Wal-Mart Window of Opportunity Sets Off Whirlwind of Activity by Studio One Eleven

To grab shelf attention and customer loyalty, Orange Glo wanted their new Oxi Clean bottle to have more curves, a thinner handle, and better weight distribution than anything else out there.

Last year, when Wal-Mart told Orange Glo International that there were two shelf facing spaces opening up in three months in the laundry additive section, the makers of Oxi Clean sprang into action to take advantage of this opportunity and contacted Berlin Packaging's Studio One Eleven. Orange Glo was looking to catch shoppers' eyes with their Dual StainFighter extension, but also make sure that their loyal customers recognized the same Oxi Clean they have come to know and trust.

"This is a unique cleaning product - we wanted to come out with a unique package," says Jon-Paul Genest, manager of package development at Orange Glo. The product would compete on the shelf with well-established laundry boosters and stain fighters. "We really wanted to catch the consumers' eyes," Genest says. "The users of booster products are very loyal. We really wanted our package to scream: 'Hey, we're different!'"

Genest was looking for effervescence and vitality in a uniquely curvy shape, and a left-facing handle, which is contrary to the category, was just one more way to distinguish the brand. Genest explains that in addition to shelf impact, they wanted a pour experience that would feel right for the consumer. He believed that with the right design and weight distribution, the customer would be able to control flow better for the application of a "dab" of stain fighter.

The multi-faceted solution was to create a recess inside the lip for better pour, move the opening more to the center of the bottle, and balance the rest of the bottle weight for easy pouring, or "dabbing." The bigger challenge became making a package with all the attractive curves that was also sturdy and hollow - and manufacturable - to make the weight distribution work.

Studio One Eleven began to focus on making the handle as narrow as possible, pushing blow-molding and closure-venting technologies to their limits. Jim Thompson, account manager at Berlin/Studio One Eleven, says the project developed into something quite different from what they normally do, as the extra curves became a challenge. With their in-house design, quick-prototyping, and mold-form resources, they were able to complete the project in a short time, and "take a kernel of an idea and get it through the manufacturing process," as Thompson remembers the effort.

Studio One Eleven found the happy medium between an ideal shape and what was consistently manufacturable, to avoid bulging or collapsing concave during manufacturing. "We had to rework the design so that the bottle was moldable," Thompson emphasizes. Thompson knows the frustrations of refining the design in the 11th hour, so to speak. To make the deadline, he embarked on a 10-hour drive to pick up the custom mold made in Missouri and drove it across several states to the package manufacturer.

The end result is a curvaceous bottle that is a proprietary shape for Oxi Clean, and a pleasant bottle to use in the laundry room. The molding allowed for very clean seams all around, and also allowed for a distinctive label treatment that fit the Oxi Clean image. The word "stain" is repeated three times on the front label because there is always a risk that some customers might use this "booster" as their laundry detergent. On top of everything, artfully arranged bubbles in the background of the label give the whole label a pleasant movement.