Flankers' 'New' Role

A selection of flankers from Coty Prestige brands

Some people may think the word flanker is a strange one. In business, the definition is “an extension product, such as a diet version of a soft drink or a liquid version of a detergent, added to a line to support the sales of the main product.” In our industry of fragrance and beauty, the word flanker is commonly used—and a widely executed concept. Pretty much every brand we launch these days will have at least one flanker in the life of the brand—and often many.

The question has been posed: Have more flankers been launched in the past year or so? I would say that recently there is an increase in flankers in fragrance. Consumers are pretty clear that they want newness—the new bag, the new shoe, the new artist, the new fragrance. “New” sells and we have to stay competitive and get new and innovative products to them faster than ever before. Typically when designing and developing a flanker, we can do this much faster than a new standalone brand because there is generally no new tooling involved. It is normally done through graphics, color, finishes, name and advertising. Eliminating the need for new tooling means we can get newness out there in a much more condensed timeline.

When I am working on the design of a new brand, it has become standard for me to think about how I can adapt the design to accommodate two, three or even four flankers. Also depending on the brand I am working on, we will often present the designer or celebrity with different palette or finish options in the beginning, which can turn into flanker design approvals while we are still working on the initial product launch. There is no typical number of flankers that a brand will do; however, in a successful brand that continues to grow, we will generally produce one flanker a year. On a very successful brand like Marc Jacobs, there can be as many as three a year—one supporting each brand under the house—Daisy, Dot and Lola.

This year I have worked on some really great and fun designs for a variety of our brands. Coming right off the successful launch of Dot Marc Jacobs, we are now launching the flanker (under a different name) Honey Marc Jacobs. The design here is quite different from Dot, but we kept the basics the same. The concept of the Dot bottle was a cross between a ladybug and a butterfly. It is red, black and gold with polka dots all over. With Honey, we simplified the cap, changed the palette and added stripes to the mix. The color is now a pale yellow, with white polka dots and black stripes. I guess you could say Honey is a cross between a bee, butterfly and (yellow?) ladybug. It is actually more about Marc’s unique way of combining simple graphics and patterns, for which he is known in his collections. This project is an example of one in which the flanker was developed at the same time Dot was being developed. We didn’t have a name or final bottle right away, but in a packaging meeting about Dot, Marc had said the next one should be yellow and more like a bee. It is kind of funny that even Marc Jacobs knows to think about the flankers right off the bat!

Two other interesting projects this year are from Jennifer Lopez and Vera Wang. In my career, I would have to say that I have designed the most flankers for Jennifer’s brand—mostly under the Glow franchise, but now we are extending that into the Glowing brand. The original Glowing bottle, which was a packaging feat in itself with the interior light, now has a flanker called Forever Glowing. I wanted to keep the innovation of the light so we just did a simple juice color change, frosted the bottle and produced a beautiful new ad visual of Jennifer. Very simple design changes on the bottle, but it resulted in almost immediate newness and turned out to be a beautiful mix.

Another brand that has many flankers is Vera Wang Princess. I believe I am currently working on the eighth, but the one that is out right now is called Pink Princess. As with all the flankers, we kept the iconic heart-shaped bottle and crown and played around with different finishes or graphics on the bottles—also always changing the rhinestone colors on the cap. For Pink Princess, we encrusted the entire bottle with actual hot pink glitter. The bottle is stunning and has such an amazing tactile quality. Princess is the epitome of femininity with a slight edge. I think the new bottle really represents this.

Flankers are not only limited to fragrance. In makeup we tend to call them limited editions instead of flankers. I’m not really sure why the word is only associated with fragrance. We launched CK One color about a year ago with its cool and innovative black and white packaging. Just like fragrance, we needed to keep the consumer engaged. For the summer limited edition collection, we “concepted” an underwater theme. The packaging kept the same shape and materials but changed the color. The soft touch black changed to a water turquoise and the black logos changed to a fluorescent green. These small changes gave a fresh summer look to the iconic black and white line.

The design of flankers is not only limited to the bottle. Obviously we change the cartons to reflect the new designs, but also often create entirely new in-store environments, PR materials and new advertising visuals. Flankers are and have become very important to the success of a brand. The challenge is to keep innovating with newness without neglecting the core brand. That is the goal, but there have been instances where the flankers are more successful than the original. So at times, the flanker can become the “original.”

About the Author
Jon Dinapoli is senior creative director, Coty Prestige—and a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors.