Shampoo and conditioner bottles promote hair-raising sales: packaging must help hair-care...

Hair care products really need to stand out on the shelf.

And some of them are literally turning themselves upside-down to do so.

Tottles are just one of the ways that hair care products are attempting to distinguish themselves through packaging. Odd shapes and sizes, unique

Shelf presence is a need shared by many consumer products, of course. But hair care products have certain unique packaging requirements. As with fragrances and cosmetics, the packaging for hair care products needs to evoke beauty, style, femininity (or masculinity), and whatever other qualities the marketer wishes to associate with the product.

However, compared with cosmetics and fragrances, most hair care packages hold large amounts of product. Many of them are used daily, and they're seen as less of an indulgence than cosmetics and fragrances, making price more of an issue. For these reasons, it's harder to design hair care packaging with the elaborate, unique (and expensive) shapes of many cosmetics and fragrance packages.

Another consideration for hair care packaging is that many of the products come in lines. A single line can comprise several types of shampoo, conditioner, hair coloring and other products. Packaging must both tie the line together and allow consumers to distinguish individual products within that line--sometimes while they have soap in their eyes.

Where to find it?

Sales venues are another important factor. Shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion and other hair care products are sold in a variety of locations, from beauty salons to mass merchandisers to upscale department stores. Each venue brings different packaging priorities to the forefront. (Some salon products have a habit of appearing on retail shelves, much to the marketers' chagrin--see "Salon brands want to wash away diversion" on page 47.)

Different hair-care companies--and different divisions within the same companies--take different approaches to all these challenges. Some opt for a time-honored strategy among consumer products in general: Make color do all the work.

For instance, the Thermasilk brand of Unilever's Helene Curtis division, which uses all high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles, features different shades of lavender for different lines, such as medium violet for Moisture Infusing shampoo and deep purple for Heat Activated. This approach has the virtue of simplicity. The drawback, some designers say, is that there are only so many shades of one color to work with.

A more prevalent strategy is to use the same bottle color throughout the line, but vary the color of a small element, such as an icon or lettering, on the label. For instance, L'Oreal's Vive brand features white polypropylene (PP) bottles with orange type spelling out "Nutri-Moisture" and burgundy letters for "Color-Care." (The exception is "Smooth Intense" shampoo, which comes in a vibrant orange bottle.)

By the same token, Procter & Gamble's Pantene line uses white HDPE bottles for its shampoo and conditioner, with the formulation ("Smooth & Sleek" or "Classic Care," for example) in type of varying color. Bill Winkler, P&G's associate director of hair care package development, says the pearlescent white color of Pantene bottles and the "Pro V" logo were determined to be the mainstays from a brand-identity standpoint; a recent redesign kept those elements while altering shapes and other aspects.

Worldwide choices

One of the priorities for the Pantene redesign was to standardize the packaging worldwide, Winkler says: "We wanted to design a package having one shape equity around the globe, replacing the several different package shapes used for Pantene in the various [global] regions."

On the other hand, one of Unilever's recent major line extensions, Dove shampoo and conditioner, came out with different bottles for the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. bottles are tall and slender, with color-coded circular closures (light blue for shampoo, white for conditioner). The European packaging is squatter, with broader closures that are all dark blue, and an upside-down bottle for the conditioner.

The Dove hair care line used a couple of elements to tie into the equity of the well-known soap brand, says Matthew Okin, senior packaging design director for Unilever Home & Personal Care North America. "The bottles include Dove's signature "smile'--a curvature on the top that conveys a positive feeling," Okin says.

Color was another important element. "Dove's new hair care line centers on the proposition of Weightless Moisturizers--delivering superior moisturization with out weighing down the hair," Okin says. "The packaging reflects this positioning with a soft, white container that is slightly transparent, and graphics that convey the purity of the Dove brand along with a light, weightless feel."

White is a popular color for hair care products. It conveys the feeling of purity, and it's easy to achieve in HDPE, which is naturally opaque.

On the other hand, some designers believe white is losing its luster through overuse. Brian Saputo, manager of package engineering for Wella Sebastian (which recently was bought by Procter & Gamble), recently helped execute a directive to standardize the company packaging.

"One of the things we're finding out is a lot of the white packaging that we have tends to get lost on shelves," Saputo says. "Our current trend is to try to move away from that and add a little more color and a little more pop to our line."

The new look will include a translucent black bottle with pink overtones that will give an elegant look, like some of the Victoria's Secret fragrances and other products. "We're looking at colors that are not necessarily bright, but more fashion-inspired, more modern, more chic," Saputo says.

The shape of things

Wella Sebastian is looking at shape as the main component of brand identity. "We don't want to tie it in through color, because we don't feel that the white has enough impact," Saputo says. "It was very impactful in the '80s and the early '90s, but the trends have changed. We're seeing a lot more colors and transparencies. Curves seem to be coming back. Curves combined with straight lines seem to be very popular." Saputo also is seeing a lot of attempts to stand out on the shelf though odd shapes--oversize or extra-small bottles, tall and slender or short and stubby.

One of Wella Sebastian's redesigns is an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Shaper hairspray, its best-selling product. Packaging for the Shaper line of shampoo, conditioner, mousse and other styling products is based on the hairspray's container.

"What we tried to achieve was these long, cylindrical looks that, on shelf, would look similar to a can of hairspray," Saputo says.

Procter & Gamble adopted a similar strategy with Physique, a line targeted toward consumers in their twenties and thirties. The packaging consists of cylindrical shapes with special metallic labels for the plastic shampoo and conditioner packages that matches the aluminum hairspray and mousse cans. "We designed the total package line to mimic a brushed aluminum look," Winkler says.

Material issues

The choice of packaging material is as important for hair care products as for other consumer goods. HDPE and PET are the two most popular materials. It basically comes down to how much you want consumers to see the product, says Craig Sawicki, executive vice president of design and development for TricorBraun. PET brings clarity and/or high gloss, while HDPE almost always involves a matte finish.

"If you have a product that you don't need to see and you don't have a compatibility issue [between product and packaging], you might as well go with polyethylene," Sawicki says. "It's cheaper and the [molding] tools are cheaper. However, if you want the gloss, clarity or translucent color, PET is the way to go."

Wella Sebastian has mostly used HDPE, but is looking at both PET and vinyl for its new packaging, Saputo says. The problem with vinyl is that it generates resistance on environmental grounds, especially overseas.

Hair care products have been one of the biggest vehicles for upside-down packaging, which now is prevalent for products from salad dressing to toothpaste. Conditioner is the hair care product most often put into tottles, for two masons. It tends to be more viscous than other products, so it's more convenient to have it amass close to the orifice. And conditioners are most often used in conjunction with shampoo, so putting one right-side-up and one upside-down is an easy way to distinguish them.

"When you have shampoo and conditioner in the exact same bottle and the decor is similar, people get confused," Saputo says. "In the shower they've got soap in their eyes and they'll grab the shampoo instead of the conditioner, or vice-versa." Wella Sebastian opted not to go with tottles for logistical and engineering reasons, he says. Going to upside-down bottles would incur tooling costs, and the silicone-diaphragm valve needed for the orifice might not be compatible with some of the formulations.

Packaging for hair care products has to combine sophisticated appeal with ease of use and economy. Designing the package around a recognizable, logical theme will help establish brand identity while making it manageable--in both the factory and the shower.

Salon brands want to wash away diversion

Certain hair care products that are meant to be sold only in salons have a way of winding up on drugstores and other retail venues. It's more convenient for consumers, but some manufacturers are tearing their hair out over it.

Wella Sebastian spends $2 million a year and has hired a retired FBI agent to fight retail diversion. Wella Sebastian and other salon-product companies maintain that diversion hurts them in several ways. It dilutes the brand's cachet; it raises the possibility of counterfeiting; and it takes salon professionals out of the equation, increasing the liability that the products will be misused.

According to Columbia News Service, most diverters operate by soliciting salon owners, usually smaller operations, to buy extra product and resell it to the diverters for a fee. This is not, strictly speaking, illegal; under federal law, manufacturers cannot prevent such resales. However, improved coding and tracking technology on packaging raises the possibility that manufacturers will be able to track resales and pressure the initial purchasers to cut it out.