Doing More with Less

Package Design Emphasis Now Placed on Innovation Function and Sustainability

In response to Wal-Mart's spearheading of corporate sustainability initiatives, consumer goods marketers today expect product developers, designers, and packaging suppliers to innovate continually, to meet and exceed consumer needs for functionality, and to address ways to make their products more environmentally acceptable.

Supermarkets and mass channels provide consumers with myriad product choices; but from a design perspective, it is more challenging to set a brand apart on shelf when many CPGs are reducing packaging size due to sustainability initiatives that limit the space for graphics and brand messaging. Whereas in the past, products may have been over-packaged to maximize shelf presence, the opposite is now the norm. Sustainability initiatives will challenge designers to innovate with structural packaging and communicate smarter and more effectively with less graphic space.

While the need to be innovative, functional, and sustainable exists across virtually all product categories, Smith Design has recently worked in two mass channel and supermarket projects in ice cream and food storage that have introduced sustainable/reusable packaging and innovative products and packaging while enhancing shelf presence.

Holistic packaging

Breyers recently launched Swirls, a new line developed from a technology that takes extra-silky smooth ice cream and combines it with a range of indulgent toppings. Soft and spoon-able with a "freshly made" texture, the product's swirl "visual" has strong appetite appeal.

Swirls comes in six flavors combined with a variety of fruit toppings that Breyers sought to visually enhance with their packaging. What better way to communicate the product's unique benefit—a perfectly swirled quart of ice cream—than by showing it to consumers before they even open the package? Breyers enhanced the appetite appeal and employed sustainable packaging by using a clear container with graphics printed on a clear label. Mouthwatering illustrations and a colorful, whimsical design approach top it off.

With Breyers Swirls, the product itself plays a pivotal role in the overall package design. The result is a differentiating and dramatic shelf presence in a freezer that's dominated by opaque packaging and printed visuals. Here the actual product becomes part of the graphic design. An added benefit is the line's environmental appeal because it is either recyclable or reusable—a unique benefit that's not typically associated with an ice cream package.

Smith Design recently worked with Rubbermaid when developing the name, visual branding, and package design for Premier, its top-tier food storage line. Premier may help change consumer behavior when storing leftovers, usually done with plastic zipper bags and unattractive storage containers. The Premier line is reusable and recyclable and also answers consumer preferences for an upscale design aesthetic and functionality. The containers are crystal clear; so, like plastic bags, you can "see what's inside."

But unlike zipper bags, the Premier containers are microwave-safe and are visually appropriate for dinner display. In short, it's a beautiful, functional, and reusable line with a product design that speaks to both the true gourmet and aspiring chef. The overall appeal is aspirational for consumers wanting to trade up to designer level accessories while still offering great value as far as pricing and long-term use.

Premier can be tossed into the dishwasher with other reusable kitchenware without losing its translucent and highly durable qualities. The Premier name and label design is decidedly more upscale then Rubbermaid's base food storage line and employs stainless steel color design touches to appeal to an upmarket taste level.

This "add-on" packaging idea has gained quick traction in retail chains by conveying the product's functionality through category-appropriate branding and in-use images.

Extending functionality

With many multi-serve food packages, the original package is not reusable once opened. As a result, it quickly loses much of its functionality. Consumers complain that original packaging for products like cookies, chips, frozen vegetables, pasta, and cereals cannot be resealed for freshness or their contents securely stored inside. This often results in stale cereal, less-than-crisp cookies, frostbitten French fries, and spilled spaghetti.

Neese Products, a niche player in the food storage arena, recently launched a new product called Quickseals. This innovative plastic product can be applied to most pre-opened, original packaging using a zip slider top and adhesive strips to maintain freshness and prevent spillage. While the product is not sustainable per se, it aims to fix the shortcomings of many current packaged goods by extending functionality of less-than-perfect packaging.

Designing a product and its package simultaneously may be the best way for packaging to achieve all the goals of today's demanding brand owners.

Quickseals' graphic design employs easy-to-read copy and illustrations that show consumers how to use the product to improve other packaging. Quickseals makes packaging work better. The combination of Quickseals' effective branding, innovation, and ability to answers consumers' needs enabled the brand owner to gain quick entry into such major grocery channels as Wal-Mart and Publix.

The fact that a product like Quickseals, marketed by an entrepreneurial company, can gain shelf space shows brand marketers just how important good packaging is to consumers. All three examples here should convince marketers that they need to pay close attention to what consumers want now—packaging that is innovative, optimized for their needs, beautiful, appealing, functional, and, if at all possible, sustainable.

Jenna Smith is an account manager with Smith Design (www.smithdesign.com), a brand design firm with offices in New Jersey and California that has been developing strategy-based visual solutions for leading consumer brands for 30 years. Jenna can be reached at 973-429-2177 or jenna@smithdesign.com.