Markets: Knives out for bulky packs

Pots and pans are such robust items, it is hard to imagine that they would need packaging. In fact, they, and the vast array of kitchenware items, require packaging to protect both the product and, in the case of items such as knives, people. Typically the sector has been dominated by corrugated boxes, emblazoned with dated photographs of products, but moves towards lightweighting and minimal packaging by brands such as Lakeland and Ikea have started to shake up the sector.

Kitchenware retailer Lakeland launched its Tri-Ply saucepan range in triangular boxes in July. The company’s design agency Nicepond created the space-saving design, which also afforded increased strength due to the triangular corners.

Like many other brands in the sector, Lakeland is an ardent supporter of the use of photography to illustrate the products on its packs, but uses modern, clean images instead of the more traditional shots associated with kitchenware. “We do not use illustration,” says buying director Matthew Canwell. “We believe a great photo can communicate effectively how the product is used. The more explanation needed, the more packaging and point-of-sale is required.”

Taking a different approach is Swedish homeware superbrand Ikea. Following in the footsteps of smaller kitchenware boutiques, Ikea displays samples across the store so customers can see exactly what they are buying. It, therefore, avoids the problem of half-opened boxes and does away with the need for elaborate on-pack artwork, as, it says, this does not influence the consumer’s decision.

“Ideally we need to recognise how people shop and provide for that,” says Factory Design director Adam White, who previously worked on product design for high-end cookware brand Le Creuset. “If you are buying kitchenware, this tends to be something you are going to handle. If it’s a whisk or a pan, you want to hold it and feel the quality.”

Outside the box
Lakeland’s Canwell agrees: “If you hide something in a box, you are putting a barrier in place. I think people feel somewhat inhibited in taking things out of the boxes.” Retail space, therefore, is a major consideration. Larger stores may often lack the inclination to place samples on display, while smaller shops are often limited by space.

Simon Griffiths and Tracy Kynock established independent cookshop Whisk in Chiswick, London in 2004. They took the decision to display goods out of their packaging where possible. “We do not want to look like a department store,” says Griffiths of the store’s approach to merchandising. “Instead, we want customers to interact with the products and ask questions. All the original packaging is kept.”

Customers have responded well to the store’s approach and some even go so far as to refuse the packaging when it is offered at the checkout. “Often we’ll be asked to remove packaging on products such as pots and pans,” says Griffiths. In some instances, products are even delivered to the store without individual packaging – for example the store stocks ceramics from Columbia that are delivered wrapped in newspaper.

Packaging, therefore plays a somewhat limited role in the sale of Whisk’s products. Unlike a department store, where customers often want to make a quick purchase, packaging has become secondary for Whisk and photography and imagery are not required for consumers to quickly identify a product on shelf.

Brand recognition
Pearlfisher took the decision to use illustration rather than phography for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s new JME kitchenware range (see box). JME is sold in Oliver’s Recipease stores in Battersea, south London and Brighton, online and through catalogues. Recognition of Oliver’s name plays a big role in the branding of the new range, which could go some way to explaining the decision not to use photography on the brand’s packaging.

Pearlfisher’s realisation director Darren Foley believes it takes a strong brand to take this approach. “It would take a very brave brand team to create packaging without photos on it, but maybe that’s what the sector needs, to break conventions and go on to be a big hit.”

Buying online, argues Foley, often means the consumer has to place blind faith in the quality of the brand, as opposed to making a decision based on being able to see and feel the product. “As long as the brand delivers reassurance, are people buying less inclined to touch the product? I would suggest that they are,” he says.

Pyrex has been a well-loved brand for nearly a century. Consumers have confidence in the product and, therefore, the packaging, of the glass cookware brand. Instead of using a box with maximum space for information and imagery to package the product, the brand uses corrugated wraparounds that allow the product to be seen, and safely stacked, in store.

Pyrex’s new Ceramics Wave range launched in September in a corrugated wraparound that uses 20% less material than the packaging used for its predecessor the Classic range. “Because the products are stacked, if there isn’t an insert between them, they can potentially get stuck together and break as ceramics are quite brittle,” says Pyrex marketing manager Frannie Santos-Mawdsley. “The new packaging carries more information
and serves as protection for the product, using less material.”

Nicepond adopted a similar approach for the packaging of Lakeland’s microwaveable saucepan, which uses a wraparound pack to allow the majority of the product to be exposed for the customer to pick up and handle. Lakeland was almost trying to make packaging part of the product in this case, according to Canwell. “Rather than having everything in the box, we are having something where the product is prominent.”

As has become clear, the outlet for your kitchenware product determines the type of packaging required. Products sold in an independent cookshop can benefit from room to display the product and sate consumers’ desire to pick up and hold a product before buying. Whereas products destined for the department store must withstand the rigours of the supply chain and be easily identifiable on a shelf.

Scope for innovation is in playing with the dimensions of the pack, as seen with Lakeland’s Tri-Ply boxes. The trend towards incorporating the product into the pack design also looks set to continue. Whether brands will ever be brave enough to trade on their equity as opposed to photography is a moot point, but it is clear there are brands out there that are pushing the boundaries of what some have traditionally regarded as a stuffy sector.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

JME
Pearlfisher’s leftfield approach to kitchenware packaging scooped it the only gold to be awarded to a UK agency for packaging design at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The agency was behind the packaging for Jamie Oliver’s range of kitchenware and ingredients, JME.

“It was very much a stand-alone brand inspired by how Jamie conducts himself,” says Darren Foley, Pearlfisher’s realisation director, who worked on the creative team behind the range of 190 SKUs.

Pearlfisher designed a logo to base the JME brand around, and a psychedelic colour palette was chosen for the packs, which feature illustrations as opposed to the photography so typical of the sector.

The products were broken down into 22 ranges, which were manufactured across more than 10 territories, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and China. Organising such a wide range of suppliers posed one of the biggest challenges for Pearlfisher. “There are quite different quality standards around the world and quite often we weren’t even able to do any proofing,” says Foley.

Oliver’s JME range is sold in his Recipease cookery shops in south London and Brighton, and on the internet. The shop was the culmination of his most recent campaign to spread a love of home cooking across the UK, ‘Pass It On’ is where he taught a group a recipe and then asked them to teach it to two others and so on.  

Lakeland
The idea of packing a saucepan in a triangular box seems like such a simple idea, it is surprising no one thought of it sooner. Lake Windemere-based design agency Nicepond was behind the concept, which placed Lakeland’s new Tri-Ply saucepan range in minimalist triangular boxes.

The boxes use less board than the standard square variety, are stronger and make better use of space during transport and merchandising.

Unlike the JME range, the images used on Lakeland’s Tri-Ply boxes focus on pictures of the pans and a cooking hob. Photography is central to the retailer’s kitchenware packaging to show the consumer what the product is and how it works. “We can get a lot of information into a photograph,” says Lakeland buying director Matthew Canwell.

Lakeland products are sold across a variety of platforms, including the internet, catalogues and in stores. They include pots and pans through to poached egg pods. “We are always looking for better ways of doing things in everything that we do,” says Canwell. “When we sat down and thought about having triangle-shaped boxes it was just so logical.”

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