Spotlight: Health & Beauty Packaging

The Racy Old Spice Red Zone Shell Commands the Attention of Young Male "Image Managers"

The name "Red Zone" was a name Procter & Gamble did not want to part with, nor did they want to spend a dime customizing design and manufacturing practices and equipment already entrenched. P&G wanted a bold new design for their youthful deodorant product, and they did not want to wait very long for it.

P&G also knew what market they wanted to target—a consumer they call an "image manager." An image manager is a young person who is very conscious about the style and status of every personal product he or she buys. However, P&G also wanted Red Zone to fit comfortably within the current Old Spice product line.

Enter Product Ventures, a design firm based in Fairfield, Conn., which never shies away from a challenge. Product Ventures' strengths are strategic branding, consumer insights, engineering expertise, and manufacturing coordination. Javier Verdura, vice president of design at Product Ventures, saw the challenge ahead as an exciting one: "How can we make this product look really different, but the same as the rest in the line?"

Verdura also remembers a small revelation that he had when he decided to look at the deodorant shell package differently. "We should think of it more of a product than a package," Verdura reasoned. The initial meeting for the project was a "Come-As-Image-Managers Party," so the team could get into that mindset. These insights allowed the design team to develop several minor innovations that add up to a distinctive package that easily sets itself apart on the shelf.

The Red Zone product looks like one integrated whole, with only a thin line separating cap from body, which immediately creates a sleeker look. Sequential molding allows the rubber parts to fuse seamlessly with the plastic body and plastic inserts on the cap.

Horizontal lines on either side of the "Red Zone" type suggest logo motion. The metallic colors are in the same vernacular as many of today's high-tech gadgets, such as cell phones. The gray and silver are two separate parts, and the process "shoots" silver first, then gray.

The cost of goods remained the same after the redesign, but there was a small P&G investment required for molding equipment. P&G is definitely getting a little edgier in its maturing years, out of necessity, to respond to the many upstarts that threaten their market share.

The Red Zone redesign is most likely a direct response to the European invasion of AXE, a very stylish and hip deodorant package itself. From initial consult to market, Product Ventures turned around the Red Zone redesign in just under 14 weeks.