A Whale of a Package Design Tale

By David Luttenberger

Graphically pleasing and technically sound, Ark Land’s “Wow!” factor might not be enough to overcome production and distribution costs for a sustained presence in the marketplace.

A fourth iteration of the much maligned PET-bodied, doubleseamed aluminum topped container has made its way into commercial production. What differentiates this version from its straight-walled PET/aluminum combo predecessors, however, is its high “Wow!” design quotient—specifically shape, structure, and tactility—a trilogy that actually function as one.

A short packaging history lesson

Previous versions of this multimaterial structure have included the PETainer introduced in the early 1980s by the former plastics packaging giant Owens-Illinois. This container saw limited success for Coca- Cola for flavored seltzer waters. As intriguing a package as it was, it was dubbed an “eco-villain” by green groups protesting the use of the PET body, aluminum top, and PVC label; but that didn’t prevent Owens- Illinois from reintroducing a multilayer injection-molded structure in 2002.

That same year the Water Investment Network (WIN) introduced a look-alike two-piece structure differentiated only by its PET top in lieu of an aluminum pop-top. WIN’s PETCAN for flavored water only bettered the PETainer from a technology perspective due to its blow-molding process, which bypassed the preform stage.

A third version was introduced in the U.S. and China a year ago by Elisha Mineral Water, again for flavored seltzer water. It was topped with a 202 aluminum end and decorated with a full-bodied PET shrink sleeve. And just last month Najaro Group in Rosemead, CA, decided a 12.3-oz. version with a full-body shrink label was a “novel” idea for is FlavH20 water.

Points of design distinction

While the most recent version slid unceremoniously into the Canadian market, it has been creating a stir its predecessors never enjoyed. Notably, it is 500 ml, not the standard 350 ml.

Impressively, Nature’s Very Own brand of bottled water, Ark Land, sports a highly contoured, 7"high body replete with an interrupted surface pattern that is meant to resemble fish scales—a design element complemented by the contour walls that resemble a fish body.

What we do know is this: This is one solid structure. Nowhere on the structure’s walls is there more than 2 millimeters of compression. Previous 350-ml straight-wall PET cans have required 18-gram to 34- gram preforms—this 500-ml interrupted surface pattern version likely requires twice that amount to uniformly distribute resin through its massively thick interrupted pattern walls and down to its petaloid base.

While visually appealing and tactilely pleasing, the interrupted surface also provides top load strength necessary for stacking the large pinchwaist, bulbous shoulder container of this size.

What I feel doesn’t necessarily work, regrettably, is the marriage between container, brand, and graphics, as the snow-capped mountains on the paper label are like, well…a fish out of water. Add to that the “Ark Land” brand name, and the fish scale/fish body argument to the consumer might be lost quicker than the big one that got away.

What also might be lost is the historical lesson that Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and others learned about putting a commodity product in a premiumpriced contour container—the market doesn’t seem to support it. Sadly, this technically proficient and innovatively designed PET/aluminum container may suffer the a similar fate.

All that aside, I’m flip-flopping between praising its design genius and chastising it for its mismatched graphics and branding—which forces me to cast a positive vote for the Ark Land water bottle and exclaim “Wow! What A Package!”

David Luttenberger is the director of Packaging Strategies. He can be reached at 610-436-4220 (x18) or at dluttenberger@packstrat.com.