Through a special arrangement, what follows is a summary of a current article from Private Label Buyer, presented here for discussion.
An old saying insists you can't judge a book by its cover, but the right product "cover" -- that is, unique or innovative packaging -- certainly can help spur a sale. And packaging that helps differentiate a product from the rest of the pack is becoming increasingly critical to the purveyors of store brand items.
That's a huge change from private label's traditional unobtrusive positioning, noted Linda Carroll, color insight manager for Ampacet Corp, which studies color trends.
"I look to the [private label] market and say, boy have they evolved into a mindset of packaging with ego," she said. "Now I'm seeing strength and personality coming through."
Dan Abramowicz, president of Crown Packaging Technology, says packaging differentiation essentially has two key dimensions: functional and visual. The functional dimension consists of any value-added feature that makes a positive difference to the consumer, while the visual element encompasses features such as shape, color or décor.
As for functional features, Mr. Abramowicz pointed to anything that makes a package easier to open and/or close.
Crown recently launched an improvement called EasyLift, Mr. Abramowicz noted, which is a technology that gives the consumer better access to under the tab on easy-open soup and other cans.
"Although the opening forces aren't any different, the consumer finds it's much easier to open because they can leverage the force they apply better," he said.
On the visual side, shaping technologies are becoming a popular means to make both national brand and store brand items stand out on the shelf. Mr. Abramowicz pointed to the Heineken keg-shaped beverage can, which used Crown's proprietary shaping technology, as an example of a departure from the traditional metal cylinder.
Unexpected shapes might represent the best way to differentiate a product on the shelf, said Brian Ksicinski, marketing manager for Silgan Containers Corp.
"They act as a billboard by providing instant visual clues, and they bring out a product's intrinsic character, quality and value," he said. "We've found that shaped metal cans actually improve taste perceptions despite no change to the product formulation."
Color also can make a huge visual statement, and can be just as vital on the value side of private label.
"It's an extension of [the consumer's] financial capability," she said. "They don't want cheap-looking."
Going hand in hand with differentiating color are gradation effects, stripe effects or textural elements, Ms. Carroll noted.
"Anything you can do to engage all five senses must be done," she added.
Moreover, advanced graphics technologies really can boost color and grab the eye. Mr. Abramowicz said Crown recently created a beverage can with such high-quality graphics for Polar Beverages' Black Jack Tea.
"Beverage cans start in the round, and we decorate them in the round," he said. "The quality of the graphics in the beverage can is much lower than we can get on a nice aerosol can. But this technology is closing the gap."
Discussion Questions: What impresses you most about advances in private label packaging over the last few years? Does one particular feature - color/graphics, shape, function (easy to open), etc. - particularly stand out? Where does private label packaging still have to improve to catch up with national brands?