In the race to be innovative have some new packaging launches delivered ‘weird’ but failed to deliver a solution? Some recent designs might have great shelf impact, and generate column inches, but are they responding to a consumer need, and if so are they actually providing a fix?
Beverage packaging is pretty consolidated. Globally 64% of retail alcoholic drinks packaging is accounted for by glass bottles. In soft drinks 51% of global retail packaging is PET bottles, a share that will grow at the expense of the beverage can. There’s a reason why these pack types dominates the category. The PET bottle offers a solution to those who don’t drink all of the product – a recloseable lid. Simple.
So why mess with this simple formula? You might have a unique product and want shelf impact, a problem that iO energy drink recently solved with a unique cube shaped pack. I think it looks great. It’ll have shelf impact and I’ll certainly buy one when I see it.
But will the shape stop all the contents from easily being decanted? Can you actually drink from a cube? How comfortable with that be in the hand when drinking? Is the sacrifice of practicality worth the benefit of being clearly unique?
Then Tango launch their aerosol drink. Now this does look fun, and again I’m itching to give it a try. But what problem is it solving? Well perhaps you need to be a teenager to understand. And all of a sudden I feel very old.
Dr Benjamin Punchard is head of packaging research at Euromonitor International.
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