Joanna Cosgrove, Contributing Editor04.29.15
When scanning a shelf of cosmetic and personal care items, the product lines that instantly grab the attention of consumers are those that project visual unity in the form of similarly styled packaging and harmonized color schemes. To this end, packaging suppliers have continued to expand their offerings of packaging families—collections of carefully curated bottles, jars, tubes, closures and dispensers that echo each other in style and/or color—giving brands an easy way to select a signature look that has coordination and customizability built right in.
One of the greatest benefits coordinated packaging families deliver is the aesthetic perception of credibility, says Scott Jost, vice president of innovation and design, Berlin Packaging, Chicago, IL. “When a new brand or a refreshed brand appears on shelf, the second biggest hurdle (after being noticed) is a determination of credibility,” he explains, noting that product lines with inconsistent graphic branding and disparate package structures convey an implied message that if little thought and care is given to the packaging, perhaps the quality of the product itself is second-rate. “Credibility is a paramount concern for beauty brands, because consumers are much more discerning about products that they apply to their bodies and that can affect their appearance.”
One of Berlin Packaging’s more successful packaging families is in use by a brand called It’s a 10. “We began our relationship with the brand in the early 2000’s with the development of a single custom SKU,” Jost recalls. “When this SKU met with explosive success, our branding strategy practice group worked closely with It’s a 10’s owners to develop and maintain a long-term structural and graphic branding vision.”
The line now spans nearly 100 SKUs, consisting of sizes from 2 fl. oz. travel-friendly packs to 1 liter back bar products. Delivery forms range from treatment pumps and fine mist sprays to high-viscosity pastes, and packaging components span multiple materials, all unified under a common shape, color and “branding language roadmap,” Jost says. “Beyond tying the entire line together, our branding architecture provides for extensions across multiple product categories and hair type ‘collections,’ and facilitates ‘shopability’ within and across categories.”
According to Rod Vilencia, vice president of sales and marketing, Pacific Packaging Components Inc. (PPC), Baldwin Park, CA, the biggest advantage of using a packaging family when developing a line of beauty products is to create a unique image that will set the line apart from the competition. “A family of packaging helps to give your brand a thoughtful and finished look and creates an allure which is more apt to draw the consumer in, as opposed to a hodge-podge look of items that look uninspired and turn the consumer off,” he says. “Also, studies have found that people instinctively crave consistency. So, by creating a ‘family’ of products, you are satisfying the consumer’s unconscious desire for things to be uniform and identifiable.”
Last year Drunk Elephant Distributors sought a unique looking packaging family for its C-Firma Day Serum and TLC Framboos Glycolic Night Serum product lines, and PPC rose to the challenge. The company selected PPC’s 30ml square airless serum package topped with a custom square symmetrical cap that was matte frosted in bright white and decorated in black with a neon color accent and neon colored closure. “We created the very first 30ml PETG square airless bottle and dressed it up with flashy eye-catching neon colors that get company founder Tiffany Masterson’s products noticed on the store shelves in Sephora and other retail markets that sell these goods globally,” Vilencia says.
The package was so successful that it was awarded the Personal Care/Beauty Division Gold Award at the 2014 NACD National Convention.
Lesley Gadomski, business development officer for Fusion Packaging, Dallas, TX, agrees that a coordinated packaging ensemble enables brands to build or extend product lines with a purposeful and cohesive aesthetic. She points to two of Fusion Packaging’s packaging collections, Lift and Eclipse, which feature a variety of diameters in mini, slim, standard and jumbo profiles with capacities ranging from 5- to 100ml. “There is a package fit for any product within the brand’s line—whether a lightweight serum or more viscous body cream–each with a uniform style and all of the benefits of airless packaging, such as quicker strokes to prime, near 100% product evacuation, and a metal-free product path to protect the formula,” she explains. “By offering this variety of sizes and silhouettes, our customers have more flexibility in diversifying their product assortment while still maintaining a signature style that is recognizable by the consumer.”
Gadomski says Fusion closely examines opportunities to expand and enhance its packaging families. For example, the company recently introduced Tru Jumbo, a new size option for one of its most popular packaging collections with includes airless bottles, atmospheric bottles, airless tubes and jumbo airless bottles. “The airless, polypropylene (PP) Tru Jumbo provides our customers with even more capacity options—50-, 75- and 100ml—with the same classic appeal and diverse decoration options as other Tru packages,” she says.
Fusion’s Tru collection was the line of choice for doTerra International, a UT-based provider of therapeutic essential oils. doTerra chose the 50ml Tru atmospheric sprayer and 60ml Tru airless tube, which were then customized with a combined matte spray with a clear silkscreen decorative effect. This deco technique not only helped unify the brand’s packaging but also added an interesting visual dimension. “When the customer holds the packages in their hand, there is an interesting juxtaposition between the more granular matte and ultra-smooth transparent silkscreen,” Gadomski says. “The combination resulted in a visual and tactile effect that keeps the brand at the top of that consumer’s mind.”
When Easthampton, NY-based Naturopathica Holistic Health Inc. sought packaging for its 33-SKU line of Naturopathica skin care products, the company turned to WS Packaging Group, Green Bay, WI, for a distinctive, unified look that not only captured attention but also made it easy for consumers to navigate the product line.
“Our primary goal was to distinguish the Naturopathica brand at the shelf [because] having that kind of shelf impact that gets you noticed is the first step,” says Heather Lind, Naturopathica’s purchasing and planning manager. “From there we want to ensure that consumers fully understand the product line and all the components.”
Naturopathica maintains separate lines for women and for men and employs a blend of tubes, pump bottles and jars that range in size from .15 oz. lip balm barrels to .5 oz. bottles to 5 oz. tubes. Some of the products are packaged in folding cartons with color-coordinated graphics, while those without cartons feature extended-text labels that carry the brand message, product profile, ingredient list, directions for use, cautions and special notes.
More than half of Naturopathica’s product line is Ecocert certified, which verifies that the products have been inspected and that the company’s processes conform to natural and organic cosmetics standards. Lind says it was important that their packaging follow suit, too. “In order to meet the Ecocert multi-language requirement, the solution for Naturopathica was the patented FlexVision extended-text label from WS Packaging Group and its MultiVision label line,” she said. “The label features a patented water-resistant multi-ply construction that is 100% conformable and engineered specifically for plastic tubes.”
Naturopathica’s tubes are made of 30% post-consumer waste, while folding cartons are made from 100% recycled fibers with a minimum of 35% post-consumer waste.
Simplicity for Suppliers Too
In addition to the ease unified packaging collections impart to brands, they also have core benefits for packaging manufacturers. “Coordinated packaging families offer the opportunity to rationalize new tooling costs by using certain components across a range of various packs,” says Robert McDermott, director, technical sales, East Hill Industries Inc., Richardson, TX. “For example, a family of wide diameter, short profile PP airless bottles in 30-, 50- and 100ml capacities, could all share the same pump mechanisms, housing, collars and actuators, meaning that the investment would only need to be made in three new bottle shapes.
“Similarly,” he continued, “the creation of packaging families allows manufacturers to simplify their design process by taking some inherent design points (e.g. the masculine rounded square profile, or a flared cylindrical design) and apply it across a range of products.”
Likewise, coordinated packaging families are a top value for cosmetic and personal care brands, too. For starters, they can dramatically shorten the packaging sourcing and decision making process. “There’s no need to scour the globe for that one 250ml bottle that has the same height to width ratio or that ‘same heavy feel’ as the rest of your product line,” McDermott says. “Additionally, a brand can avoid unnecessary additional new tooling costs and time to try and bring another stock pack into line with the rest of their range.
“Third, and perhaps most important, the ability to present a line of various products in a consolidated packaging profile can provide brands with that all important on-shelf (or online) presence they require,” he says. “The trick then is to focus on creating artwork that helps to clearly differentiate the various products in the line, and their benefits.”
McDermott points to East Hill Industries’ line of in-stock, on-demand cosmetic tubes. “Although not a major breakthrough in terms of matching styles, our ability to offer tubes with a matching cap design from .25 oz. all the way up to 8 oz., ready for dispatch within 48 hours, has proven popular with brands big and small,” he says. “The tubes are all five-layer, co-ex PE material with PP caps, providing the very best barrier capabilities that can handle almost all formulations and are available in white or natural color to give brands the canvas to get creative in their custom decoration.”
McDermott said this approach is great for mixing and matching smaller tubes for cosmetic applications with the larger tubes that house shampoos, conditioners, body washes and more.
East Hill Industries recently introduced its ABT3190 range of airless polypropylene (PP) bottles. Available in 30-, 50-, 80- and 120ml, McDermott says the range of wide diameter, short profile, pump packs has proven increasingly popular in the European market in recent years. “As brands develop formulations that are more and more natural in their ingredients the need for packaging to be ‘airless’, to be compatible and to be more recyclable is a must, and our ABT3190 range meets that need,” he says. “The range provides a strong on-shelf profile as well as a large decoration area for brands to get their message across. With several actuator styles available, our clients have the ability to choose a pump head style that matches their brand or product image.”
Product families also offer an inherent level of consistency when they are sourced from a single manufacturer. Marny Bielefeldt, vice president of marketing at St. Louis, MO-based Alpha Packaging believes there are many advantages to buying a variety of sizes from the same “family” made by a single manufacturer. “From an aesthetic standpoint, there is a benefit to buying colored bottles from the same manufacturer because all of the bottles will use the same colorant,” she says. “And, from an efficiency standpoint, it also makes it easier on customers when they can place a single order with us and get a variety of stock bottles to fill out their truck. When you can get consistent quality and reliable deliveries from a single source, brand owners get their products to market faster and more efficiently.”
Two of Alpha Packaging’s many families of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles and jars for the personal care industry are its PET Boston Rounds and PET wide mouth jars. Both families feature a wide variety of sizes and six different standard colors to choose from, enabling customers to order relatively small quantities without a custom color charge.
Sourcing packaging from the collection of a single manufacturer eliminates the guesswork of filling potential future voids from different vendors, guaranteeing that the look, feel and functionality of a beauty or personal care product range maintains consistency across the board.
ISPEC recently extended the limitations of its packaging collections with the launch of two new families of heavy wall blown PET bottles and jars and double wall jars and airless bottles. “In the past, heavy wall PET packages were only injected, resulting in limited possible shapes; however, we now have new technology and a machine that allows us to blow mold different shapes of heavy wall PET packages,” Chuck Lee says. “For heavy wall blown PET packages, a modified version of the injection stretch blow machine from Japan is used. This improved version enables us to blow mold packages that are much thicker than conventional PET blown packages.”
Heavy walled, blown PET packages deliver the aesthetic look and feel of glass without the possibility of breakage. “Heavy wall packages also offer superb retention and protection of formulas in the packages,” Lee continues, noting that ISPEC can also add a UV inhibitor for increased protection.
Double wall packaging offers similar benefits. “Double wall packages are usually a combination of a poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) or polystyrene (PS) package with PP or PE inner packages since those outer materials aren’t compatible with most formulas,” Lee says. “Double wall packages tend to be bulky and because the outer material previously could not be blow molded, shapes were limited. Now heavy wall blown PET packages don’t have to be bulky, and available shapes and sizes are limited only by imagination.”
In summary, Lou Della Pesca, president, 3C Inc., Hawthorne, NJ, says coordinated packaging is a quiet platform that delivers on the concept of total quality—from the packaging supplier to the brand, and from the brand to the consumer. “The advantage of having a family of packaging gives the consumer the opportunity to buy from a reliable, professional company,” he says. “The consumer’s confidence level is increased product by product, [and when] the package design/color is well presented, the quality of the product must have the same standards.”
One of the greatest benefits coordinated packaging families deliver is the aesthetic perception of credibility, says Scott Jost, vice president of innovation and design, Berlin Packaging, Chicago, IL. “When a new brand or a refreshed brand appears on shelf, the second biggest hurdle (after being noticed) is a determination of credibility,” he explains, noting that product lines with inconsistent graphic branding and disparate package structures convey an implied message that if little thought and care is given to the packaging, perhaps the quality of the product itself is second-rate. “Credibility is a paramount concern for beauty brands, because consumers are much more discerning about products that they apply to their bodies and that can affect their appearance.”
One of Berlin Packaging’s more successful packaging families is in use by a brand called It’s a 10. “We began our relationship with the brand in the early 2000’s with the development of a single custom SKU,” Jost recalls. “When this SKU met with explosive success, our branding strategy practice group worked closely with It’s a 10’s owners to develop and maintain a long-term structural and graphic branding vision.”
The line now spans nearly 100 SKUs, consisting of sizes from 2 fl. oz. travel-friendly packs to 1 liter back bar products. Delivery forms range from treatment pumps and fine mist sprays to high-viscosity pastes, and packaging components span multiple materials, all unified under a common shape, color and “branding language roadmap,” Jost says. “Beyond tying the entire line together, our branding architecture provides for extensions across multiple product categories and hair type ‘collections,’ and facilitates ‘shopability’ within and across categories.”
According to Rod Vilencia, vice president of sales and marketing, Pacific Packaging Components Inc. (PPC), Baldwin Park, CA, the biggest advantage of using a packaging family when developing a line of beauty products is to create a unique image that will set the line apart from the competition. “A family of packaging helps to give your brand a thoughtful and finished look and creates an allure which is more apt to draw the consumer in, as opposed to a hodge-podge look of items that look uninspired and turn the consumer off,” he says. “Also, studies have found that people instinctively crave consistency. So, by creating a ‘family’ of products, you are satisfying the consumer’s unconscious desire for things to be uniform and identifiable.”
Last year Drunk Elephant Distributors sought a unique looking packaging family for its C-Firma Day Serum and TLC Framboos Glycolic Night Serum product lines, and PPC rose to the challenge. The company selected PPC’s 30ml square airless serum package topped with a custom square symmetrical cap that was matte frosted in bright white and decorated in black with a neon color accent and neon colored closure. “We created the very first 30ml PETG square airless bottle and dressed it up with flashy eye-catching neon colors that get company founder Tiffany Masterson’s products noticed on the store shelves in Sephora and other retail markets that sell these goods globally,” Vilencia says.
The package was so successful that it was awarded the Personal Care/Beauty Division Gold Award at the 2014 NACD National Convention.
Lesley Gadomski, business development officer for Fusion Packaging, Dallas, TX, agrees that a coordinated packaging ensemble enables brands to build or extend product lines with a purposeful and cohesive aesthetic. She points to two of Fusion Packaging’s packaging collections, Lift and Eclipse, which feature a variety of diameters in mini, slim, standard and jumbo profiles with capacities ranging from 5- to 100ml. “There is a package fit for any product within the brand’s line—whether a lightweight serum or more viscous body cream–each with a uniform style and all of the benefits of airless packaging, such as quicker strokes to prime, near 100% product evacuation, and a metal-free product path to protect the formula,” she explains. “By offering this variety of sizes and silhouettes, our customers have more flexibility in diversifying their product assortment while still maintaining a signature style that is recognizable by the consumer.”
Gadomski says Fusion closely examines opportunities to expand and enhance its packaging families. For example, the company recently introduced Tru Jumbo, a new size option for one of its most popular packaging collections with includes airless bottles, atmospheric bottles, airless tubes and jumbo airless bottles. “The airless, polypropylene (PP) Tru Jumbo provides our customers with even more capacity options—50-, 75- and 100ml—with the same classic appeal and diverse decoration options as other Tru packages,” she says.
Fusion’s Tru collection was the line of choice for doTerra International, a UT-based provider of therapeutic essential oils. doTerra chose the 50ml Tru atmospheric sprayer and 60ml Tru airless tube, which were then customized with a combined matte spray with a clear silkscreen decorative effect. This deco technique not only helped unify the brand’s packaging but also added an interesting visual dimension. “When the customer holds the packages in their hand, there is an interesting juxtaposition between the more granular matte and ultra-smooth transparent silkscreen,” Gadomski says. “The combination resulted in a visual and tactile effect that keeps the brand at the top of that consumer’s mind.”
When Easthampton, NY-based Naturopathica Holistic Health Inc. sought packaging for its 33-SKU line of Naturopathica skin care products, the company turned to WS Packaging Group, Green Bay, WI, for a distinctive, unified look that not only captured attention but also made it easy for consumers to navigate the product line.
“Our primary goal was to distinguish the Naturopathica brand at the shelf [because] having that kind of shelf impact that gets you noticed is the first step,” says Heather Lind, Naturopathica’s purchasing and planning manager. “From there we want to ensure that consumers fully understand the product line and all the components.”
Naturopathica maintains separate lines for women and for men and employs a blend of tubes, pump bottles and jars that range in size from .15 oz. lip balm barrels to .5 oz. bottles to 5 oz. tubes. Some of the products are packaged in folding cartons with color-coordinated graphics, while those without cartons feature extended-text labels that carry the brand message, product profile, ingredient list, directions for use, cautions and special notes.
More than half of Naturopathica’s product line is Ecocert certified, which verifies that the products have been inspected and that the company’s processes conform to natural and organic cosmetics standards. Lind says it was important that their packaging follow suit, too. “In order to meet the Ecocert multi-language requirement, the solution for Naturopathica was the patented FlexVision extended-text label from WS Packaging Group and its MultiVision label line,” she said. “The label features a patented water-resistant multi-ply construction that is 100% conformable and engineered specifically for plastic tubes.”
Naturopathica’s tubes are made of 30% post-consumer waste, while folding cartons are made from 100% recycled fibers with a minimum of 35% post-consumer waste.
Simplicity for Suppliers Too
In addition to the ease unified packaging collections impart to brands, they also have core benefits for packaging manufacturers. “Coordinated packaging families offer the opportunity to rationalize new tooling costs by using certain components across a range of various packs,” says Robert McDermott, director, technical sales, East Hill Industries Inc., Richardson, TX. “For example, a family of wide diameter, short profile PP airless bottles in 30-, 50- and 100ml capacities, could all share the same pump mechanisms, housing, collars and actuators, meaning that the investment would only need to be made in three new bottle shapes.
“Similarly,” he continued, “the creation of packaging families allows manufacturers to simplify their design process by taking some inherent design points (e.g. the masculine rounded square profile, or a flared cylindrical design) and apply it across a range of products.”
Likewise, coordinated packaging families are a top value for cosmetic and personal care brands, too. For starters, they can dramatically shorten the packaging sourcing and decision making process. “There’s no need to scour the globe for that one 250ml bottle that has the same height to width ratio or that ‘same heavy feel’ as the rest of your product line,” McDermott says. “Additionally, a brand can avoid unnecessary additional new tooling costs and time to try and bring another stock pack into line with the rest of their range.
“Third, and perhaps most important, the ability to present a line of various products in a consolidated packaging profile can provide brands with that all important on-shelf (or online) presence they require,” he says. “The trick then is to focus on creating artwork that helps to clearly differentiate the various products in the line, and their benefits.”
McDermott points to East Hill Industries’ line of in-stock, on-demand cosmetic tubes. “Although not a major breakthrough in terms of matching styles, our ability to offer tubes with a matching cap design from .25 oz. all the way up to 8 oz., ready for dispatch within 48 hours, has proven popular with brands big and small,” he says. “The tubes are all five-layer, co-ex PE material with PP caps, providing the very best barrier capabilities that can handle almost all formulations and are available in white or natural color to give brands the canvas to get creative in their custom decoration.”
McDermott said this approach is great for mixing and matching smaller tubes for cosmetic applications with the larger tubes that house shampoos, conditioners, body washes and more.
East Hill Industries recently introduced its ABT3190 range of airless polypropylene (PP) bottles. Available in 30-, 50-, 80- and 120ml, McDermott says the range of wide diameter, short profile, pump packs has proven increasingly popular in the European market in recent years. “As brands develop formulations that are more and more natural in their ingredients the need for packaging to be ‘airless’, to be compatible and to be more recyclable is a must, and our ABT3190 range meets that need,” he says. “The range provides a strong on-shelf profile as well as a large decoration area for brands to get their message across. With several actuator styles available, our clients have the ability to choose a pump head style that matches their brand or product image.”
Product families also offer an inherent level of consistency when they are sourced from a single manufacturer. Marny Bielefeldt, vice president of marketing at St. Louis, MO-based Alpha Packaging believes there are many advantages to buying a variety of sizes from the same “family” made by a single manufacturer. “From an aesthetic standpoint, there is a benefit to buying colored bottles from the same manufacturer because all of the bottles will use the same colorant,” she says. “And, from an efficiency standpoint, it also makes it easier on customers when they can place a single order with us and get a variety of stock bottles to fill out their truck. When you can get consistent quality and reliable deliveries from a single source, brand owners get their products to market faster and more efficiently.”
Two of Alpha Packaging’s many families of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles and jars for the personal care industry are its PET Boston Rounds and PET wide mouth jars. Both families feature a wide variety of sizes and six different standard colors to choose from, enabling customers to order relatively small quantities without a custom color charge.
Sourcing packaging from the collection of a single manufacturer eliminates the guesswork of filling potential future voids from different vendors, guaranteeing that the look, feel and functionality of a beauty or personal care product range maintains consistency across the board.
ISPEC recently extended the limitations of its packaging collections with the launch of two new families of heavy wall blown PET bottles and jars and double wall jars and airless bottles. “In the past, heavy wall PET packages were only injected, resulting in limited possible shapes; however, we now have new technology and a machine that allows us to blow mold different shapes of heavy wall PET packages,” Chuck Lee says. “For heavy wall blown PET packages, a modified version of the injection stretch blow machine from Japan is used. This improved version enables us to blow mold packages that are much thicker than conventional PET blown packages.”
Heavy walled, blown PET packages deliver the aesthetic look and feel of glass without the possibility of breakage. “Heavy wall packages also offer superb retention and protection of formulas in the packages,” Lee continues, noting that ISPEC can also add a UV inhibitor for increased protection.
Double wall packaging offers similar benefits. “Double wall packages are usually a combination of a poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) or polystyrene (PS) package with PP or PE inner packages since those outer materials aren’t compatible with most formulas,” Lee says. “Double wall packages tend to be bulky and because the outer material previously could not be blow molded, shapes were limited. Now heavy wall blown PET packages don’t have to be bulky, and available shapes and sizes are limited only by imagination.”
In summary, Lou Della Pesca, president, 3C Inc., Hawthorne, NJ, says coordinated packaging is a quiet platform that delivers on the concept of total quality—from the packaging supplier to the brand, and from the brand to the consumer. “The advantage of having a family of packaging gives the consumer the opportunity to buy from a reliable, professional company,” he says. “The consumer’s confidence level is increased product by product, [and when] the package design/color is well presented, the quality of the product must have the same standards.”
