March 18 - San Francisco, California
April 23 - Atlanta, Georgia
May 20 - Tarrytown, New York
June 17 - Chicago, Illinois
October 21 - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Five Ideas for Sustainable Design - By Jim George
Shelf Impact
Designing a "sustainable" package is daunting, say those leading the industry's so-called "green" movement. The challenge is enormously complex, and it is tempting to take shortcuts. If hasty decisions are made, important and costly decisions can be finalized without weighing each factor involved in creating a package to meet a host of different needs. On one hand, the package has to function as an effective sales tool to meet business objectives. Yet, the materials used must be suitable either for reuse or being returned naturally to the earth.
Read entire article

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Moving Forward while Others Idle - By Jim George
Shelf Impact

Can you trust your gut? If so, your brand could make a lot of headway with consumers during these tough economic times while your competitors sit on the sidelines. Even as others in your category are hunkering down, hoping to hold onto what they have until the economy rebounds, opportunity knocks for you on the store shelf.

I've written previously in this space about the importance of identifying unmet consumer needs in your category. Those needs haven't vanished just because some jobs have been eliminated and credit has tightened. Understand those gaps between what consumers need and what your category offers, and you just might come up with a new packaging idea that steals some market share while your competitors idle.

How can you muster the courage to invest new dollars in your packaging at a time when others aren't? Try following Dona Vitale's "75%" rule. "Most of us carry an umbrella when the forecast equals a 70% chance of rain," says Vitale, President of Strategic Focus Inc. and adjunct instructor at the University of Chicago. "So why do we insist on 95% certainty on other things? Trust your gut at 75% and you will make faster and more successful decisions."

Vitale applies that logic in her consulting work with consumer packaged goods companies such as Kraft, Sara Lee, and SC Johnson. "Create a bias toward action," she says.

Shelf Impact!, over the next two months, will offer some pivotal strategies for taking action by elevating your brand while others in your aisle slumber. In this newsletter, we focus on succeeding in the world of the store as a brand. In upcoming issues, we will dissect strategies for making sustainability a win-win proposition for both consumers and your brand. In addition, we'll discuss the ascension of shape in package design—why consumers want more of it, why you should be paying attention, and how you can sell the investment to senior management. For those of you who prefer the feel of the printed page in your hands, these important articles also will appear in our December print issue of Shelf Impact! and Packaging World magazine. These strategies will require that you trust your gut and take some calculated risks as you squeeze every bit of efficiency out of tight budgets. For those of you who do, the rewards could be a strong edge on shelf when better economic times return.

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If you really want to know how and why consumers purchase and use your product, Heather Maxwell recommends holding these discussions "in context." By doing so, you can make more informed decisions in package design.

Success requires talking on-site to shoppers and store associates about your brand, says Maxwell, Consumer Insights Associate at General Mills. Brand marketers and designers are doing that universally, right? A little informal polling shows something quite different actually is happening. At two recent conferences, audiences consisting of brand, marketing, and design managers were asked whether they do in-store research. A lot of hands went up when those managers were asked if they visit stores. Far fewer hands rose when attendees were asked whether they talk to people in the store as they shop or stock shelves.

At a recent conference called PROOF: Packaging Connects, Maxwell explained that in-context discussions about your products push those who are responsible for package design and development into their product's "habitat" in the store. These discussions also reveal the gap between what consumers and store associates say and what they do.

Case in point: General Mills noted good initial returns for one of its products during package-design testing at a grocery store, but then sales mysteriously slowed. Maxwell visited the store and happened upon a stock clerk who revealed his inability to keep the product stocked fast enough on a shelf near eye level. He solved the problem by moving the product to the top shelf, where fewer consumers noticed it and could reach it. As might be expected, sales dipped.

"Conventional research would not have detected this as the reason," Maxwell said.

Useful in-context insights also were gleaned in conversation at our table over lunch during PROOF. One man said he uses a box cutter to reduce the carton size in his pantry as his kids eat their cereal. A woman revealed that she uses tongs and other kitchen utensils to grab onto holes she pokes into cartons she stores on the top shelves of the narrow pantry in her high-ceiling kitchen. Each of these compensating behaviors has potential implications for package design.

What insights can you glean from your own in-context discussions? The answers may help you solve consumer challenges or fill a gap in your category—and increase sales.

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"Traditionally, we had just taped the 4-oz plastic bottles of Protecto pre-relaxer conditioner to the 4-lb buckets of Affirm," says Zohaira Rizvi, Avlon spokesperson. "But after the tape was removed, the pre-relaxer bottle often was misplaced and never used. We knew there had to be a better way."
Read more about this story  as well as other great Shelf Impact articles from the October Newsletter

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Sylvania Redesigns 270 Items Meeting Sustainable Objectives - By Rick Lingle
Source - Shelf Impact

All revved up and ready to go. That's the outlook for a major redesign for Osram Sylvania, which has unveiled a new packaging design for all of its 270 items sold at retail. The customer-friendly packaging redesign strengthens the Sylvania brand, particularly in the competitive automotive aftermarket sector.....more

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The label's value advances beyond its traditional role as a decorative add-on..... Read Entire Article

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Hubs Propel GSK as OTC Design Innovator - By Jim Chzran
Source - Shelf Impact

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) operates in healthcare products, which the design community considers to be possibly the last remaining section of the store in which packaging is generally falling short of its potential for impacting sales. GSK is one of the healthcare community's design leaders. A recent example: Packaging for its new..... Read Entire Article
 
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It's probably safe to assume that every leading consumer packaged foods manufacturer in South Africa is evaluating its options to act and look 'greener' when it comes to packaging. Trumping the market, though, is the biggest player..... Read entire article

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Design With Downstream in Mind - By Jim George
Source - Shelf Impact

As the packaging and displays that designers create move downstream toward the store shelf, they are increasingly stopping off at a contract packager's facility for pack-out. Brand owners are turning to co-packers with increasing frequency to assemble multipacks and kits, and to build point-of-purchase and pallet displays. Brand-owner thinking today is to shift the "packaging department" outside their walls so they can focus on creating and marketing products.

Though this approach can get products into stores with lightning speed and some cost-efficiencies, there are challenges, too. And that's where design comes in. Listen to Joe Jaruszewski, who believes that designers don't communicate with co-packers early enough or often enough, and it's unnecessarily costing brand owners money.
Jaruszewski is President of Market Resource Packaging, a contract packager that handles hundreds of primary, secondary, and display packaging jobs each month for customers from Victoria's Secret to Johnson & Johnson to Pfizer. I recently visited his sprawling plant in Cranbury, NJ. Designers, Jaruszewski says, pay too little attention to the impact of their work as their packages move downstream into operations, warehousing, and distribution. Jaruszewski sees examples with astonishing frequency of packaging that creates downstream problems which are easily avoided.

"For example, you're designing for 4,000 pallet displays of Listerine. If you can't stack them, you're going to have a facilities-need issue and cost your company money," he says. "You may have to spend a little more on the display to make it sturdier. These are things that are not always apparent on a designer's desk."
Or consider that your choice of board to get just the right visual branding effect might be ideal graphically speaking, but it also might wilt structurally in the extremely humid air of a co-packing facility in Dallas, TX. Such considerations might be lost on a designer who's creating in the chill of a New York City or Chicago spring.

"Call that co-packer and don't assume anything," Jaruszewski advises. What Jaruszewski means is that good design goes beyond on-brand graphics and effective colors and shapes. A good package has to be pleasing to look at and hold, and also has to function structurally. Mistakes made in the creative phase might not affect a designer's budget directly, but they certainly impact the company's bottom line when damaged or ruined packages and displays are returned. Future consequences of lost revenue could include tighter design budgets.

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Source - Shelf Impact - Jim George                                                                                              Click Banner to View Larger Image

Procter & Gamble is extending its Downy Simple Pleasures brand with a new line of "fabric enhancers" marketed under the Radiance Collection subbrand. The three scents in the line are formulated with assistance from perfume houses and delivered through a proprietary technology that deposits microscopic capsules of perfume onto fabrics during the wash/rinse cycles.

These benefits deliver pampered luxury to consumers, and P&G opted for a cosmetics-like bottle design to reflect the brand essence. The PET bottle includes a rippling swath that encircles the body and neck, creating a silken fabric effect. Metallic bottle finishes of lavender, teal, and rose distinguish the three scent varieties. Each bottle contains a two-piece metallic-gold, screw-on polypropylene pour spout and dispensing cap.

The clear, heat-transfer label includes abstract design elements resembling henna tattoo artwork that "create intrigue and invite consumers to experience the amazing breadth of scents," says Arun Kori, Downy Simple Pleasures Brand Manager.

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Source - Shelf Impact - Jim George

One strategy for creating a successful lifestyle brand focuses on a reinforced sense of well-being. One section of the store where this message can work well is household products, and a stellar recent example is WD-40's X-14 bathroom-cleaning products.
Consumers told researchers for WD-40, San Diego, CA, that the bathroom has distinct cleaning challenges requiring special cleaning products for quick touch-ups and deep cleaning. WD-40 centers the branding architecture around its X-14 line as "the bathroom expert." Foremost, bold packaging colors and graphics signal "clean." The packaging gives the brand family visual cohesion and extends to collateral materials and the brand's Web site, www.thebathroomexpert.com, creating a cleaning clearinghouse that offers tips on everything from removing tough mold and mildew to education on proper cleaning techniques to bathroom-safety ideas.

The packaging highlights the concept of quick cleaning—a simple spray and wipe—versus deep cleaning—down-on-your-knees scrubbing. The insights needed to create different products and signify these two cleaning styles through packaging were gained from qualitative research. WD-40 conducted in-home ethnographic research, "shopalongs" with consumers, and focus groups, says Heidi Noorany, WD-40's Director of Marketing. Among the variables that were tested were package shapes to support the brand positioning.

"Sales for the X-14 line were fine in our old packaging, but we knew we had a lot of upside potential because these products are so good," Noorany says. "The old positioning of the brand was based on efficacy and product strength. We felt we had an even better chance to communicate benefits with the new packaging."

New, forward-leaning bottles across the X-14 line feature a customized, swirl-shaped neck with a matching trigger sprayer, from Continental AFA. The bottles are used for bathroom cleaner, shower cleaner, and mold and mildew remover. An X is embossed into the mold of the royal-blue-colored bottles. The plastic bottles are from Patrick Products. The pressure-sensitive bottle labels, from WS Packaging Group, heighten the sense of cleanliness with a starburst above the brand name. Nozzles on cans of foaming bathroom cleaner, from CCL Container, spray an 8"-diameter area. Paperboard cartons for the toilet bowl cleaner, from JR Cole Industries, resemble the bottle shapes to unify visual equity across the brand.

"There's a lot of positive emotion in getting results using both products," Noorany says. "X-14 now says to people, This is a brand I can turn to for my whole cleaning needs. You understand how I clean.'"

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Six Rules for Maximizing Impact at Club Stores - By Jim George
Source - Shelf Impact

Club-store sales have reached $115 billion and are increasing nearly 5% annually. The channel's growth presents opportunities to marketers who package their products to meet the special challenges of the club-store environment.
But Mike Ellgass, whose duties include packaging presentation and directing private-label brands at Sam's Club, says many brand owners could do a better job of meeting the challenges that club stores pose. Ellgass used the recent FUSE: Design & Culture/Brand Identity & Packaging conference in New York, NY, as a forum to provide six rules for harnessing packaging's full impact in club stores. He elaborated on each point further in a discussion with Shelf Impact!

- Tell your "creatives" to consider club stores as outdoor. With a bigger billboard space on a multipack, a staple of club stores, marketers tend to rely on packages that resemble print ads—they are too busy, with too many words, Ellgass says. Instead, Ellgass recommends that creative teams approach club-store package design with billboard advertising in mind. "It's that five-second rule," Ellgass says. "If you can't read it while driving, or passing, by, it's too much."

- Consider the shipper and design tray, too. Avoid letting secondary selling points detract from the main message—the product's purpose. His quick tips: no more than three "call-outs" on front panels of primary; strive for one call-out. Leverage the "real estate" on the sides of secondary packages, too. "Render a full pallet and have a discussion about how it looks," Ellgass recommends. "That's where you get the real 'ahahs' for how it looks." And make the shipper an extension of the primary package's colors. Examples to follow: Ellgass suggests that creative teams visit Sam's Club stores to view pallet displays for Del Monte, Bush's Best Baked Beans, and Starbucks.

- Get your "soldiers" all marching in the same direction. Foremost, make sure your packages are properly oriented on the pallet. Costco and Sam's Club, for example, have different pallet dimensions and require that products be merchandised from different sides of a pallet. Ask store buyers for their club's pallet-merchandising specifications.

- Design pallets for multi-sided display. Two-sides-shoppable is the minimum requirement, but three sides are better, Ellgass says. Pallets that have good presentation from three sides can make for good end-aisle displays.

- Design for "Broadway theater" using size and color. Success often lies in the details, and one of them is color. Packaging often is bigger at club stores than in other store environments, but that doesn't automatically make them easier to read and understand. Lighting is comparatively dimmer at club stores, and two results are that white and other neutral colors, wash out when used as the predominant colors, and colors such as silver appear to be gray. "On our house brands, we're going bolder with the colors on our packaging," Ellgass notes. Sam's Club's Member's Mark brand has changed over to a brighter red. Its Member's Mark logo has switched swapped out gold text for white to offer more contrast from farther away against the logo's red-and-black background.

- Dress up those skirts. Here is Sam's Club's guiding rule on legibility: From 30 feet away, what can shoppers read on the skirt in three to five seconds? "Eighty percent of our shoppers look at them from a distance and give it a quick read. Bullet points are tough to read," Ellgass says.

Ellgass imparts a final bit of advice: "Spend some time in the club watching how people shop. Ask them questions as they pull products off the shelf—why did they do it?"

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The bag-in-box format has dominated cereal aisles for years, but Target improves convenience in the category with Archer Farms Organic cereal. The cereal introduces an oblong canister with a reclosable spout and lid, and is available exclusively at Target and SuperTarget stores.

The spout is an easy-flow design, and the lid snaps closed. In addition, the canister provides other benefits, Target says. It ensures that cereal stays fresher longer, eliminating consumers' concerns about discarding stale cereal. From a "green packaging" perspective, the canister is constructed partially from recycled paperboard. The canister also provides storage benefits. Measuring 10" tall and 2.5" deep, it requires less pantry space than a bag-in-box cereal. Archer Farms Organic cereals are available in 18 flavor varieties, with a suggested retail price from $3.49 to $3.99.

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"If you've ever searched a cluttered cabinet for one elusive spice and felt as if you are conducting an archeological dig, then you're ready for 'spice enlightenment,'" say Katie Luber and Sara Engram, self-proclaimed "cardaMoms" and Founders of TSP Spices Inc., Atlanta, GA.

They are delivering on those words to consumers through premeasured packets of organic spices, marketed under the TSP Spices brand, in decorative storage tins that keep ingredients fresh and convenient. Individual spice packs rest in silver tins holding 12 sticks each to make spice storage neat. The tins, available for $9 each, are available in earth-tone colors and bear the TSP Spices "mascot," the Spice Finch, which legend says found its way from Asia to Europe by following the spice ships. The spices are packed for single use in one-teaspoon quantities in flexible-film stick-packs.

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The Modern Retail-Packaging Conundrum - By Ted Mininni, President, Design Force Inc.
Source - Shelf Impact

What is the role of product packaging, given the fast-changing face of retailing and consumer demand now?
Retailers have undergone a marketing transformation. They are now in the business of building brands. Their own. Retailers' focus is on aligning their merchandise mixes: private label as well as national brands, and the shopping experiences they provide as distinct and unique; a reflection of strategically developed branding in alignment with consumer perceptions.

Tip: Consumers are increasingly exercising control in fashioning their own experiences. Retailers that deliver the kinds of experiences consumers are seeking will win in the marketplace.
What kinds of experiences do consumers respond to best? We've uncovered principle consumer drivers in our research. These include: creation of greater perceived brand value vs. competitors' brands; clearly delineated brand differences, with uncomplicated, direct packaging communication; perceived lifestyle fit; upscale, more luxury-oriented branding for consumers who have, or aspire to have, more status; and the delivery of enjoyment assets.

Tip: We humans respond to brands that deliver enjoyment or fulfill emotional desires. Brand assets that can be leveraged in packaging to give consumers pleasure and enjoyment are powerful purchase motivators—and also repeat purchase motivators. Endeavor to uncover them.
Packaging for national brands has to be tweaked for various retail channels. When packaging products for Wal-Mart supercenters or club stores, the focus is on a price-to-value ratio. Large pack and multi-pack offerings benefit from the strong use of color and graphics in palletized, no-frills packaging. Small pack sizes, quality imagery, and communication are geared to sell brand value rather than price for supermarket and drug chains. Consumers in these environments are increasingly information hungry.

Tip: Within categories, what unique consumer cues can be leveraged on packaging to make connections with them, avoiding the dreaded commodity trap in the process?

At the other end of the spectrum, upscale and specialty retailers such as Fortunoff, REI, and Williams-Sonoma sell lifestyle and luxury branded products to consumers. In these environments, consumers invest emotionally both in the shopping experience and in the retail brand itself.

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Source: Shelf Impact - Pat Reynolds, Editor, Packaging World


In the hardware business, Elmer's Wood Glue is No. 1 in market share. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Elmer's Products Inc., Columbus, OH, decided the brand needed to look more contemporary to support its reputation as a reliable product. This led to repackaging of the entire hardware line, including a new bottle design for Elmer's 40 SKUs of wood glue. The new bottle design features an ergonomic oval shape that's operable with one hand. It also features an offset neck with a push-pull cap and spout that's over to one side for easy pouring into cracks and corners. The spout has two size openings for both thick and thin beading and also reduces clogging (the previous design necessitated cutting the top off the cap).

In another striking difference from the old package, the new bottle incorporates a shrink-sleeve label, produced by Fort Dearborn Co. using a PETG film from Klцckner Pentaplast. Brian King, Elmer's vice president of Marketing, explains the decision to use a shrink label this way:

"We have four different bottle styles for our Wood Glue: 4 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz, and 16 oz. All together, there are 40 SKUs of wood glue in our hardware line. We had been using a pressure-sensitive label for the old bottle, which was limited.

"What appealed about the shrink sleeve is that it wraps 100% around the whole bottle. This allows for more product information, more consistent information to be displayed across the product line. Now we can tell a story on the label. In essence, there's sufficient space to tell consumers how to upgrade and get exactly the right glue adhesive they need."

Besides an expanded billboard, the package exhibits the gloss of flexible film for marketing impact. The package was not without challenges, such as finding the best location for the film's seam on the bottle and the direction of the graphic design as the bottle goes through the shrink tunnel. Fort Dearborn decided to put the seam on the back right side.

In addition, the new bottle is taller and requires more shelf headroom. This dictated the height of the label and also demanded getting the best shrink possible. There is 67% to 70% shrinkage required, depending on bottle size. Key was the proper placement of graphics on the label to avoid distortions such as wave lines around Elmer's "house."

"Though you wouldn't notice if you were looking at the logo, it also changed some," King notes. "For one, the bull's head is a little larger. We have to walk the line with a bull that appeals to school children as well as hard-core construction guys."

Graphics requirements included four or five designs for each of the four bottle sizes, and even then, a particular size might have a few different vignettes (of print copy) for the same product. This meant the label might be either a nine- or 10-color flexographic press job. UV flexo is stronger with finer dots, so printing the vignettes was more consistent using this method rather than water-based inks. The new packaging is rolling out in phases in 2008, and King mentions that the new bottle costs roughly the same to produce as the old one.
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Inside Wal-Mart, Sam's Club: Successfully Balancing Branding and Sustainability
Source: Shelf Impact - Jim George, Editor

If you're a brand manager or package designer, you can play an important role in creating packaging that achieves branding objectives and also uses less packaging materials or incorporates reusable or recyclable materials. So says Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Sam's Club Director of Packaging.

Zettlemoyer-Lazar offered Packaging World and Shelf Impact! an exclusive interview to discuss branding and sustainability, and to discuss in detail Wal-Mart Stores' packaging scorecard, which officially took effect Feb. 1.

Talking with Anne Marie Mohan, Senior Editor at Packaging World and Contributing Editor to Shelf Impact!, Zettlemoyer-Lazar mentioned two packages on shelves at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club that brand managers and package designers can examine as models for successfully balancing the branding/sustainability equation.

Owners of national brands that are designing packaging for sustainability should take a holistic approach. Evaluate both the package and the product, Zettlemoyer-Lazar advises. She cites General Mills as one company that succeeds by re-engineering the physical attributes of the noodles for its Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper meals. These changes enable General Mills to reduce packaging size by 20%—without sacrificing product quality or eroding consumer preference. "The company increased the density of the pasta shapes so they could be packed more tightly and in a smaller box," says General Mills' Kirstie Foster. "We also reduced the number of pouches in each carton."

Foster says the new packaging saves 890,000 lb in paper fiber and reduces greenhouse gases by 11% annually. It also eliminates 500 trucks from the road and increases shelf pack-out by 20%. These benefits enable retailers to stock the same amount of product in less space.

Zettlemoyer-Lazar notes that Sam's Club's work on its own sustainable packaging can provide direction on sustainable packaging, too. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have been working with their own suppliers to improve the environmental impact of packaging for their own private-label products. Packaging for Member's Mark milk is one example. For the last three years, the milk has been produced using both a more sustainable production process and materials with environmentally friendly features, says Mike Ellgass, Sam's Club Director of House Brands.
 
In another example, packagers produce the 96-oz PET container for Member's Mark apple juice with 100% renewable energy from hydroelectric plants. These factories use moving water to generate electricity. The mill providing corrugated material for the packaging, and the converting process used in producing the bottle, have increased energy efficiency 35% by integrating new technologies throughout operations, Ellgass says.

Vendors transport nearly all of the apple juice in corrugated cases made with 85% post-consumer materials. The remainder moves into distribution in cases that use 25% post-consumer materials. All pallet caps and tier sheets use 65% recycled materials. Besides cost savings, Zettlemoyer-Lazar points out, the Member's Mark packaging still exudes branding power. The graphic impact of the materials is sharp, providing visual impact at the point of sale.

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Break the Rules by Thinking in New Dimensions
Source: Shelf Impact - Jim George, Editor

Sometimes, insightful breakthroughs originate from unlikely places. I was reminded of that while listening to Barbara Jirka speak at a conference in Boston last week. Jirka is Channel Marketing Manager for Tyson Foods, and she was presenting at the Kid Power Food and Beverage conference about marketing healthful foods to kids and moms.

If you want kids to embrace your brand, heed what Jirka learned, because it really opened her eyes. Jirka's focus at Tyson is the schools channel, and recently, after observing kids in this setting, she came to the following conclusion: It's no longer school as you remember it. Even if you're a very young associate brand manager or designer. To her surprise, socialization takes precedence in today's school cafeteria, because more demanding curriculums are squeezing lunch periods. With lunchtimes now more abbreviated, fun trumps food. Certainly, the kids eat, but the act is a more perfunctory one in the context of catching up with friends in the middle of the school day. Among the insights Jirka picked up from that visit to the school lunchroom: Understand how they socialize. Elementary school-age kids don't want pancakes served on a plate that require a knife and fork to eat. They prefer a portable package of pancake sticks they can dip in a small tub of syrup and munch on while they move about with friends.

"That was a real eye-opener for me, and I've been in kids' school nutrition programs for 25 years," Jirka told the conference.

Could other unexplored types of cause and effect be true in the home as well with regard to packaging? It's worth considering, if your job is marketing brands to kids and moms in retail channels. How can you package products in new ways that increase product usage occasions for youngsters?

If you're a brand manager or a design manager, it may be worth visiting with your channel managers down the hall to kick around ideas that break the rules. Armed with fresh insights, you just might think about your brand in a whole different dimension and unlock new possibilities for sales.

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First Steps for Generating Sustainable Packaging
Source: Shelf Impact - Jim George, Editor

For best results, let the improvements occur gradually over time.

Operating at the very front end of packaging development, brand marketers and designers are in the driver's seat in 2008 and beyond to strongly influence opportunities for creating packaging that positively impacts both purchase decisions and the environment. That's because much of the impact of materials is established during package design. But with all the confusion that exists around the very broad term "sustainable packaging," creative teams lagging behind the curve of the sustainability wave may be putting excessive pressure on themselves. They might be operating under the belief that they have to play catch-up with the early pioneers by quickly creating packages that renew resources, curb energy use—and oh yeah, stay "on brand."
Be forewarned, branding and package materials experts say. Such a breathless, first-take approach to marrying sustainability and design is not only likely to fail, but hasty packaging decisions also could have the opposite of their intended effect. If that's the case, how can product manufacturers make decisions with real environmental impact? And how can they weave sustainability as an effective component into their marketing strategies? John Bernardo suggests starting by taking incremental steps and building upon each success rather than striving for quantum leaps. He managed Albertson's resource conservation program for seven years before creating a consultancy called Sustainable Innovations.

A good first step is to establish a general working definition of sustainability. He recommends three areas as solid places to start incorporating a sustainability mind-set into package design: Improve materials sourcing, change the package size, and let consumers know what sustainability efforts are being made and why. "Designing for the environment is a journey," says John Delfausse, Chief Environmental Officer, Corporate Packaging, at Estйe Lauder and Vice President of Package Development for Aveda. "Don't think you're going to get there tomorrow or even the next day. Don't wait until you have the perfect sustainable solution. Just advance things little by little."

A logical place to begin on the materials sourcing journey is to state to vendors your intention to use a higher percentage of recycled content and less virgin material. Challenge suppliers to provide innovative solutions, and assess your company's risk tolerance to determine how much creative freedom designers will have, Delfausse says. In health and beauty aids, Aveda strives to design packages with materials that can be reused, recycled, or composted as it creates "eco-chic" consumer brands. Ashley Rosebrook, Aveda Executive Design Director, said in a presentation earlier this year with Delfausse at the Fuse: Brand Identity and Package Design conference that Aveda operates a dedicated sustainability team that balances end-of-life issues with brand value and the need to stay on budget.

The Aveda Lights the Way To Earth Month limited-edition candle provides a snapshot into this integrated design approach. The candle packaging uses an extensive amount of earth-friendly materials and maintains its elegance in the health and beauty aids aisle. The candle celebrates Earth Month, and each candle's aroma and formula come entirely from certified organic ingredients. Packaging materials also support environmental stewardship. The candle nested in a 95% post-consumer recycled (PCR) glass container. The carton was printed with soy ink on 55% PCR paper.

Besides looking at packaging materials, also make a case for changing the packaging size. Unilever offers validation that creative teams can balance consumer needs in a product category with a reduction in packaging materials, fuel, and energy. Unilever took a "big picture" approach when developing All Small & Mighty laundry detergent as an answer to consumer convenience. First, the company created a 3X concentrated formula. Then it introduced an HDPE spouted bottle that contains at least 25% PCR content and is recyclable. The new bottle is smaller, lighter, and easier to use than the giant bottles used for 1X concentrates, which devour shelf space in the laundry detergent aisle and at home. "In designing the bottle for All Small & Mighty, we took our answer to consumers a step further than just making a smaller product," says Helayna Minsk, Unilever's Marketing Director for Laundry Products.