Designing Seasonal Packaging to Expand Marketing Opportunities

By Russ Napolitano

Today's consumers are conditioned to expect something new and different from products on a short usage cycle. Growing out of expectations cultivated by fashion cycles that change quarterly and technology cycles that double computing power every 18 months, manufacturers are under pressure to deliver new and innovative consumer products frequently. And, when sorting through purchase options, consumers are now looking for a high level of design and style whether they're buying commodity everyday items or expensive specialty products.

Bringing new products to market is an expensive and risky venture. But one effective way to keep a product interesting and attract new consumers (without developing an entirely new product) is through the use of packaging that gives the product a fresh, new look.

Design strategies and evolving packaging techniques give marketers new options to extend a marketing season, to add value to commodity products, or to provide a seasonal promotional push while maintaining the integrity of the established brand profile and equity.

This Frangelico liqueur holiday gift packaging reinforces the brand image while marketing the premium liqueur on the shelf during the popular holiday gift-giving season.

Successful seasonal examples

We'll look at three methods used by marketers to package products that give consumers the excitement they demand while also building brand success. In each case, the packaging is the primary sales agent with little or no advertising supporting the brands.

Frangelico Holiday Packaging: During the winter holiday gift-giving season, distilled spirits are popular gifts. Most holiday liqueur gift purchase decisions are made in-store, which means that packaging plays a huge role in selection. Effective holiday liqueur packaging must break through the clutter and garner consumer attention within seconds. Frangelico, the original hazelnut liqueur from Northern Italy, does that by wrapping its bottle in a holiday gift package that emphasizes its premium, upscale nature.

This year's package depicts images of sophisticated people and elegant drink glasses suggesting the fun, mixability, and festive nature of Frangelico. The rich, deep reds of the package capture the essence of the brand, set the mood, and reflect the holiday season. Subtle suggestions of Frangelico's recognizable brand identity are woven around the gift pack with its stylized "F" and recognizable Monk bottle shape and cord, which resemble the bottle inside.

Maxell Designer Series CDs: The recordable CD is a commodity product with bulk packs and low prices permeating the marketplace. To maintain brand image and challenge commodity pricing, Maxell introduced a Designer Series of CDs imprinted with exciting, fun designs and trendsetting colors that create a "Wow, that's cool!" factor adding value to the product. Targeted at a younger audience (12-21 years), the Designer Series opens the door for consumers to categorize their recordings by the visual designs on the disks.

The Maxell Designer Series draws on a contemporary palette of colors and designs to create fresh product appeal on a periodic basis.

By keeping the product fresh and providing something "new" again for consumers, Maxell taps into consumer trends toward products with more design appeal and resists the brutal confines of commodity pricing. The strong presentation stands out on the shelf, drawing the attention of the target audience. Additional Designer Series CDs are introduced periodically to keep the product fresh and interesting for retailers and consumers.

Welch's Sparkling Grape Juices: Capitalizing on the flexibility of shrink-wrap packaging and the sales opportunity presented by seasonal package designs, Welch's turned its holiday sparkling grape juice products into a year-round success with lively, shrink-wrap packaging. The shrink wrap allows Welch's to change packaging to reflect a variety of seasons and occasions throughout the year. For retailers, the product is a seasonal in-and-out item sold as an impulse purchase.

The product extension began in 2001 with the introduction of Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice Stars & Stripes packaging sold during the patriotic, summer season from Memorial Day through July 4th to Labor Day. The bright red, white, and blue shrink wrap, embellished with stars and stripes, was refreshed with images of the Statue of Liberty and fireworks for the 2004 season.

Extending into additional seasons, Welch's added a spring design featuring pastel colors, daffodils, and lilies suitable for spring events including Easter, Mother's Day, bridal showers, and weddings. The two sparkling grape flavors are distinguished by the base packaging color — pink background for the red grape juice and a pale spring green for the white grape juice.

Expanding marketing opportunities

To expand marketing opportunities and keep products exciting, brand managers can manipulate packaging while also staying focused on a few key issues. Most important is remaining true to the established brand equity, heritage, and key audience. Packaging needs to fit in with the brand's total marketing program, including promotions, merchandising, advertising, distribution channels, publicity, and online Internet strategy. Within your brand's marketing framework, determine how frequently to change the packaging. You'll need to consider, the length of packaging runs, seasonality, time-to-shelf, retailer concerns, competitor strategies, cost, and both internal and external resources.

Then, to implement the program, work in close partnership with packaging designers and brand identity experts. Be sure these professionals have:

• A sensitivity to the core brand and to maintaining and enhancing existing brand equities
• Expertise in the latest packaging techniques and structures
• Sensitivity to the brand and industry trends
• The ability to talk and collaborate with packaging operators to identify and implement packaging changes within cost and time parameters
• The ability to develop and execute impactful and consumer relevant structural and visual designs
• The desire to integrate packaging with brand strategy and any specific promotional opportunities

With these thoughts in mind, the use of creative promotional, seasonal, and short-term packaging allows marketers to offer consumers added value and a perceived newness without changing the product, its primary container, or its brand identity and equity.

Russ Napolitano is executive vice president and partner, The Bailey Group, a brand identity and packaging firm based in Plymouth Meeting, PA. He can be reached at rnapolitano@baileygp.com or 610-940-9030.