Packaging Thatspeaks To ‘Me’!

AGE

Tweens got the green
What was once a marketer’s witty play on words is now one of the most influential and powerful buying groups in the retail world. Tweens, defined as boys or girls between the ages of 8 and 12, affect the spending of billions of dollars each year.

According to 360 Youth, a marketing and media conglomerate dedicated to the kid, teen and tween markets, tweens spend roughly $51 billion each year (collected from gifts, allowance and other income) and influence some $170 billion spent on them.

“Kids are becoming more independent and the dynamics of the household have changed,” says Bill Goodwin, president of Goodwin Design Group, a strategy and design firm specializing in youth brands. “It started out just that kids had the most purchasing power at that stage, but now tweens are kingpins,” Goodwin says.

They’re also engulfed in a consumer culture that recently began demanding product customization. Increased interest in beauty products at younger ages in the past five years has also introduced a new market segment that mainstream companies are dying to hit.

Packaging is a big differentiator between products for teens and adults and those aimed at tweens. Lip gloss comes in a plastic mock cell phone. Bright eye shadows and shimmer powders come in multi-compartment packages that double as purses.

“Girls fully expect products that are ‘for them,’” Goodwin says. “Making the same product different in packaging is one of the easiest things to do.”

But customization is only part of the “packaging” package. The tween market is also looking for something marketing departments spend months trying to define—the “cool” factor. While the endless packaging possibilities this presents is overwhelming, it does mean that package designers can experiment with materials and labels.

“I think that any shape, material or closure can work,” says Mona Doyle, president of The Consumer Network. “Unless a particular package or package type becomes really cool, you have to stay tuned in to see what their next cool colors and shapes will be.”

A key to hitting that “it” factor recently has been portability. Tweens prefer products they can throw in their pockets or backpacks to show off to friends. Another advantage is changing packaging often, even if it’s just a different graphic on the label. This creates a constant “need” and “new” factor.

“The people who are hitting them successfully are updating all the time,” Goodwin says. “You should be updating your packaging as rapidly as possible, within a period of months.”

While tweens are asserting more buying power, certain limitations of their age still affect their purchasing decisions. This audience lives a dual life, Goodwin says, showing one veneer at school and around friends, and another at home.

“Parents, grandparents, schools and perhaps marketers swing back and forth between empowering kids to achieve and doing their best to keep them kids,” Doyle says. “Tweens follow the same pendulum. They want to be kids and sophisticated at the same time.”

If package research and design departments are not addressing the senior population, they’re missing out on billions of revenue dollars.

According to a recent report from Information Resources Inc., the Baby Boomer group represents some 78 million people—one of the largest buying groups in America—and some $46 billion in sales. Aging Baby Boomers will become one of the biggest senior citizen markets the United States has ever seen. Smart manufacturers are catering to them; others are missing the mark.

“There’s still too much emphasis on the 18 to 49,” Doyle says. “The over-50 population is growing so much faster, but the marketers are so young. It’s hard for them to see the world through those older eyes.”

The growing senior population doesn’t think old; they think young. But there are realities such as diminishing eyesight that packaging needs to address.

“People are living longer and other issues are being treated and addressed, but there’s still a huge problem with ocular degeneration,” Doyle says. “The issue of visibility, or product identification, is one of the primary roles of the package, or at least it should be.”

According to Doyle, one shopper recently gave an anecdote highlighting this problem. A woman in her 70s purchased a can of chili and put it in her cupboard next to cans of dog food. Also in his 70s, her husband, unable to identify the difference, ate the can of dog food thinking it was chili.

“It’s terrible for people with any kind of visual impairment,” Doyle says. “The only thing that communicated dog food on that can was that it was sold in the pet food aisle.”

Contrary to some reports, brand identification still seems to be important to the Baby Boomer market, if only as a shortcut to sift through new products and confusing package terminology. Label requirements, especially for over-the-counter medicines, also make product identification more difficult—but it’s the job of package design departments to accurately label products with clear branding.

Still, certain package characteristics cater to this audience. Ergonomic design and easy-open closures help those with decreasing hand strength, and larger print on labels inherently invites the older audience in—all without alienating non-senior consumers. Reverse thinking doesn’t work as well, though. According to Doyle, while bright colors and punchy graphics cater to kids, seniors hate them. Rather than making the package more attractive, it makes it more difficult to read.

“Anything printed on a color background drives people crazy,” Doyle says. “Even if ingredients are white on a red background, that’s a symbol for the older market that they don’t want people to be able to see it.”

Just because they’re getting older doesn’t mean seniors want to be reminded of it in their packaging. If 40 is the new 20 and 60 is the new 40, then those feelings should be reflected in graphics, in a headshot on a hair color product, for example.

“The 22-year-old size 1 is not what they’re looking for,” Doyle says. “But everyone wants to feel younger. Now they want to identify with people who are 20 years younger.”

Women vs. Men
Liberated or not, women still make the majority of the purchase decisions, especially for a household. By 2010, women are expected to control 60% of U.S. private wealth. Whether or not women are the intended users, they are the prime audience packages must attract. But just because females are the purchasers doesn’t mean the packaging has to be “feminine.”

According to Linda Carroll, a color insight manager with Ampacet Corp. who analyzes color trends, colors are moving to a state of androgyny. Green and blue hues appeal to both markets, and pink is popping up in male wardrobes.

Women look to packaging for a distinct point of difference to help them make their purchasing decisions. Today’s woman, whether she’s a stay-at-home mom or a corporate climber, is always on the go, and ease-of-use package designs symbolize to her that this product will make her life easier.

Customization is also key in getting repeat purchases from women. This year, Unilever launched the Dove Advanced Care product line featuring 13 separate products that meet the exact needs of women with lightened, darkened or damaged hair. The packaging displays the functionality of each product and uses color to distinguish between the three product categories.

Just as colors are crossing the gender divide, so are products typically targeted to women, such as hair care products and body lotions. O’Keeffe’s Co., for example, changed the packaging for its hand and foot creams to appeal to men. The product is housed in a lime green polypropylene tub reminiscent of a car wax container. The lesson here? If you’re trying to market a new product to men, incorporate packaging familiar to them in shape and feel to ease the transition.

According to Dana Dratch in a September 2005 article for Brand Packaging, the way to get a man’s attention is to combine action and visuals. Keeping graphics and text simple, smart and sexy, with a dose of humor, is the way into a man’s pocketbook. Images that evoke freedom and success combined with powerful colors also usually present an appealing package.

Dratch also says that while women prefer explanations of product benefits, men prefer packages that get to the point with concise and catchy text.

“Some of the more popular color choices for men include brights like red, orange, blue and yellow, and basics like black, white and silver,” she says. “Some companies also like neutrals and earth tones—shades of beige, forest green and brown.”

Ergonomics matter here, too. Product designers should consider how a package literally fits in a man’s hand.

For women, time is of the essence, especially when it comes to purchase decisions. According to JoAnn Hines, chief people packager for Women in Packaging, women respond most to products that are easy to read and use and are time-sensitive. In the September 2006 “Wooing Women with Packaging” entry of her “Packaging News you can use” blog, Hines says, “the most highly rated characteristics that both groups agreed on were convenience, ease of storage, and female-friendly elements such as the size of the package and handles for carrying.” ETHNICITY

Hyping the Hispanic market
According to the 2006 Minority Buying Power Report released by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanic buying power is expected to exceed $863 billion in 2007. Hispanics are also expected to control more disposable personal income than any other U.S. minority group this year.

One of the most important advantages a company (and its packaging team) can have is knowing its target market. Unfortunately, most companies trying to target the Hispanic market have missed the mark.

The U.S. Hispanic population consists of the cultures of multiple countries whose only overlying similarity is the Spanish language—and even that varies depending on the country.

According to Laura Sonderup, director of Heinrich Hispanidad, in a Feb. 22, 2007, post on Juan Tornoe’s Hispanic Trending Blog, the market consists of 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Spain, with the majority of Mexican heritage. (Juan Tornoe’s blog is a great resource for following Hispanic trends and marketing. Read the latest entry at  “Name has nothing to do with it. Skin color and hair color have nothing to do with it,” says Coni Lefferts, president of Creative Packaging Solutions and its Soluciones Creadores de Envase division. “Each country has its own interest and preferences, and it all depends on the acculturation of each.”

According to Lefferts, creating successful packaging requires tailoring them to each sub-population and then distributing them geographically. On the West Coast, for example, the Mexican population is the most predominant. In southern Florida, it’s Cuban and Columbian, and in New York, it’s Puerto Rican and Dominican. While this might seem like a headache of overwhelming stock-keeping units, the challenges of running smaller batches will be rewarded with successful sales and repeat purchases.

Goya, a family-run food company that offers Spanish, Mexican and Hispanic specialties, successfully breaks down its product offerings by geographic region. On the Goya eStore web page, products are organized by Mexican, Caribbean, Central American and South American subcategories—each with a symbol that represents the respective cultures. Most all packages are bilingual, and if the product is produced in Mexico, the label proudly displays a Mexican flag with the “Producto de México” text.

Companies should also study how the Hispanic population shops. It is still very much a matriarchal society, with the grandmothers and mothers making the majority of the purchase decisions. Hispanics are seldom impulse shoppers, instead buying exactly what is needed.

“They go shopping every week, so they don’t need extended shelf life,” Lefferts says. “In most cases, they have a limited pantry area in their homes, so they’re not going to buy in bulk or large packages.”

Hispanics are also price-conscious, Lefferts says, so one of the best places to connect with them is in discount stores. The Publix supermarket chain, most prevalent in Florida, has recently started a Sabor (Spanish for flavor) chain. Dedicated to the Hispanic market, the chain offers a larger variety of Caribbean, and Central and South American products. All Sabor ads and product information are in English and Spanish.

As far as package characteristics go, the brighter the colors, the better—particularly citrus colors. According to Carroll with Ampacet, warm, vibrant reds and oranges promote a sense of independence and cultural heritage for the Hispanic market.

Graphics that link to Hispanic heritage can be a bond with the consumer. “Being Hispanic is a matter of pride,” Lefferts says.

Bilingual packages are also a necessity to capture the market. But above all, make sure the translation is correct, Tornoe says, even if it’s a matter of spending a few extra dollars to pass the package by a professional translator.

Also, make sure you’re aware of all possible meanings. When Hershey’s developed a package for the Hispanic market, they labeled it “chocolate blanco con cajeta.” In Mexico, cajeta means a caramelized milk used in desserts. But in other Hispanic cultures, the word refers to female anatomy. Oops.

Correctly translated bilingual text isn’t the end of it. “If you have that, and there’s a 1-800 number to call, you have to be able to deal with those calls in Spanish,” Tornoe says. “It’s not only putting the label on and hoping for the best. You have to walk the walk afterward.”

The right package make-up can only get you so far. Continuing stereotypes is also a way to turn off the Hispanic market, not attract them.

“Just translating into Spanish and putting on a sombrero is not marketing,” Tornoe says. “It’s about understanding the culture and the small idiosyncrasies.”

Some previous attempts at capturing the market have been successful, while others have failed. In 2004, Palmera Wines debuted a line called Vinos de Pasión (Wines of Passion) that featured stereotypic label graphics representing Latino culture, heritage and diversity. The wines didn’t last past a few toasts. Companies need to think about whether or not developing a separate product and packaging for the Hispanic market makes sense, Tornoe says.

“You’re not going to create an Hispanic toothpaste, but just recognize that there’s a need for the product information in our language of choice,” he says. “With the wine, it doesn’t need to be Hispanic. It needs to be a good wine. Just make the label bilingual.”

Ravinia Partners introduced AguaBlue in standard plastic bottles with a label featuring the flags of all Latin American countries and the U.S. flag. The product was a hit. Customers connected with their flags and have been buying the water ever since.

For a look at prominent packaging in Mexico, also read this month's Consumer Corner column, “Observations from South of the Border.”  

 

by Megan Waitkoff