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BACK TO PACKAGING OPPORTUNITIES MENU
Issue 2 Table of Contents:
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Early this year, beverage companies
began preparations to compete for this summer's share of stomach in the
grab-and-go beverage sector. If dairy processors want to position milk
as a competitive beverage, they too need to be thinking about how to get
consumers, who typically spend only a few seconds deciding what drink
to grab from the c-store cooler or the street vendor, to buy their product.
In order to effectively compete, the package must catch the buyer's eye.
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| Pepsi uses its total beverage
distribution system to stock retailers shelves and replenish vending
machines with new Dole’s shelf-stable single-serve juices. |
Realizing that not everyone's thirst
is quenched with a carbonated drink, Pepsi-Cola Co., Purchase, N.Y., rolls
out Dole single-serve juices. Labels clearly convey to consumers that
the bottle contains refreshing juice.
Pepsi describes the hot-fill, plastic
bottles as sleek, wide-mouth and cup-holder friendly. With the focus on
convenience, new Dole juices and drinks are heavily promoted for sale
through vending and impulse coolers. Outdoor advertising and in-store
merchandising materials invite consumers to "chug a fruit."
Offering a non-carbonated drink is
Pepsi's strategy, but for Mac Farms Inc., Burlington, Mass., adding a
bit of carbonation to milk is this company's approach to competing for
share of stomach. New e-Moo™ is a calcium-enriched, fat-free milk-based
beverage that's infused with a bit of carbonation. The product is positioned
as a healthful beverage, not as milk.
Norwalk, Conn.-based South Beach
Beverage Co., realized it wasn't reaching enough sports enthusiasts with
its famous SoBe glass bottles, so the company now offers the Sports System
line, which contains functional ingredients and is promoted as an "advanced
performance supplement."
This drink comes packaged in a squeezeable
polypropylene bottle decorated with an in-mold label. The bottle is topped
by a screw-on sports cap that can be removed for gulping. The consumer
can also pop the valve for a squeezable stream. The bottle fits most holders
on bikes and is reusable.
 Soy
drinks are also being made more convenient. White Wave Inc., Boulder,
Colo., is making its Silk® soymilk line available in single-serve
containers that closely resemble cows milk containers currently in the
marketplace. The full-body shrink sleeve enables the use of eye-catching
graphics, as well as billboard space to promote the benefits of soy.
For Odwalla Inc., Half Moon Bay,
Calif., it's important that all of its beverage packaging prominently
display the Odwalla brand name, which is an unusual, three-syllable word
that's easy to say and recall, as well as its cartoon-like pelican signature
character. This is especially true for its new OdwallaMilk™, because
the company wants consumers to know that even a milk-like product can
be fun.
OdwallaMilk is the first Odwalla
line to come in multi-serving quart and half-gallon jugs. Like the single-serve
bottles, these too portray the Odwalla personality. The stretch sleeve
labels render the jugs visually appealing so that the containers can be
put on the dinner table and kids will want a glass poured for them.
 Speaking
of serving containers, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola's Minute Maid Co., now
sells orange juice in a distinctive 1.75 liter polyethylene terephthalate
carafe. According to the company, the package for the new line, Simply
Orange™ not-from-concentrate, was carefully designed to evoke a fresh-squeezed
experience. The clear bottle is unlike any other in the premium chilled
orange juice category. The proprietary closure has vertical ribs around
its skirt and an enlarged top that makes it easy to grip.
A pressure-sensitive paper tear strip
extends from the top of the closure to the neck of the carafe. Peeling
this sticker off conveys to consumers the fresh-squeezed message. It's
like peeling the skin of an orange.
Beverage manufacturers go to great
efforts to package their product using a unique bottle shape, label and
even cap, in order to stand out from the competition.
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 Developing
innovative containers to help sell more milk is a trend around the world.
The United Kingdom's Express Dairies
sells refrigerated milkshakes--Shakey Jake--in uniquely designed containers
that kids love. It's targeted to kids under the age of eight, and is therefore
made with whole milk, real strawberry and banana juice, and real milk
chocolate. It is free of all artificial flavors and preservatives.
 The
uniquely shaped container is dressed up with a shrink sleeve that makes
it resemble a fun-loving, happy kid. The tamper-evident reclosable cap
resembles a boy's sporting hat.
Auckland, New Zealand-based New Zealand
Dairy Foods Ltd., recently redesigned its 1- and 2-liter milk jugs, giving
them a contemporary look that provides consumers with easy-to-use features.
These include a larger than normal handle, which makes it easier for consumers
to grasp and pour, as well as a tamper-evident ring that remains on the
bottle when the cap is removed. The cap uses a soft, neoprene liner for
a no-leak seal that is easier to open and remove.
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Turn-key ice cream marketing programs
are very successful for regional dairies that want to benefit from national
brands. It only makes sense that similar licensing programs, which include
package design, logo and graphics, would have great success in the fluid
milk business. Hence, the basis for Deja Moo™ milk.
 Deja
Moo is the brainchild of Jim Odney, owner of Enoch Schultz Creamery, Bismarck,
N.D., and president of Minneapolis-based American Dairy Corp., an innovative
sales and marketing company with the sole purpose to market dairy products
as national brands. Until now, this has never been done in the fluid milk
category.
A few years ago, Odney contracted
a design firm to develop a unique milk package and brand. It was important
that the name, structure and design help redefine milk as cool and contemporary.
The design and brand also had to be proprietary and marketable.
"Since it's still milk in the package,
our marketing efforts have to revolve around the package design and brand,"
Odney says. "Anything can be differentiated. Whether perceived or real,
branding adds value to any product by creating a desirable difference.
This either leads to increased sales, improved margins or both. However,
neither of these is likely if processors continue to treat milk as a commodity."
Odney explained to the design company
that the footprint, or base of the jug must be the same as a standard
milk jug. He also identified other key dimensions that must be consistent
with current packages in the marketplace. "This is so dairies do not need
to make any capital investment in order to manufacture and distribute
Deja Moo milk.
"When the design firm presented its
models, everything was great about the jug except that it was not a full
gallon or half gallon," Odney says. "But then the question was asked,
where does it say a milk jug must be 128 or 64 oz?
"Consumer focus groups loved the
package design and size," he adds. "Without making it an objective, the
design company managed to develop a package that solved many of the problems
consumers typically find with gallon jugs, such as being too heavy and
awkward to handle."
Designers accomplished this by reducing
volume at the top and in the shoulder of the jug, which also produced
the eye-catching horizontal and vertical curves that give Deja Moo a strong
shelf presence.
Retail sales confirm that the Deja
Moo package has consumers buying more milk. "In January, we introduced
Deja Moo milk to North Dakota retailers, replacing the old Schultz brand.
Sales increased 798% during the first two months of the year, as compared
to the same period last year," Odney says. "What's significant is that
our growth is not coming totally at the expense of the competition. Retailers
tell us we have significantly increased overall milk sales and our numbers
indicate we have achieved more than a 25% market share in stores within
our trade area."
The Deja Moo milk container comes
in three sizes: 1.5 and 3 liter jugs, which are priced 20% lower than
traditional gallon and half-gallon sizes, and a single-serve pint. These
smaller jug sizes are recognized by consumers as being fresher because
they get used up faster.
Schultz's success story is just one
of many to come. The Deja Moo turn-key program gives licensees access
to well-designed, high-quality packaging that is supported with a national
advertising program all at a fraction of the cost of a dairy producing
and placing ads on its own. This provides smaller creameries with the
opportunity to take advantage of national sales, marketing and distribution
in order to better leverage the Deja Moo brand.
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Bottled water continues to be the
fastest growing beverage category in the United States, according to New
York-based Beverage Marketing Corp.
 How
could a beverage that consumers can get for free with the turn of a faucet
be a $1.9 billion retail business, according to Information Resources
Inc., Chicago? The answer is packaging and convenience.
Take for example the eight-sided,
12-oz clear bottle used for Hawaii Water, which is sold by Menehune Water
Co., Aiea, Hawaii. The uniquely contoured container, along with transparent
stretch-sleeve label, enables this regional product to stand out from
the competition and better compete with national and global brands.
And now that bottled water is mainstream,
it is being segmented into premium and economy brands.
 Voss
Bottled Water, the Norwegian "ultra-premium natural artesian water that
awakens all your senses," according to the company, comes in a sleek,
crystal-clear glass bottle that is unlike any other on the marketplace.
There's even specialty water for
the active, health conscious consumer. New Reebok Fitness Water, an enhanced
water beverage featuring essential vitamins, minerals and electrolytes,
is now available through a joint venture between Vancouver, British Columbia-based
Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp. and Reebok International Ltd., Canton,
Mass.
 The
clear bottle, developed through extensive consumer research, features
a contoured, ribbed body for superior grip and handling. The package design,
which features a shrink film label and twice-embossed Reebok logo, provides
strong branding and compelling consumer communication to reinforce the
appeal to active, health conscious consumers.
This truly exemplifies the use of
packaging to differentiate a commodity from the competition. If water
can do it, so can milk.
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Move over drink boxes and soda cans,
milk is now lunchbox-friendly.
Parmalat USA, Wallington, N.Y., decided
the time was right to use its aseptic processing and packaging technology
to provide parents with an alternative to traditional shelf-stable beverages
that go into lunchboxes.
 The
company teamed up with Sesame Workshop/Columbia Tristar Television Distribution
to license the use of Dragon Tales and its logo on half-pint milk boxes.
For Parmalat, the success of this
line really depends on getting the message to parents that milk is a better
lunchbox beverage than a juice box. The company also has to price the
product competitively through the use of multi-packs.
"Right now we are selling them in
three-packs, just like juice boxes, and right next to them at the grocery
store," says Matt Petronio, v.p. and g.m. of marketing and business development.
"We are looking at larger multi-packs for club stores.
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Delkor Systems Inc.
763-783-0855
Eco Pak Products Inc.
800/641-3251
Gilbreth Packaging Systems
800/758-5888
Industrial Paper & Packaging
Inc.
608/836-7181
ITW MIMA
954/724-7788
Paktech/OPI
541/461-5000
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Roberts PolyPro Inc.
704/588-3265
Seal-It Inc.
800/325-3965
SMI USA LLC
860/688-9966
Sonoco Flexible Packaging
843/383-3335
Stanpac Inc.
905/957-3326
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American Dairy Corp./
Deja Moo
612/339-7195 x210
Creative Edge Design Group
330/477-6184
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Wencel/Hess
312/255-1511
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The School of Packaging
Michigan State University
517/355-4555
Dairy Management Inc.
0255 W. Higgins Road
Rosemont, Ill. 60018
800/248-8829
www.extraordinarydairy.com
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