09.05.08
No Ordinary Tube
Suppliers and marketers leverage the latest technologies and accessories to deliver brand-boosting tube packages.
By Leah Genuario, Contributing Editor
Think of a tube as an empty canvas. With the right “paints,” the right artist and the right framing accessories, it can be converted into the picture of creativity. Smart brands—and the manufacturers who supply them—have paired a variety of techniques, materials, caps and applicators to deliver eye-catching tubes that strengthen the brand and garner increased consumer loyalty.
| Freeman's Good Stuff Organics packaging uses post-consumer recycled resins. |
Brand marketer bliss, for example, chose a five-layer tube from Continental Packaging Solutions, Chicago, IL, to house its bliss’ thermal shaving cream, an eye-catching personal care item within its new Homme improvement line.
Directly targeting men, the company decided upon a simple and clean look featuring a two-color silkscreen decoration. The “navy package color is deeper than our usual bliss blue and indicates a standalone silo—men’s shaving—which was a void in bliss’ skin care line until we created Homme improvement,” says Kenney Tonge, bliss’ manager of package development.
Brand marketer Benefit communicated an entirely different message for its tan-tinted facial lotion, “talk to the tan.” The attitude leaps off the tube with a larger-than-life graphic of a sassy girl in sunglasses. The copy emphasizes the idea, touting “a bronze facial tint w/tan-i-tude.”
Print Advancements
No matter what the message, recent printing improvements with regard to tube printing have enabled brand marketers to choose more complex graphics with much better results. Contract filler Christopher White, president of The Filling Station, Flemington, NJ, says, “What I’m seeing domestically is fantastic—they’ve made huge advances in graphics.”
| Thermal shave cream from bliss. |
Alcan Packaging Cebal, Norwalk, CT, utilized computer-to-plate technology to print Tommy Girl summer body lotion and Tommy summer body wash. The intricate graphics depict two nautical scenes for high impact on shelf.
Tube manufacturer World Wide Packaging, Florham Park, NJ, has also ramped up its printing capabilities. The company offers six-color, in-line silk screening with highly accurate registration and high-speed production. According to the company, this new capability enables a new level of “crispness” and “definition that can’t be achieved with other printing processes.”
Decorating Capabilities
Graphics are not the only way to add impact to a tube. Like many other areas of the packaging industry, brand marketers are adding the look of metal to create the feeling of luxury.
Hot stamping can be applied as an accent, or liberally, to cover most of the tube package.
Del Labs’ Sally Hansen Gentle Peel for Rough Lips product, produced by World Wide Packaging, showcases 100% hot stamp coverage, including coverage over the tube shoulder. While hot stamping on tubes has been around for a long time, this product’s full coverage was impressive enough to win the 2007 Plastic Tube of the Year award from The Tube Council.
Why go through the effort of hot stamping plastic when metal tubes are available on the marketplace? As Jeffrey Hayet, vice president of global sales for World Wide Packaging explains, metal tubes “are not environmentally friendly, they crease and don’t kick back. They are meant for high barrier properties, it’s a completely different animal.”
| Tommy's eye-catching graphics are due, in part, to computer-to-plate technology. |
Seaquist Closures’ Simplicity line is one example where metal decoration can be applied with great success. “When adding a metal overshell over the body of the closure, the overall effect is much more sophisticated and upscale,” Umland adds.
Seaquist Closures also offers Pinpoint, a new silicone valve closure. For a metal look, the closure can be decorated using colored metal shrouds from Anomatic Corporation, Newark, OH.
There are other tube decorating technologies available. Estée Lauder’s Beautiful tube, for example, is decorated with a pink pearlescent technique and topped off with a hot stamped cap.
Labels remain a popular decoration choice for tubes. In addition to their graphic capabilities, they can also provide a solution for brand marketers that need to fit a whole lot of text into a small space. This is increasingly becoming a challenge for some brand marketers that include text in multiple languages, or who need to meet government requirements.
Converter WS Packaging, Algoma, WI, is offering the FlexVision extended-text label, a 100% conformable, patented label engineered specifically for plastic tubes and flexible surfaces with a diameter of 1 3/8in. or larger.
| A sponge applicator is the dispenser of choice for Icy Hot. |
For another tube decorating option, Alcan Packaging Cebal offers what it terms a flash coat. “Our Flash Coat technology imparts a hologram effect over the print graphics and tube surface for a bold shelf appeal. The hologram designs come in a variety of distinctive, eye-catching patterns and custom patterns can also be developed,” says Michael Hoard, director of marketing for the U.S. tubes division.
Tube Dispensing
Another way manufacturers can differentiate their tubes is by selecting an innovative tube dispenser. Many choices exist to best enhance a customer’s application experience.
For example, Seaquist Closures’ Pinpoint was chosen by Neutrogena for its just-launched Neutrogena Lift & Strengthen Eye Lift. A joint project with Seaquist Closures and Alcan Packaging Cebal, the tube, paired with the innovative closure, enables soft-touch application and controlled dispensing. Pinpoint is also compatible with conventional tube filling.
Yves Saint Laurent selected Alcan Packaging Cebal’s Artist Brush tube for its lip plumping product, Gloss Repulpant. The package includes an on/off valve system and a soft, precise brush. The brand also added stylish graphics for a final look, choosing two runs of a brown screen ink, gold glitter, gold hot stamping and finally, a gloss metallic gold cap and casing.
| Yves Saint Laurent used Alcan Packaging Cebal's artist brush tube for its lip-plumping product. |
A sponge applicator was the dispenser of choice for Chattem, Inc.’s Icy Hot pain relieving gel. The brand selected this dispenser, from Alcan Packaging Cebal, because it reduces product waste and mess. In addition to a thoughtfully chosen dispenser, the brand decided against a traditional extruded tube in favor of a laminate construction.
Different Constructions
Laminate constructions can offer higher barrier properties than traditional extruded plastic tubes because it allows manufacturers the freedom to embed a barrier layer, such as EVOH. Especially when produced at higher volumes, laminate constructions can offer cost savings as compared to extruded tubes.
However, laminate tubes have had decoration limits in the past. This is starting to change.
“With the availability of flexographic graphics, silk screening and hot stamping for laminate tubes, these tubes are now coming into play—especially for large run, mass market personal care and cosmetic tube opportunities,” says Hoard. Alcan Packaging Cebal recently launched a large diameter laminate tube.
Berry Plastics Corporation is also supplying a line of laminate tube products in three different diameter sizes. The company offers complete manufacturing in house, from casting of sheets to decoration to tube formation. In-house casting “enables quicker color matching for the ever-changing dynamics of our personal care customers,” adds Jerry Ruud, vice president, sales and marketing for Berry’s Personal Care Division.
In 2007, Berry Plastics Corporation unveiled new decorating capabilities for laminate tubes. Its 10-color press allows the company to print flexography, silk screen and hot stamp in-line.
Environmentally Responsible
Some tube companies are also using post-consumer recycled plastic within tube constructions for a more environmentally-responsible tube choice.
World Wide Packaging brought to market a three-layer tube that utilizes an inner layer made from post-consumer recycled milk jugs. This eco-friendly tube can be constructed in as many shapes and sizes as its traditional tube portfolio.
| World Wide Packaging created an eco-friendly tube for Almay Pure Blends. |
produced globally, utilizing 33% post-consumer recycled resins. World Wide Packaging has also worked with the Freeman brand to produce the Good Stuff Organics packaging. In addition to its inner layer being made with recycled plastic, the Freeman products utilize one-piece oval technology, meaning the closure is already assembled on the tube.
The use of post-consumer recycled resin presents several challenges. First, manufacturers need to identify clean, plentiful sources of post-consumer supply. There are also challenges in processing and printing eco-friendly tubes, such as skips in the print. With today’s available technology, however, these challenges can be overcome.
World Wide Packaging has offered its inner-layer, post-consumer recycled, eco-friendly packaging for approximately three years, but is launching an updated version at this year’s HBA Global Expo in Manhattan. The new version will utilize 2/3 post-consumer recycled plastic and 1/3 virgin plastic.
Reducing product weight is another way companies can earn points for environmental responsibility. This is viable with tube caps. Alcan is now offering the Slender Cap, compatible with tubes.
“The 50mm Slender is a very lightweight, flip-top cap with a forty percent reduction in weight as compared to our standard flip-top cap. The use of less plastic in packaging is in line with our commitment to sustainability,” says Hoard.
Seaquist Closures is introducing a new Classic Ultra closure that can be used with tubes. Available later this year, the closures feature a 35% reduction in weight as compared to its traditional Classic closures, and also offer a sharper radius style with a soft, finger recess area.
Tube is Done. Now What?
The creation and decoration of a tube are only two considerations of a tube-enclosed product. Brand marketers must also consider the filling process. The product may look nice in theory, but in practice yield a completely different scenario.
“We fill some things for some companies in a clear tube that look absolutely horrible,” cautions White of The Filling Station, who adds that brand marketers should work with contract fillers from the beginning of the design process.
This partnership is necessary to determine variables such as how much product should be added and how the product will look when filled in the tube. There are also tooling considerations—each head size, cap and tube dimension merits different tooling. If a brand marketer’s special tube requires custom tooling, costs and timeframes go up.
Filling challenges can stall the rising popularity of certain tube constructions. For example, Hoard from Alcan Packaging Cebal notes “there has always been an interest in tube-within-a-tube offers,” but says there are few of these constructions on the market, limited to “new products wanting to boost their launch and [those] able to afford the higher filling costs.”
Manufacturer selection also remains critical. Poorly made tube constructions can spell trouble for a brand. In this current marketplace, White notes, “We are seeing a lot of foreign competition tubes that are made out of recycled plastic that are very difficult to seal. The tubes are cheaper to build but they are hard to fill. There is a much higher waste rate. Customers are looking for a way to save dollars, but I’m not seeing the quality they are expecting.”
