William Fox Munroe
Shillington, PA

William Fox Munroe Inc. is a package design firm that focuses on creating a more compelling experience for consumers at the point of sale. They are located in Shillington, PA, some 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. "We're not a 'big city' agency, and we love that difference," says chief operating officer Thomas Newmaster.

William Fox Munroe has been in business for 34 years. The firm works exclusively on packaging and packaging support, but not paid media. "There are a lot of companies that offer point of sale as just one part of an endless stream of marketing services," says Mary Lorson, client services. "We're experts in packaging. Period."

The William Fox Munroe team (left to right): Brian Harper, art director; Steph Bennett, graphic designer; Tom Newmaster, owner/v.p. of operations; Mary Mallis, art director; Josh Samolewicz, graphic designer.

Some of the firm's clients include The Hershey Company, Lowe's Home Center, and Hooked on Phonics. Design-wise, the staff at William Fox Munroe achieves the best results and communicates the brand's personality by always remembering the product's "natural habitat," or where it is going to live. "We try very hard not to design in a vacuum, looking at a single package," says Newmaster. "We like looking at it on the shelf and making evaluations based on that perspective." He says that in almost every category of packaging that they work with, it is always a matter of "cutting through the clutter"—making the product stand out among others on the same shelf.

William Fox Munroe's brand strategy is to look at everything with a holistic point of view, observing broader cultural references to individual products and distilling those consumer influences into the packaging. The idea is to create unique packaging that is fully recognizable as a product with its core benefits. Lorson explains: "Say we have to design toothpaste's package. We will not only look at other toothpastes to see how they do it, but we will also look at everything in that category from a broader cultural perspective. We'll look at oral care products, personal hygiene products, and bathroom products. We'll look at shampoos, soaps, and bathrobes. We won't just restrict our cultural references to toothpaste."

They try to look outside the category, too, to get a feel for who else is engaging the same audience. Easter candy packaging would be a good example, as William Fox Munroe gets a lot of seasonal work, licensing work, and candy projects. Besides looking at other Easter candies, the staff will also study other items that could end up in a child's Easter basket, such as toys. "You have to look outside the category to see who else is competing for the same dollars," says Newmaster.