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When Health and Beauty Merge |
| Author : TOM Date : 12/4/2013 9:34:33 PM |
Euromonitor International has been observing a trend: the increasing connection between health and beauty. The market research company’s July 2013 report, Beauty and Personal Care in the U.S., says that beauty product manufacturers can reach new consumer groups by focusing on health—because there is a greater demand for “healthy beauty” products. “To capitalize on the trend, one thing beauty companies can do is use more ingredients that are associated with food,” says Tim Barrett, U.S. analyst, Euromonitor International.
This trend is being fueled by the demand for health and wellness food products, which has risen by 13% from 2007 through 2012—representing an increase in retail sales of $18.4 billion, according to the market researcher.
Many bath and body brands are using natural and food-inspired ingredients, and many products are also delivering aromatherapy benefits. Some brands are choosing packaging that will protect the product’s ingredients from light, while others are creating unique bottle shapes. Being “green” is important as well, as suppliers are delivering many packaging options made with sustainable materials.
The health-conscious beauty trend is being fueled in part by eco-conscious consumers, according to Euromonitor’s report. So the same consumers who seek healthier products are also enticed by brands that use sustainable packaging. But “green” doesn’t mean plain brown packaging anymore.
Another suggestion for brands in Euromonitor’s report is: “To differentiate their products from the rest of the faces in the crowd, beauty and personal care companies will need to make their assertions clear and simple.”
Dessert Essence’s eco-friendly tube is decorated with a realistic photo of an apple, which Viva Healthcare produces using its in-mold labeling process. |
Dessert Essence and Balanced Guru are two brands doing this, and they’re also using eco-friendly packaging with a design that clearly conveys information about ingredients. Dessert Essence’s tubes that contain its Green Apple & Ginger Body Wash, Shampoo and Conditioner feature photos of bright, crisp apples. Balanced Guru’s packaging looks more traditionally “natural,” but bright pops of color and a concise label design help to clearly convey the benefits of the essential oils in its products.
Dessert Essence’s tubes are produced and decorated in the same plant by Viva Healthcare— and they’re “green” in more ways than just the decoration. The tube is injection molded, with an in-mold label. The tube is polypropylene (PP) and the label is cast polypropylene (CPP).
When tubes are made with multiple resins, which is typical, it presents a challenge for recycling—but Viva’s tubes are 100% PP. “Our efficient one-piece injection molding process reduces the number of steps and minimizes waste—and, the caps are manufactured in-house, which eliminates the need to transport them from another location. Our tubes save 25 to 35% emissions compared to other technologies, as per a Life Cycle Analysis performed by a third party company,” explains Bruno Lebeault, marketing director North America for Viva Healthcare Packaging.
Viva’s proprietary in-mold labeling process allows images to cover 100% of a tube, with quality that is nearly photographic. “We can extend the decoration from a tube’s crimp to the top of the cap,” says Lebault. “We can also do metallic effects, to create products that really shine with a 3D effect. These really capture the consumer’s attention, which is what all brands want to do,” he adds.
Balanced Guru is a ‘natural’ line with colorful labels that help convey product benefits. The brand’s jars are supplied by Alpha Packaging. |
Balanced Guru is thoroughly embracing the health and wellness trend—and Juan Pinto, a member of the brand’s group of co-founders, says he prefers to call it a wellness company, not beauty. The brand’s USDA-certified products incorporate essential oils for aromatherapy benefits.
Balanced Guru’s packaging is made with sustainable materials. Dark amber plastic bottles and jars are used to protect its essential oils.
“Packaging is a necessary evil,” says Pinto. “We need it, and yet we need to minimize it…we haven’t achieved all of the goals we set for ourselves in terms of packaging, but we are getting there,” he explains. Paola Pinto, graphic designer and president of Balanced Guru, designed all of the packaging.
Alpha Packaging supplies most of Balanced Guru’s plastic bottles and jars, which are made from post-consumer resin (PCR) PET.
“As a startup company, we didn’t want to invest in custom-made molds, and the material itself was more important than the bottle shape, so we decided to go with stock molds and invest in the PCR component,” says Pinto.
The cartons are made with 100% recycled paper. “Our folding boxes were also a stock solution that we were able to customize with the help of a local silkscreen printer. Our box sleeves are made of 75% recycled paper material, but we are going to be switching to the same material as our primary packaging labels, Earthfirst PLA. It’s a biodegradable material that has a very similar look, feel and resistance to traditional plastic materials,” Pinto explains.
Balanced Guru’s labels were designed to convey product benefits, by using color coding.
“The labels had to be a good blend of eye-catching graphics, with a lot of detailed information on how our products work—and all of the ingredients that we are proud of. Since our ingredient list basically reads like a food recipe, we had a hard time deciding which ingredients to actually highlight,” explains Pinto.
The Body Deli uses round amber plastic bottles to protect its ingredients. |
The Body Deli is another body care brand that that has always used food and “wellness” as its inspiration—most of its products even need to be refrigerated. Now, the brand has just repackaged its entire line.
“We were using green plastic bullet-shaped bottles. We had the same look for so long, it was time for a change,” says David Parker, co-founder, Body Deli. Its new bottle shape is similar to its old look, but more tapered. Dark amber-colored plastic protects the fresh ingredients used in the formulations. (See BeautyPackaging.com for a “before” and “after” story about Body Deli’s new look.)
Like Body Deli, other bath and body brands are choosing traditional style bottles, according to John Staats, director of product management, Berry Plastics. “Our mid-tier to smaller customers are choosing cylinder rounds, bullets, ovals, and Boston rounds. These bottles then are often decorated with high-end graphics, especially for products that are in a high-end, niche category. Or, a more simplistic look is very popular as well, especially for organic brands.”
Mark Egan, vice president of global sales and marketing at Colt’s Plastics, says he has been seeing jars in different geometries being used. “Brands are going for more tapered looks for jars, and some are heavy-walled to mimic glass.”
Chuck Mitchell, vice president of sales, Colt’s, adds: “Our low-profile jars have been popular, as well as larger sizes, up to 10ml.”
Staats, of Berry Plastics, says that bottles in custom shapes are more popular among its larger customers, especially brands that sell in mass-market stores. “A custom bottle can help a brand to attract attention, especially in a store where there seems to be an endless amount of competition for similar products,” he explains.
EOS’ Cucumber Hand Lotion comes in a travel-friendly size squeeze bottle that has an organic, pebble shape. |
EOS—Evolution of Smooth—is a brand that uses unique, custom bottles for its shaving cream collection and body care line, but they weren’t designed to attract attention, according to Alliah Agostini, brand manager, EOS.
The bottles are also ergonomically shaped, with different types of pebble-shaped indentations on each bottle. Plus, all have soft-touch finishes. The indentations make it easy to pick up the bottles to use the product—especially when your hands are wet.
“We didn’t strive to be different…our focus was to build a bottle that incorporated elements that we thought were important to the consumer—how it looked, how it felt in her hand, and how the product was dispensed,” explains Agostini. “While some brands believe that it is necessary to sell the product on shelf, we believe that the consumer makes a decision on re-purchase every time she looks at the package or uses the product. For that reason, the packaging needs to delight the consumer, regardless of the selling channel,” she says.
EOS’ shave cream is sold primarily in retailers such as Target, Walmart, Walgreens, and Rite Aid; its body lotion is sold primarily online.
The team at EOS designed the packaging, using custom molds, starting with a clay model, which was then translated to engineering drawings.
“The most challenging part of the manufacturing process was achieving a high enough level of soft touch, especially in the indentation, as well as the level of ‘color pop,’ ” Agostini explains.
EOS’ body care line is infused with vitamins, and the products don’t contain ingredients such as parabens and phthalates. Soft, pastel colors that resemble Easter eggs are used to convey the products’ scents—most of which have names that sound good enough to eat.
EOS’ Cucumber Hand Lotion is in another unique package—a pocket-sized pebble-shaped squeeze bottle.
Sun care products are also being influenced by the “healthy beauty” trend. A new collection by SolScents includes some fragrances that were inspired by foods. The scented sunscreens also act as body moisturizers, since they are infused with antioxidants. The products include Vanilla Silk, Pina Colada, Cucumber Melon and Raspberry Dreams.
SolScents is a new sun care line with custom bottles produced by Berlin Packaging, and its Studio One Eleven division. |
Berlin Packaging and its Studio One Eleven division created the custom HDPE bottles that have a heart-shaped silhouette reminiscent of a classic perfume bottle, in seven custom colors. Each color corresponds to the fragrance of that particular SKU.
Alpha Packaging’s director of marketing, Marny Bielefeldt, has also been seeing many new scented bath and body products being launched—with fragrances that are inspired by fruits and flowers.
“The colors of these products are often vibrant, so some brands are using clear PET bottles across an entire brand—the product ‘flavors’ are differentiated by the color of the product inside the bottle,” Bielefeldt explains.
The types of decorations that many bath and body brands are choosing are category driven, by price point, according to Scott M. Jost MBA, IDSA vice president, innovation and design, Berlin Packaging.
“If you’re a premium brand, every aspect of your presentation must support that proposition with details that speak luxury…and if you’re a value brand, your packaging should properly reflect that fact by focusing on making the best use of the materials, processes, and decorating techniques that are within the realm of your COGS budget,” he explains.
Alpha’s Bielefeldt says its closure decoration capabilities have been highly requested over the past year.“The types of decoration we have been doing range from screen printing on the top surface of closures, to applying foil bands around the circumference of the closure, as well as screen printing on the closure side walls. The sidewall decoration on closures is a capability that we have recently enhanced, to enable a larger print area on the closure sides. We can apply metallic inks, textured inks or other specialty inks to maximize the impact of a stock closure,” she explains.
Georg Mueller-Hof, global director of home and personal care for Avery Dennison, says that a trend he’s been seeing on a global level is a move to digital printing. “Brands are looking to digital for late stage differentiation and to optimize inventory and SKU complexity. Not only is digital printing giving them high-end printing techniques, but they are able to use custom printing and design for regions and countries on less than 12 hours’ notice,” he says. “In addition, they do not want to sacrifice shelf appeal by going digital—so there is a need for higher-end label materials like MDO films top-coated for digital presses.”
Suppliers continually look for ways to offer customers more, by developing new packages and decorating processes—and trying to stay ahead of customers’ future needs.
Hiram Santana, regional sales manager, Olcott Plastics, says that he finds inspiration everywhere for new types of jars. “We recently went to a trade show focused on nutritional products for the fitness industry, and small, stackable jars were everywhere. These jars are high-end, used for nutritional supplements designed to stack together,” Santana says. “We’ve been talking to our customers about them, and considering developing them as an addition to travel-friendly. Stackable jars seem to be getting a lot of attention from the personal care market audience.”
Staats, of Berry Plastics, says they are working on being able to offer a few new decorating techniques. “We’re working with our label vendors to improve their decoration capabilities and to help reduce the cost of labels for our customers,” he says.
Jost, of Berlin Packaging emphasizes the importance of developing a package that will stand out among competitors. “Everyone is competing for a greater shelf presence,” he says, adding, “Bath and body is a mature, saturated hard-fought category. We are seeing more clients looking to elbow competitors aside.”
It all comes down to knowing your brand, and committing to a design that conveys what your products are all about. |
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