Consumer concerns over freshness and sustainability inspire companies to stand up and lead.
FOOD: Cereal throws bag out of box
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| Target's choice of a resealable canister for its Archer Farms cereals not only increased product freshness, but offered strong shelf differentiation. |
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When
it comes to cereal, opening the box is the easy part. It’s opening the bag and
pouring the contents that can get both tricky and messy, ruining the breakfast
experience.
Seeing that this has been a decades-long
consumer frustration, Target responded with a custom solution. It partnered
with Fuseproject, a design firm, and Sonoco, for its Linearpak shaped rigid
paper canisters to streamline the complicated project of packaging Target’s
line of Archer Farms brand cereals.
Consumers rejoiced! Not
only has this change improved the bag-in-box design, but the Linearpak replaces
the two paperboard flaps with a peelable polyethylene-coated foil membrane top,
which increases tamper-evidence and freshness. The reclosable, snap-shut polypropylene
(PP) overcap helps dispensing and keeps the cereal fresh.
Target
benefitted with strong shelf differentiation from the container’s rounded sides
and flexo-printed labels. The canister also contains 55% recycled material with
50% post-consumer content.
Breakfast, anyone?
BEVERAGE: Reclosable soda can stores the suds
Keeping
a strong stance in the fizz biz, Coca-Cola introduced the reclosable can for
Burn, its French energy drink.
To fit the on-the-go appeal
of an energy drink, the company chose Ball’s resealable can end, which features
an integrated flat plastic opening mechanism. The end, which was a
collaboration between Ball Packaging Europe and Antonion Perra, director of
Netherlands-based Bound2B B.V., a Dutch subsidiary of 4Sight Innovation,
features a plastic opening mechanism that rotates to uncover the can opening
and rotates back to reseal. The tamper-evident plastic mechanism maintains
traditional look and stackability, and also doesn’t affect aluminum recycling
due to its small size.
It was a hit. A campaign posted
advertisements for it in the Paris Métro and buses around France, and it was
distributed in all French gas station chains and hypermarkets. Sales increased
50% versus non-resealable cans. Consumers even posted their own movies with the
cans on YouTube. It eventually won the top prize in the 2008 Cans of the Year
Awards.
Clearly, the five years Ball spent designing the can
end are paying off.
F&BP
WEB EXCLUSIVE
To see a video of the Coca-Cola Burn resealable can in action, check out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYdWX1H2gBk.
