossed or enhanced with holographic images, and premium incentives (like CDs or DVDs) can be attached to influence purchasing decisions.

Paperboard offers designers the opportunity to “think outside the box,” allowing creativity to shine through in remarkable graphics and innovative structural design. And, paperboard is versatile enough to appear in any shape you can imagine. Folding carton manufacturers have the resources and knowledge to create a package style that suits your needs and runs with your printer’s current equipment. Value-added is more than inks, coatings and foils—it’s the ability to formulate a packaging solution that functions well throughout the distribution channel, and for the end-user.

Adding value: inks, holograms, foils, and structural design
In January, the Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) hosted the 61st National Paperboard Packaging Competition, giving member folding carton manufacturers the opportunity to showcase their most successful packaging solutions. Winning entries exemplify superior graphics and structural designs that offer convenience features for ease of use, stacking, and storing for both the retailer and the consumer.

For instance, Innovative Candy Concept’s UFOs Flip Top Pack, created by Caraustar, is a great example of convenient product dispensing and effective use of high-quality holographic design. The flip-top carton style (much like a cigarette box) was chosen over both flexible and plastic packaging; flexible was not attractive and did not effectively dispense the product, while the plastic package was too expensive and a poor medium for hologram graphics. The paperboard carton provided the perfect canvas for eye-catching graphics along with an efficient dispensing flip-top lid.

Value-added features and visual impact are key components in the breakfast aisle as well. Cereal manufacturers have always utilized the broad surfaces of the folding carton to effectively differentiate their product and appeal to their target audience. According to General Mills, paperboard cartons are “the ideal structure for billboarding information.” On cereal cartons, says General Mills, marketers can include multiple value-added features like high-impact graphics and interactive elements like games. This billboard effect is said to be ideal for promotional cereals that can successfully run with a hot prospect for the duration of its popularity.

For General Mills’ “Monsters” cereal promotion, Graphic Packaging International designed the carton to incorporate an interactive fifth panel, illustrating a monster peeking through and reaching around a cutout on the cover. Once the fifth panel is pulled back, the monster is seen “opening” the panel from the inside. This simple addition to the structure of a standard cereal carton, coupled with detailed graphics, is enough to entice both children and adults to pick up the box and investigate further.

Painting a pretty picture: paperboard and cosmetics

Cosmetics companies focus heavily on the attractiveness of their packaging—it’s their business to promote beauty. Paperboard packaging is a great medium for successful cosmetic gift sets, an increasingly popular item at salons and make-up counters. For example, Third Dimension for SalonQuest looked to Caraustar for a unique gift box for its popular hair care brand, Aquage. “A Gift From the Sea,” a package versatile enough to hold several different products in combination, was designed in the shape of a bag with closure-top tuck and gable sidewalls, making it easier to carry. Die-cut circles on the front panel of the package emulate bubbles, and a coated two-sided paperboard behind the “bubble” cutouts sport the product’s signature aqua blue color. The unique carton shape, die-cutting, and use of color provide a striking package that is sure to grab the attention of the customer in the check-out line.

Paperboard can be printed and finished in a remarkable variety of ways, as seen in the brightly embossed cosmetics case from Clinique; or in the hinged and die cut extra panel on "Monster" cereal boxes from General Mills.

The shape and color of a package are major incentives for consumers to stop and take notice, and paperboard packaging offers a variety of interesting forms and bold hues. To draw teen girls to the make-up counter, Clinique collaborated with Arkay Packaging to create the “Clinique Prom Set Carton.” The shiny, pink paperboard carton has multiple levels of embossing, simulating a quilted fabric pattern, and comes complete with a pink ribbon strap and latch. At first glance, the carton appears to be a high-priced handbag. But upon closer inspection, the item is a folding carton, housing Clinique make-up and beauty products. Such an interesting and attractive package in a bold, pink color is hard for any teen girl to resist.

Non-traditional uses of paperboard: multimedia, multi-packs, and displays
Multimedia manufacturers are turning to the folding carton industry for attractive and successful packaging solutions. Bert-Co Graphics, a carton manufacturing company, recently introduced its CinePak foldout book-style package to house the classic movie, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The package holds two disks and a booklet, and is covered with an O-sleeve printed with opaque white, a four-color process plus gold, spot in-line UV coating, and sculptured embossing. The package was selected over a jewel case, and offers the consumer an attractive and distinctive package for the classic keepsake.

More and more product companies are using paperboard as a secondary package, taking advantage of its marketing benefits. Multi-packs continue to increase in popularity, and paperboard manufacturers are coming up with new ways to package numerous cans, pouches, bottles, and so on, into one carton. The carton sleeve not only provides needed advertising space, but finger holes to carry the product. Beverage carriers have become more innovative —the Coke Fridge Pack, for example, made it easier to store soft drinks in the refrigerator, and the design has been modified for use as multi-pack storage and dispensing of PET bottles. The new Duralift carton by MeadWestvaco Packaging

Systems makes carrying bottles much easier, thanks to a unique handle that lifts above the package, keeping fingers clear of bottle caps.

Paperboard packaging has also brought a new look to the candy aisle, where multi-packs are differentiating brands and increasing the frequency of impulse purchases. For Hershey’s new product, “Swoops,” the company wanted to introduce a multi-pack carrier for three, rounded plastic cup packages. Caraustar created a design to match the shape of the plastic cups, while at the same time providing broad surfaces for critical graphic design and product information. The carton is also designed for easy stacking and storing on retail shelves and in the kitchen cabinet. The unique shape draws attention to the product, enhancing the brand name of the company and the new trademark for the product line. It is a creative blend of both round and rectangular, and serves as a convenient and attractive package that supports an increasingly “on-the-go” society.

Making them check it out at checkout

Paperboard is a great medium for displays that capture the customer’s attention at the checkout counter for last-minute impulse buys. BioElements turned to All Packaging to create a Brow Make-up display for store countertops. The structural design of the display has a uniquely glued base that creates a frame and angled plane in the bottom of the tray for viewing the individually packaged eye-shadow samples. Inside the base are dividers to keep the boxed products neat and in place, even if some are removed. A back panel provides a billboard for advertising the product, making the contents of the display readily apparent.

Paperboard packaging continues to effectively replace previous packaging materials and be chosen over alternatives for product introduction. One example is Smurfit Stone Container Corporation’s “Family Time Perfect Popper,” designed and produced for Family Time Snacks Inc. Traditionally, popcorn comes in a flat bag that expands when cooked in the microwave. Research shows that consumers usually pour the popcorn into a more suitable container due to the inconvenience of the bag. Smurfit Stone utilized a fluoro-chemically treated SBS (already approved for microwave use) to create a flat paperboard carton with a pouch of microwave popcorn glued inside. The consumer needs only to “pop up” the carton using the pull-tabs to cook the popcorn in the microwave. The box fills up, the lid peels back, and the carton becomes an instant bowl for serving. The popcorn box is efficient, functional, and provides superior printing and branding opportunities over alternatives.

Let’s face it: consumers are drawn to attractive and exciting packaging. If 75 percent of purchasing decisions are made at the point of sale, then packaging is the greatest advertising medium. Paperboard packaging offers the perfect canvas for visual appeal, product visibility, and product protection. From conception to the retail shelf, paperboard packaging is great “eye candy” that sells the promise of your product. The value-added features provided by paperboard packaging are what make consumers stop and take notice of your product as they realize the value that lies beneath the surface.

Cosmetics companies, focusing heavily on the attractiveness of their packaging, find paperboard an highly effective medium for cosmetic gift sets. Multi-packs continue to increase in popularity as paperboard manufacturers find new ways to package numerous cans, pouches, and bottles into one carton.

Heather Neese is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Paperboard Packaging Council, a trade association located in Alexandria, Va. Contact her at (703) 836-3300 by or e-mail: hneese@ppcnet.org