Spotlight: Food & Beverage Packaging

Tasty Baking Company Unveils a Fresh New Look in Concert with Delicious New Products & Significant Upgrades

Everyone who loves Tastykakes for what's inside the package is in for a treat on the outside as well. With an ambitious and comprehensive makeover of over 100 Tastykake products, Tastykake's marketing team and DePersico Creative Group of Havertown, Penn., collaborated to imbue new life into Tastykake's entire line of sweet snack treats.

A key element of the makeover was showcasing Tastykake's delicious products on the boxes and packages more prominently. The eye-catching photography definitely increases appetite appeal—even salivation—and the photos are of actual products off the bakery line.

John Nelson, DePersico's vice president and account manager of Tastykake, explains that the challenge was to not only present the product most appetizingly, but also most realistically. Tastykake was very conscious of accurately depicting actual product on the package. Every product, usually in its normal consumer package, was brought to DePersico's in-house photography studio for the shoot. To achieve the best texture in the "cross-section" shots, the snack treats were sometimes cut with pins and slowly separated.

The striking pictures, along with a logo change, design element updates, and color and printing improvements, make for a vibrant and appetizing package.

"For all of us here, this is a significant milestone as we continue to transform our company," says Charles P. Pizzi, president and chief executive officer of Tasty Baking Company. Pizzi claims that this is the most comprehensive package redesign in the company's 90-year history. "We've done extensive testing of our new packaging with consumers, and they loved this new design. The new package gives the brand a fresh, modern look," Pizzi says.

Why is "Bakery Fresh" there?

With new management at Tastykake, fresh eyes looked at the Tastykake branding and wondered who their customers really were: "Are they young?" "Are they loyal?" "Do they comparison shop for snacks?"

Kim Powderly, account coordinator at DePersico, explains that there was no way that anyone would recommend discarding the brand equity of the Tastykake colors, especially the deep blue found in the their very recognizable logo. DePersico instead focused on adding depth and movement to the boxes and packages.

Tastykake also asked DePersico a simple rhetorical question: "Why is ‘Bakery Fresh' part of the logo?" DePersico agreed that the logo could use some refinement, although Bakery Fresh is still a strong message. DePersico moved Bakery Fresh out of the logo frame and developed a more three-dimensional treatment. By using more drop shadows, curve shadows, and careful use of cyan in the background, the logo letters achieved a more chiseled and etched appearance, even making the letters look embossed at first glance.

In the far background, the designers achieved a feeling of motion produced by the expertly marbleized, almost molten, yellow and blue. The products float on top, as if suspended over a swirling sea. Other color and printing issues were addressed and improved as well. According to Nelson, the chocolate items on the old boxes had "magenta issues." Adding a fifth color to the printing helps the chocolate colors stay more consistent across the entire line of products. Tastykake also agreed to use a better stock of paperboard that printed brighter.

In conjunction with the new package design, the company is also introducing two new Kandy Kakes varieties (Raspberry and Boston Kreme) and adding 50 percent more cream filling in its three cream-filled products. "These initiatives mark the beginning of our product innovation efforts for this year," says Vincent A. Melchiorre, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Tasty Baking Company, who promises many more surprises this year.

Flowdesign Inc. Creates Unique Bottle To Secure the Global Market Presence of Of XanGo™ Patented Beverage Formula

If the goal is to set your beverage apart from every other health and wellness beverage on the market, then a unique bottle is a good place to start. So goes the reasoning at XanGo, LLC, a rapidly growing dietary supplement beverage manufacturer based in Draper, Utah.

XanGo the company and XanGo the product, for the time being, are one and the same, and singularly unique. The flagship product of XanGo the company is a dietary supplement beverage made of the entire mangosteen fruit, a revered and delicious fruit common in Southeast Asia. The beverage formula received a patent in May, which solidified XanGo not only as the first-to-market mangosteen beverage, but also the world leader.

Early this year, XanGo hired Flowdesign, Inc. of Detroit, Mich., to create their complete brand identity. Flowdesign principal Dan Matauch relished this opportunity to develop the brand identity, logo, and bottle at the same time, and quickly had an instinct for the right bottle shape for the mangosteen drink.

"That was one of the first shapes we came up with," Matauch says. "We went for a real contemporary look." The immediate impact of the bottle shape is sleek and sensuous. On closer inspection, the indented seam that curves up the side of the clear label is a border between the logo and embossed emblems of the mangosteen cross-section.

Matauch designed the logo specifically for the bottle, with less concern for the logo’s impact as a stand-alone item. "We tried to capture the essence of XanGo and its Thailand origins with a mix of contemporary and traditional shapes, colors, and icons," says Matauch. The logo "X" reminds one of crossed chopsticks and a Thai figure with a tilted straw hat definitely achieves a traditional appeal.

Bottle design is an area of expertise at Flowdesign, and they have an in-house bottle engineer who certainly expedites design-to-manufacture turnaround. "The timing of this new bottle design is perfect," states XanGo CEO Gary Hollister. "...XanGo becomes a product that stands above the rest, a product that simply cannot be duplicated."

The XanGo product is sold through network-marketing, with individual independent distributors peddling the distinctive beverage to individuals in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, among other international markets. The new bottle holds 750 ml (25.4 ounces), and replaces the stock bottle XanGo originally used. XanGo lays claim to being the fastest-growing network-marketing company and product in the world.

The XanGo attorneys are seeking copyright, trademark, and patent recognition for the bottle itself. XanGo feels protecting the bottle design is important because of the global reach their product is quickly achieving. XanGo is definitively unique, and may remain unique for many years to come. Patenting a bottle can be an expensive ordeal for any company, requiring the hiring of lawyers to submit the proper design, engineering, architectural drawings, and materials into a process that can take years.

The brand name XanGo was created from two words: xanthone and mangosteen. Mangosteen is considered "The Queen of Fruits" in Southeast Asia, and xanthones are natural chemical substances that have been studied for their medicinal potential and antioxidant power. The sweet mangosteen fruit has a tremendous concentration of xanthones, with the highest concentration levels in the rind. Made from the whole fruit, the XanGo drink is a health supplement, and an ounce or two in the morning is all most healthy consumers will need to start their day

A Marketing Agency Dreams Up Frozen Shrimp Line Capturing The "Jimmy Buffett Experience"

Margaritaville Shrimp, the new line of frozen shrimp products inspired by the famous Jimmy Buffett song, is an example of how an ad agency can create its own business with creativity, market savvy, and persistence. The inspiration for the product came to a group of Parrotheads while tailgating at a Jimmy Buffett concert, listening to his most famous tune.

Linda Rosanio, CEO of The Star Group, and Bob Demento of Brooks Provisions conceived the whole idea, and The Star Group staff took the ball and ran with it, bringing the product to supermarket shelves nationwide in less than two years. Jan Talamo, cofounder and chief creative officer of The Star Group, credits the talented people at Star Group and at Brooks Provisions for making the Margaritaville Shrimp project an instant hit. "When you have that kind of intellectual capital all the time, things kind of work out," Talamo explains.

The ambitious goal was to re-create the magical experience of a Jimmy Buffett concert in a food product and package. The Margaritaville packages' tropical, laid-back imagery is exceptionally engaging to consumers yearning for less stress and more relaxation. In addition, employing a connection with a globally known musician with a loyal following, Jimmy Buffett's mythic locale gives the brand the awareness boost that often requires years of brand exposure to establish.

In bringing the goal into reality, the missing pieces were to identify a seafood company with the resources to prepare and ship the product nationwide and (the clincher) to get Jimmy Buffett's attention, participation, and blessing. A series of discussions and a conceptual presentation spurred Newfoundland-based Fishery Products International (FPI), one of the world's largest fish purveyors and a vendor of Brooks Provisions, to help bring this vision to market. Together, they crafted a business plan to present to executives from Margaritaville Holdings, Inc., a company formed by Jimmy Buffett to manage such ventures.

The Margaritaville brand is currently in use for a group of very successful restaurants, as well as tequila and a line of drink mixers. Star worked closely with Brooks and FPI on every aspect of the planning, licensing, packaging, distribution, and eventual launch.

Joe Ferraro, marketing director of retail for FPI, the seafood distributor, saw the retail potential for this product. "This had to be very different from what was out there. We felt we had to position this as a high-quality, restaurant-style product." The shrimp should be "chef's grade," meaning of a large size and an appetizing color, and the package should be loud and fun. Ferraro remembers thinking: "If this is going to work, we need to take this up a notch and deliver a 'Wow!'"

After several attempts, The Star Group and FPI got their proverbial feet in the proverbial door at Margaritaville Holdings, and served up its idea and a tray of prototypes. After the project was a "go," executive chefs for Margaritaville restaurants and FPI perfected the sauces for the shrimp, an initial line of four tropics-inspired flavors.

Escape to the tropics

From a package design perspective, Star pursued design ideas that would speak to the brand while creating a look that was unique to Margaritaville Shrimp. The typography of the Margaritaville Shrimp logo, with its "distressed" look, is very reminiscent of the restaurant logo. A portal in the center of the package provides a window for some tropical escapism, and the colors and shapes are lively and fun. Test marketing proved this out, as consumers emphasized how attractive the boxes were.

"It's not a brand you're going to find over-saturated," Talamo explains, adding that a specialty brand like Margaritaville can be managed differently than a typical national brand. Talamo explains that though the boxes have shared elements with the other Margaritaville applications, it was more important to "carry the spirit" of the brand to the new product launch.

Thus, The Star Group's design team created a packaging system that was able to translate to any media—print and package design, out of home advertising, FSI, bus wraps, etc. Yes, bus wraps. Whenever Jimmy Buffett is touring, the Margaritaville Express, a 40' tour bus, parks outside the venue and dishes up samples to hungry concertgoers. When Buffett is not touring, you might find the bus at other festival and concert venues, outside club stores, or at your local supermarket.

The product was launched in early 2003 in the club store channel. For Costco, Margaritaville Shrimp earned distinction as the most successful club store launch in its history. In February 2004, the product hit the shelves of supermarkets throughout the Northeast. In only a short time, Margaritaville Shrimp has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the frozen seafood market.

"Ridge Grip" Is a New Hot-Fillable Plastic Jar Designed With Style And Ergonomics at Consolidated Container's Panella Design Center

Consolidated Container Company (CCC) is touting its Ridge Grip package as a lightweight and ergonomic alternative to the conventional glass jar. Food manufacturers are converting many products to plastic containers because of the expense and liability of glass and because consumers are making their preferences heard.

Until now, plastic was not a viable option for hot-filled products such as spaghetti sauce, salsa, jam, applesauce, and other fruit products. Today, form meets function as the Ridge Grip's unique design both ensures package integrity in hot filling and promotes consumer confidence in its easy-to-grip ridges.

The Ridge Grip project is a culmination of all the personnel and resources at CCC's new Panella Center responding to market forces. Marketing and sales teams compiled very pointed research about what customers want from a spaghetti sauce jar today—a lighter, easier to control design and a package that doesn't break when dropped. Meanwhile, design and engineer teams researched suppliers for lightweight materials currently available that could provide the strength needed to fulfill all the requirements.

The designers, led by design manager John Manderfield, worked with CCC's materials experts to discover new grades of polypropylene resin that could provide the strength, clarity, and gloss that they were looking for when molded in CCC's Lamicon® multilayer structure.This multilayer structure was important for achieving the oxygen barrier advantage that could seal the deal on manufacturers considering Ridge Grip technology for hot-filled products.

The proprietary manufacturing process for the Ridge Grip incorporates this oxygen barrier to prolong product freshness and quality. "Our Lamicon multilayer technology builds in a thin, consistent layer of barrier material that maintains product quality in the supply chain, on the shelf, and in the consumer's home, while maintaining package shelf appeal," explains Steve Macadam, CEO of CCC.

The innovative design of the ridges strengthens the container and allows hot-filling without the usual vacuum panels that many current hot-filled plastic containers have. The Ridge Grip absorbs the vacuum collapse without bottle deformation. Normal vacuum panels create indentations in the bottles, making label application problematic for the manufacturer and unappealing for the consumer. In between the side ridges, Ridge Grip plastic jars have perfectly smooth label surfaces, both front and back.

The marketing research has confirmed that consumers perceive a big difference in value when the label lies flat on the bottle and doesn't "crinkle" when the product is picked up. Vacuum panel indentations also carry the conscious or unconscious perception that the container is "damaged." The Ridge Grip jars tend to have a slightly narrower diameter than a typical glass jar it would replace, further enhancing comfortable use for smaller hands.

"The Ridge Grip is the ultimate package for hot-filled food products, encompassing both form and function," says Henry Vogel, vice president of Engineering and Development. Ridge Grip plastic jars were imagined, created, modeled, produced, and tested in CCC's Panella Center, which is now one year old. CCC is a leading U.S. developer, manufacturer, and marketer of blow-molded rigid plastic containers for the beverage, consumer, and industrial markets.

The Panella Center Collects the Talents of Two Dozen Engineers And Designers Under One Roof

The Ridge Grip plastic "jar" is just another new innovation from the Roger C. Panella Engineering and Development Center at Consolidated Container Company (CCC). The Center is a cutting-edge facility for the design, development, manufacture, and testing of blow-molded plastic containers, and was dedicated in July of 2003.

The center was named in honor of the late Roger C. Panella, founder of Double R Enterprises, one of CCC's antecedent companies. "CCC dedicated the Center in Panella's name to honor his extensive, groundbreaking work and his contribution to the blow-molding industry," says Keith Brower, senior vice president of Operations Support.

The Panella Center facility provides world-class innovation and development services to CCC's customers by employing the latest design technologies and state-of-the-art prototyping. The Center operates a totally modernized design and product development studio, a materials and product laboratory capable of all elements of testing both bottles and component materials, a multi-line pilot plant with bottle production capabilities in a variety of resins with a wide range of manufacturing technologies, and the full spectrum of mold and material development activities.

"The Panella Center was created to support our customers' needs," explains Steve Macadam, CEO. "Design is just the beginning. Modeling, materials, production, and testing round out our innovation capabilities, enabling us to drive seamlessly, quickly, and efficiently from 'art to part'."

Driving toward an aggressive goal of as short as a single business week, a customer can work with CCC's design team, feed the dimensions into a modeling machine, develop a prototype, create a mold, and produce sample packages. "We can blow bottles in our pilot plant while the customer watches," says Brower. The prototyping machines can convert CAD drawings to very accurate plastic models in the space of only a few hours. Once packages have been produced, a full-service on-site materials lab oversees dimensional and environmental testing.

CCC innovations include a microwaveable plastic package with a handle that stays cool and the Conolene in-line fluorination process that seals the interior surfaces of packages intended for volatile products. The company holds over 70 design and utility patents for rigid plastic packaging innovation.