Wow! What a Package!

Shapely Sake Bottles Display Traditional Japanese Forms Despite American Roots

by David Luttenberger

Its package designer contends the shapely and colorful glass bottles just scream "Quality American Sake!"

Really….

As a compound modifier describing the revered traditional Japanese rice spirit, the phrase "quality American sake" rolls off the tongues of what one has to assume is a growing lot of American sake drinkers about as well and often as "low-carb fried sushi" might trickle off the lips of our more reserved Japanese drinking buddies.

While the more savvy of the constituency of American sake (or ‘saki') connoisseurs might easily discern premium American sake from even average Japanese sake at a glance, the unique brand positioning angle of Napa Saki is totally lost on neophyte American sake sippers. For that majority demographic, however, the Napa Saki bottle just shouts all things Japan, but in an eloquent and cohesive tone that differentiates and sells at point of purchase no matter how it was intended to be positioned among competitors. So stunning is the Napa Saki bottle, the comparison could be made that this container is to glass packaging design what the stunning works of artist Dale Chihuly are to modern glass sculpture.

From top to bottom, the bottle is a well conceived and executed design—the brainchild of Liquid International Premium Spirits (LIPS), itself the stepchild of New York City-based A.I.G. Wine & Spirits. Explains Leila Awad, LIPS's national marketing director, LIPS was formed with the intent of formulating and marketing quality spirits worldwide in innovative packaging.

The featured bottle is blown in a sparkling cobalt blue, and its sexy contours and twisting shape connote a flowing kimono—complete with two subtle protrusions at the base which not only add structural stability to the tall, slender bottle, but also allude to a set of tiny feet perhaps hidden beneath the traditional Japanese garb. The bottles, made in Mexico and China, are decorated in a minimalist fashion with an oriental-style typeface and graphics that Awad describes as "decals" fired on at 1000° F (540° C). The bottles are filled at LIPS "sakery" in Forest Grove, Oregon, and topped with a cap that is custom molded by Mexico's Tapones Escobar, S.A. The color-coordinated caps are reminiscent of a traditional-style straw hat worn by a Japanese rice-farmer.

The 350-ml and 750-ml bottles include line extensions of colored and clear glass bottles—the cobalt blue bottle is the unflavored premium sake, the golden orange is mandarin-infused, ruby red is raspberry, and the frosted white is the unfiltered "cloudy" sake—all of which have become collectibles of sorts. Awad explains that some consumers adore and collect the bottles, even though "they don't actually know what's in the bottle." Odd, since they are labeled on the front panel with the word "saki" in a metallic gold that makes a striking, high-contrast statement against the deep cobalt, gold, ruby, and frosted glass front panel.

Interestingly, the bottles feature no front-panel marketing communication messages about the product being American-made, super-premium, or a "fresher and healthier beverage due to having 58 percent fewer impurities than sakes brewed outside the U.S.," as Awad claims. Despite that, designers and consumers alike should offer their most sincere "Omadetto gosaimasu" (congratulations!) to the package design sensei at LIPS. The Napa Saki bottle is a world-class package design, and the product itself—best served chilled—is taihen oishii desu (very tasty!).

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses. He can be reached at (610) 436-4220 (ext.18) or at dluttenberger@packstrat.com.