DayGlo Color Corp. plans to gain a more vivid presence with its packaging customers by launching a new brand action team that plans to bring specialty color into the early development discussion. 

The Cleveland-based company has created a new branding group –featuring a cross-section of DayGlo professionals from different departments–that will offer a stronger and more direct presence with package designers, brand managers, and converters during all stages from package iteration to production.

The company also has revamped its Web site, www.DayGlo.com, to offer an interactive design center to engage package designers. Relaunched June 28, the site features multiple iterations of its color palette, showcasing such options as fluorescents or phosphorescent, glow-in-the-dark effects. The site includes the manipulation of colors against a three-dimensional object and allows manual rotation and views against either a white or black background.

The new campaign centers on DayGlo’s message, “Color, Only Better.” The goal is to make the crafting of specialty colors and effects a key factor in package development, while building awareness of how color affects package shelf appeal and differentiation, says Kevin Sonby, DayGlo vp of marketing, in an interview at DayGlo headquarters.

“This is more than just introducing such areas as fluorescent and pearlescent colors to packaging,” Sonby says. “This is a way to refresh the brand through the use of color choices.”

The company’s packaging “palette” could also be expanding soon. DayGlo is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to use more of its colors in food and cosmetics packaging, said Wayne Likavec, DayGlo product development and quality control manager. The FDA is expected to respond within the next few months, after DayGlo provided evidence that its colors would not infiltrate package contents.

In a tour of DayGlo’s color lab, the company showed off its chemical analysis tools that have allowed it to extensively test fluorescent and other specialty additives for use in packaging.

The lab has the ability to test outside samples from customers for use in specific packages and applications, a role that its brand action team will help facilitate.

In general, the company believes that next-generation packaging can be improved by an expansion of color choices that help advertise the brand, Sonby said. Those include Gem-Tone, FDA-approved polymeric colorants for clarified polypropylene that can be combined to create a broad spectrum of choices.