IDY Creative - Branding, Package Design and 3D Viz

Kraft’s decision to omit the word “diet” in its South Beach Diet brand name and replace it with South Beach Living will probably turn out to be an excellent marketing move, revealed Strategic Name Development.
The South Beach brand name is well entrenched - it is not only a food line, but a vending machine name and a diet bar.

Other brands also opt to omit the word “diet” in their product names as well. Take Coke Zero, for example. This brand is flourishing partly because it’s gender neutral and doesn’t describe itself as “diet.”

According to the Diet Blog, the word diet often connotes to consumers bad tasting food aimed at an older demographic as well as, incredibly, “failure.”

I’d rather talk about “living” than “dieting” any day of the week. Good move, Kraft.

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Welch’s, Concord, MA, has launched six varieties of its 100% juice in a custom, 14-oz PowerFlex™ PET bottle from Amcor PET Packaging (www.amcor.com). The proprietary design is Welch’s first panel-less, shelf-stable bottle and represents the first commercial use of a custom PowerFlex container, revealed an article in Packworld.com

The new package has a gently contoured and ergonomic shape and uses a full-body shrink label with colorful graphics that make the fruit images appear ready to pluck. “We were looking for a bottle that was upscale and would attract more consumers to the premium, 100% juice line,” explains Welch’s senior engineer Stratos Dimas. “It had to be very smooth with no bumps so that it could accommodate a full-body label. It also had to be hot-fillable, attractive, and easy to hold.”

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An article in Design week reveals that a milk container made from a type of pulp found in egg cartons has won the best packaging design category at the second Green Awards, held at the Guildhall, London EC2, last Friday.

The Green Awards were set up last year with the aim of rewarding businesses for communicating sustainability in a creative and original way.

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“Manifesting brand essence through packaging is powerful at retail,” declares Ron Pence, Pepsi Senior Marketing Manager for packaging innovation, in a Shelf Impact’s article. The Pepsi brand reflects youth and vitality, and those virtues shine through on its new 20-oz bottle for the U.S. market.

Working with 4sight, a structural packaging innovation firm, Pepsi created the new bottle as a cornerstone of its “Choreography” branding program.

The bottle design helps the brand remain relevant with teens and young adults by integrating the equity in the Pepsi logo and delivering greater visual impact in stores.

The new design extends the branding beyond the label by adding the Pepsi globe and name onto the bottle. Lines of the iconic Pepsi globe logo are expressed as horizontal waves, and waves above and below the label uncoil from top to bottom, giving the bottle more visual definition when exposed to light on store shelves.

“Wherever you look, there is branding in all directions,” says Stuart Leslie, 4sight President. “No matter which way the bottle faces, consumers will see two Pepsi globes embossed on top, above the label, and the Pepsi name prominently displayed in two areas at the bottom.”

The PET bottles are sourced through multiple suppliers.

The new design balances creativity and function, Pence notes. Marketers at Pepsi get a bottle that reinforces the brand’s image and position in the soft drink industry. The bottle also succeeds from an operations perspective. It withstands carbonation pressure, design elements in filled bottles retain their shape and sharpness over time, and the bottles adhere to Pepsi’s existing manufacturing standards.

I’m going to create a packaging design “Hall of Fame“, and post my favorite examples. There will be rules set up - no entries prior to 1950 or so… I’ll get back to you on this. Don’t confuse ours with the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute’s, or anyone else’s HOF. Maybe we’ll call it IDY Creative’s Packaging Design All-Stars or something.
I’d love to get everyone’s feedback and submissions.

Of course, if a packaging design Hall of Fame exists out there on the web, please tell me.

What do you think?

IDY recently completed its rebrand of the popular Blow Off, Stick It and Lube Job cleaners, adhesives and lubricants.

A.V.W., Inc., an aerosol product manufacturer and marketing company, realized it was the end of the road for its current line up.

They contracted IDY to redesign its entire line of products under one brand. Max Professional puts a professional face on industrial products that look the part and get the job done.

The rebrand was needed for a serious bid to get the products into The Home Depot, Ace Hardware and other large retailers. These heavy hitters didn’t take A.V.W.’s earlier efforts seriously, in one case literally laughing at the cartoon characters and risque brand names.

The marketing firm hopes the new brand will make it to shelves within the year. Stay tuned.

An article in this month’s Prepared Foods Magazine reveals that Americans are buying more health and weight-loss foods than ever. Of the 10 top-selling new foods or beverages in 2005, six are positioned for weight-loss, in one form or another. A study by Information Resources Inc. reveals that Kraft’s South Beach product line lead the pack.

Read more of the article here.

A.V.W., Inc., makers of Blow Off Duster, Lube Job Lubricants and other gems, is getting serious with their packaging. Their customers have expressed a desire for more industrial and less “cartoony” products. It’s a smart move. As was their decision to retain Is It Done Yet for the job. Seems that large retailers also want the toned-down labels.

For years, the Blow Off Duster line has built a reputation among office supply stores and computer/gaming stores for high performance at a reasonable cost. But the funny names and cartoon graphics lessen credibility among larger retailers like WalMart.

Expect to see the new-look cans on shelves later this year.

Seems like there’s no real estate left untapped: Procter & Gamble have extended the label of its Tide bottle to the twist-off cap, thus increasing brand awareness. The new cap shrink sleeves advertise Febreze fabric softener inside, and can withstand the rigors of handling by stock personnel and consumers.

See the full story at Packaging World Magazine.

Alright, it’s getting a little out of hand! This is among our latest package designs for Performance Brands - The Fiesta Sun Country Line. Yee Haw, Cruel Hearted, Redneck Woman, Blue Jean Girl, and my personal favorite, Git ‘R Done!

These products wowed ‘em at the 2005 ITA Tanning World Expo, helping keep PBI at the top of the tanning industry. Many hours of research and development went into these label designs, each of which captures the true spirit of rednecks across the fruited plain.
Don’t leave the trailer park without yer Yee Haw!