A New Look for Tums Makes Classic Remedy Even Easier to Swallow

By Patrick Henry

"Digestive products," says Ed Dunn, "are very regional-centric." He is in a position to know. As associate director of package development for GlaxoSmithKline, Dunn has seen how steadfastly consumer groups the world over cling to their homelands' favorite remedies for the inward upsets that the pace of modern life so often brings.

In the U.S., the tablet that quells more digestive distress than any other non-prescription medicine of its kind is Tums, GlaxoSmithKline's largest gastrointestinal brand and the product it calls the number one doctor-recommended antacid and calcium supplement. Tums was introduced commercially in 1930 and remained a leader among antacids until the early 1960's. Its popularity surged again in the mid-1980s as consumers took renewed interest in calcium as a pillar of good nutrition.

Over the years, millions of consumers saw relief in the reassuring appearance of the angular Tums bottle. For GlaxoSmithKline, however, the familiarity of the package eventually became a source of a certain queasiness. "Too many store brands were starting to look like us," says Dunn, noting the propensity of chain retailers to "mimic" the look of category leaders like Tums with their private-label brands. According to Dunn, some chains push the mimicry to the limits of legality: "They'll ride the edge until the lawyers start calling," he says.

This was one part of the reason why, about a year ago, GlaxoSmithKline decided that the time had come to reassert the brand identity of Tums with a redesigned package. Besides brand protection, says Dunn, there is an aesthetic objective: to give the package "a more organic shape" with a "free flowing, rather than hard-edged" look. The new packages were to be "rounded and ovoid" in contrast to the trapezoidal outline of the old bottles. The design brief also called for a new closure and a modification to the sides of the bottles to make them easier to grasp and hold.

Rationale for outsourcing

That was the general idea - and the practical limit to which Dunn's group was prepared to take the project. "We do not do any design work in this department," he says. "We work with design houses and component suppliers to achieve the goals that GlaxoSmithKline brands want to achieve. We balance the design, cost, manufacturing and compliance issues that will allow the product to be manufactured within the margin constraints of the brand."

"We balance the design, cost, manufacturing and compliance issues that will allow the product to be manufactured within the margin constraints of the brand."

Such is the charter of GlaxoSmithKline's US Consumer Healthcare package development group, a team attached principally to the company's Pittsburgh headquarters. Tasked with package development for all consumer healthcare products, the team consists of 12 package engineers and documentation specialists. The latter are information managers who provide product specifications, administer paperwork, and coordinate workflow throughout the corporate approval chain.

Dunn says that the group handles 500 to 800 packaging projects a year, ranging from simple label changes to big jobs on the order of the Tums redesign. The team also monitors the manufacture of the packages and supervises their entry into the distribution stream. "It's not so sexy," notes Dunn, "but it's pretty important."

The group always contracts design work externally, as it isn't staffed for that kind of creative activity. In working with outside designers, says Dunn, the goal is to "accurately convey the marketing requests to people who are technically capable of executing them."

"Radically" to "slightly"

In the initial stage of the Tums project, GlaxoSmithKline invited four package design firms to put on what Dunn calls a "phase one design show" - a competitive array of creative schemes for "radically, moderately, and slightly different" versions of the existing containers. The proposals were to include a new cap and other modernizing features that GlaxoSmithKline wanted.

Dunn has a simple explanation for why Hadtke Associates Inc. got the green light for the complex assignment: "Hadtke's designers came closest to what we were looking for." He says that the firm's proposal offered the best scheme for preserving essential brand cues while giving the package a suitably updated look. GlaxoSmithKline also liked the studio's idea for "subtle features" that would draw shoppers to the product and encourage them to pick the bottles up.

Generating distinctive concepts in consumer-product packaging is one of the hallmarks of Hadtke Associates, a New York City design agency that takes the pearl as its symbol of the creative potential inherent in every idea. Its principal, Fred Hadtke, describes the firm as "boutique office" that specializes in combining product design, structural requirements, and delivery systems into complete, cost-effective sets of package specifications.

No newcomers to GlaxoSmithKline, Hadtke and his staff created the "Floss'n'Cap" for the company's Aquafresh toothpaste brand in 2003. The Floss'n'Cap, a dental floss dispenser built into the tube's flip-top cap, helped the Aquafresh package win recognition from BusinessWeek magazine as one of the 25 best products of that year. The multi-function container went on to become a Silver winner in the DuPont Awards for packaging in 2004.

Grab your caps

Hadtke says that GlaxoSmithKline's objectives for the Tums redesign were straightforward. It was necessary, first of all, to accommodate new versions of the product - the classic tablet now comes in nine variants by formulation, flavor, and medicinal effect. GlaxoSmithKline also wanted a friendlier package, particularly when it came to the design of the cap.

The new "Grip'n'Flip" cap, which makes Tums bottles easy to open with one hand, is actually a two-piece construction that hinges smoothly and silently.

According to Hadtke, the existing squeeze-twist-and-lift top had been a cause of "complaint," prompting GlaxoSmithKline to specify something simpler to handle - a cap that would permit, for example, "easier nighttime access" to heartburn-stricken consumers groping for their Tums bottles in the dark.

Hadtke Associates' answer was to replace the removable cap with a stay-on flip top that would become the crowning element of a curvaceous bottle with finger grips sculpted into the sides. The design proved to be everything GlaxoSmithKline wanted in terms of appearance and functionality - and something extra in terms of manufacturing economy.

Jim Pitassi, the project's lead engineer, says the benefit stems from the fact that the redesigned bottles are 15% to 20% lighter in weight than the packages they replace, although they are made of the same polypropylene and contain the same number of tablets. He explains that switching to an injection mold with a rounded shape saves material because plastic flows more efficiently into curved contours than into right-angled walls. This permits molding a narrower bottle without sacrificing capacity, Pitassi says.

But the most significant improvement is the two-piece flip-top closure, which lets consumers do something they couldn't with the lift-off, one-piece cap: open the bottle and dispense their Tums with one hand. Dunn says that the simpler operation of the flip-top cap is preferable to the "quirky squeeze-and-turn" design of the original closure, especially for elderly consumers. The flip top also is a "tight" cap meeting USP requirements for moisture protection.

Hadtke Associates designed the base of the closure - its arched lower piece - as a collar fitment. The neck of the bottle protrudes slightly above the fitment to provide a locking surface for the upper piece, the flip-top. Dunn says that the arching shape of the collar fitment is an elegant touch that enhances the "free-flow" effect of the bottle's new shape and nicely frames the label graphics.

Thinking outside the circle

Every new element in the design of a package has implications for the production of the package - a fact well appreciated by Hadtke, a mechanical engineer as well as the holder of a master's degree in industrial design. In reconfiguring the Tums container with an oval opening instead of a circular one, his agency challenged GlaxoSmithKline to become the only manufacturer to induction-seal a protective foil liner onto a bottle with an aperture thus shaped.

Induction sealing fits the liner to the shape of the opening and uses microwave heat to activate the sealing glue. The combination of the oval opening and the flip top made dispensing tablets from the new package easier, but it potentially complicated the filling process because of the uneven distribution of sealing pressure around the opening's elliptical perimeter.

With the help of Pretium Packaging, a longtime supplier of Tums containers and caps, Dunn's group found that the answer was switching to a new foam-backed material for the liner. Tests showed the foam backing would seal more evenly around the oval than the pulp-board backing then in use.

Other manufacturing challenges were met and overcome with similar efficiency. Pitassi says that because the new bottles weigh less than the old bottles, Pretium had to adjust the tracks on which they travel through the production line. The line speeds up at various points, and without an adjustment to the tracks, the lighter-weight bottles could fall off in the swift zones. But, notes Pitassi, nothing needed to change at GlaxoSmithKline's filling plant in St. Louis, where the same equipment can be used to pack the new containers with their stomach-sweetening contents.

In all, says Dunn, the redesign changed the look of 27 SKUs for the variants in which Tums are available. The SKUs comprise five sizes including the 525-tablet bottle for club stores - the only one that retains the removable cap. Pitassi says that although the jumbo package could have been fitted with the same new closure as its smaller brethren, a flip cap that large would have been somewhat awkward for consumers to use.

Without exception for size, the printing surfaces of the label - a two-piece item featuring a booklet-style, reclosable attachment that folds out to disclose product information - changed to conform to the new shape of the bottles.

But, the change that consumers probably will spot most readily is the new look of the label graphics. Here GlaxoSmithKline turned to Wallace Church Associates, a New York City agency specializing in all aspects of brand development and package design. Rob Wallace, managing partner, says that the primary task was to extend a visual unity across the labels of all of the Tums packages - an effect that the logo, however iconic, only partially supplied.

The agency recommended eliminating the differently colored backgrounds that denoted the product's various medicinal strengths. These were replaced with a single color that Wallace describes as "a nice midnight blue to signify relief." Next came the highlighting of each blue label with a "hurricane swoosh" - a sweeping, cyclonic graphic image in white that reinforces the message of relief and adds the dimension of unity that had been missing.

The sum of the logo, the blue color, and the hurricane swoosh, says Wallace, is a mnemonic of evocative imagery that "creates the balance of branded consistency and individual product differentiation."

Fast-paced, but not frantic

According to Dunn, the entire design phase took eight months from concept to the final phase of initial distribution last December. Pitassi says that the time frame was "unbelievable" for a project of this magnitude, considering that in less accelerated efforts, the mold making alone can take 20 weeks.

The Floss'n'Cap, a dental floss dispenser built into the tube's flip-top cap, helped Hadtke Associates' Aquafresh package for GlaxoSmithKline win recognition from BusinessWeek magazine as one of the 25 best products of 2003.

There was, nevertheless, nothing rushed or impulsive about GlaxoSmithKline's repackaging of Tums. Dunn says that throughout the design phase, his group took pains to make sure that the new look didn't stray from the product's quintessential brand equities. The goal was to modernize the package, but not to the point where the changes might "alienate what our core user group had come to recognize:" familiar characteristics like the tapered contour and translucence of the bottle and the chevron-like shape of the cap.

As Hadtke puts it, the "overall gestalt" of the redesign called for the package's "parentage" to remain visible, but in a new and distinctive form that would serve to distance the product from imitation by competitors. He says that Dunn's group went a little further in this respect than his designers did, adjusting the bottle's width-height proportion for a narrower look than first envisioned.

Pre-launch consumer testing was used to validate the soundness of the redesign from a marketing standpoint. Dunn says that focus groups examined both marked and unmarked examples so that they could appraise the new look of the packages in isolation from the influence of the brand. Other tests verified that the new shape was recognizable as that of a Tums bottle.

According to Dunn, GlaxoSmithKline chose to go "fairly slow" in distributing the redesigned packages to retailers so that the stores wouldn't be overwhelmed by a sudden flood of new merchandise. Existing stocks had to be depleted first, and Tums, as he points out, "has a very long shelf life."

Ask a pharmacist

Product characteristics like shelf life are salient points for Dunn, who was with the diagnostic imaging division of GE Healthcare prior to accepting his present position with GlaxoSmithKline five years ago. As a licensed pharmacist in Pennsylvania, he is authorized to make and dispense prescription pharmaceuticals. Like his peers, he must accumulate 30 continuing education credits per year to retain his certification.

Dunn's dual immersion in pharmaceutical compounding and packaging allows him to be specific about what a company like GlaxoSmithKline expects from designers. In his view, it's always best to partner with creatives who have "an engineering base" - a knowledge of mechanical engineering that underpins their aesthetic ability.

"Keeping the two things completely separate is non-functional," says Dunn, who wants design specifications that he can send to package manufacturers as CAD files "for the people cutting steel" - the mold makers and the machine tool operators. He says that GlaxoSmithKline relies on designers who understand such things to help it keep the costs of package development under control. Another criterion is: "How well do they listen? Can they take our directions and come back to us with a design that conforms to our requirements?"

When the subject of the marriage of engineering and design is raised, it's obvious that GlaxoSmithKline and Hadtke Associates are reading from the same label. Nowadays, says Hadtke, "It's too much of a risk for an aesthetic design office to create a package that everybody falls in love with, but that can't be produced at an acceptable price point." He maintains that his agency's advantage as an engineering focused design office is that they come up with things that look new and better, but wind up costing less.

Hadtke says he finds it "incredible" that some designers "only see the flat panels, and only decorate the flat panels" without perceiving the manufacturing issues for the package as a whole. He notes that there was no such myopia in the Tums project. Because the agency's partnership with GlaxoSmithKline spanned creative, engineering, and product marketing goals, a holistic approach to updating the packaging and reinforcing the brand was assured.

"It's the way we like to work," Hadtke says.

Wallace Church Connects the 'Dots' to Build Abreva Brand

Manhattan-based brand identity and package design consultancy Wallace Church works often with GlaxoSmithKline's design and marketing teams to optimize the presence of their brands at retail. The launch of Abreva prompted GSK to approach Wallace Church with a unique opportunity to create a breakthrough brand. Previous over-the-counter cold sore treatments had only been able to provide relief of cold sore symptoms and were not able to actually shorten the duration of suffering. Abreva's active ingredient, docosanol, had been clinically proven to speed healing time. The benefits of this new ingredient resonated tremendously with consumers. Behavior changes are dramatic for cold sore sufferers, who usually cancel most social activity - dating, business meetings, even using fast food drive-throughs. The ability to treat outbreaks fast topped the list of consumers' core needs. Speed of healing was the key emotional benefit that Wallace Church set out to verbally and visually express as a "return-to-self" brand essence. The identity and packaging for Abreva needed to communicate both the rational and emotional benefits of this premium positioned product. The graphic communication needed to express the relief from the cold sore as well as the emotional trauma that goes along with this type of infection. The "return-to-self" visual brand essence was developed prior to design exploration to identify the imagery that would best communicate this message and ensure synergy across all media. Wallace Church recommended using a unique icon as the brand's key consumer mnemonic, where graphically expressing the core benefit of "speed of healing" to consumers was paramount. A series of dissipating dots - moving from a large red dot to smaller white dots before completely disappearing - proved most effective when tested with consumers. This ownable icon, now known as "the Abreva dots," succinctly communicates the core brand benefit and is repeated across all brand communication touch-points.