Sample Packaging: Sample Strategy
A card provides samples of eye shadow, lip color, and blush from the new Jennifer Lopez cosmetics line Though small in size, sample packages can make a huge difference to a brand's marketing plan.
By Christina Elston
Sample packages have a big job to do. Not only do they have to deliver products effectively to customers, but they must do so while successfully conveying a product's marketing message. Most importantly, a sample package must grab customers' attention and entice them to buy.
The route for getting samples into potential customers' hands can be simple enough, whether those samples are tucked into their favorite magazines, mailed directly to their homes, or handed to them in stores. The challenge lies in standing out among the barrage of samples that customers receive.
"Consumers are bombarded with so many messages that only truly stand-out samples will avoid getting tossed out with junk mail," says Steve Dilts, director of sales and marketing for Unicep Packaging Inc. (Sandpoint, ID). "The challenge to marketers is to create a sampling program that gets noticed."
Enhanced Graphics
Stand-out graphics are one way of grabbing customer attention. Sample packaging suppliers are always working to add new capabilities. Unicep, for instance, offers the Versapak vial, a film-based technology that allows printing of multicolor graphics directly on the package.
Flexpaq Corp. (South Plainfield, NJ) recently introduced its E-stamp film, which can be produced with embossed effects. Embossing the film with photos and text can give a packette a more upscale look. The embossing can even be done in-line. "[This film offers brands a] new level of presentation to a packette," says Jim Gabilanes, Flexpaq's vice president of sales.
The extremely white appearance of Glenroy's Great White laminate enhances the look of printed graphics. Glenroy Inc. (Menomonee Falls, WI) offers its Great White printing base. According to Gary Bobko, the company's vice president of marketing and sales, the extremely white substrate draws attention by enhancing printed graphics. "We have learned to manufacture the Great White lamination to achieve a whiteness level that is far superior to several coats of white ink on a typical foil lamination," Bobko says. "The inks that we flexographically print on Great White pop dramatically. The colors significantly contrast with the extremely white base sheet."
Xela Pack Inc.'s (Saline, MI) PaperBottle sample package features a surface made completely of paper that is therefore fully printable. Xela Pack's director of art and marketing, Anthony Gentile, says the paper allows more room for printing information than plastic tubes or bottles of the same size. The paper also helps maintain superior graphic quality, Gentile says.
To meet the challenge of producing a sharp-looking package with a high-value feel, Unette Corp. (Wharton, NJ) offers its colorful PrismaPak see-through tubes, Prisma Metallic, and the new Foil Unette. "The new additions at Unette address the need for a new look as well as the desire for a package with high perceived value," says Terrence Sweeney, Unette's vice president of sales. "There is a constant need to get something new out there, even if it's just a new twist on an existing package."
The Consumer Experience
Combining effective graphics with unique packaging can also help get samples noticed. "Consumers are intrigued by our Versapak vials," says Dilts. "The Versapak carries a high perceived value when compared with other sample vehicles, such as packets or sachets."
Because the sample may be the first representation of the company the consumer will see, it has to be executed at the highest level of quality. "Too often, companies are tempted to skimp on the sample at the expense of impact and perceived value," Dilts says. "For a marginal increase in their budgets, they could accomplish all their goals and enhance the consumers' experience with the product."
Ease of use is an important part of that experience, says Flexpaq's Gabilanes. For instance, Flexpaq's Easy-Open option includes a prescored line that allows customers a controlled tear. These consumer-friendly packets have even been called senior-friendly, according to Gabilanes.
More Product
Consumers also tend to have a better sampling experience if a sample contains enough product for a thorough trial. Gabilanes has noticed an in-magazine sample trend toward larger packets that deliver a full-dose application, and a move away from smaller packets limited to less than one-half gram of product. "For color [cosmetics], smaller samples are fine," says Gabilanes. "However, they won't work for a cream or lotion that you have to apply [liberally] to your skin in order to test how it works."
Some companies provide consumers with several products at once by combining multiple samples in a single direct-mail piece, says Louis Zafonte, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Arcade Marketing (New York City). An Arcade sample package featuring the new Jennifer Lopez line of cosmetics combined eye shadow, lip color, and blush on a single card. "It's like a mini beauty session," Zafonte says. "You get much greater brand and product recall and purchase intent when you put multiple products in one piece."
Secondary Packaging
Secondary packaging offers an efficient way to group samples. It can also give consumers additional product information and make them more excited about the sample, says Gentile. During the past year, Xela Pack has been doing a lot with secondary packaging of in-mail samples for customers like Nutrition for the Skin—which used a program featuring seven sample packs of cleansers, toners, and lotions on one fold-over card—and Keri's Revital Age Defy and Protect lotion.
Secondary packages help keep the primary packages intact and allow for product description and coupons. "The secondary package offers something a little bit more substantial that makes consumers feel like they're getting a gift," Gentile says.
A secondary container holds seven packets of Nutrition for the Skin samples, protecting the samples while presenting them in an eye-catching manner. . Innovation
Innovation of sample packaging designs is also in full swing. Foldable cards covered with film are a recent trend that provides customers with a new way to sample lip color. The Color Kiss sample card from Orlandi Inc. (Farmingdale, NY) and the Kiss-A-Peel card from Arcade Marketing both feature a small foldable card containing lip color, covered by a clear window. The consumer peels back the film, folds the card, and applies the color in a blotting fashion.
Color Kiss, which had a fall mailing in a Victoria's Secret catalog, is intuitive and simple to use. It also involves the user in a fun and interactive experience with the product, says Orlandi's vice president of marketing, Dale Beal. "For most women, it's just shockingly innovative," says Beal.
Arcade's Kiss-A-Peel is also an economical lip-color sampling option. "It's a wonderful way for smaller-sized companies to get into sampling," says Zafonte. Arcade also offers similar sampling systems for fragrances. Its DiscCover and DiscCover More sampling technologies feature fragrance oil deposited between two resealable layers of film. DiscCover More includes enough product for a single wearable fragrance trial. DiscCover is soon to be featured on the exterior cover of a major women's magazine, Zafonte says.
Unit Pack Company, Inc. (Cedar Grove, NJ), is another supplier that is innovating. "We specialize in packages that not just anybody can do," says Ernest W. Loesser, Unit Pack's president and owner. During the past two years, the company has added its Facsimile Pack design. The form-fill-seal packaging can be created to replicate a retail product's packaging. "It brings us into the more high-end area of sample packaging," Loesser says. To create this unique application, Unit Pack had to extensively modify its machinery. Existing bottles, tubes, or jars can be duplicated with appropriate graphics and can be used for single- or multiple-product samples.
Selling Samples
Many sampling technologies are going beyond the realm of mail and magazines to become retail vehicles. In some cases, companies will put several samples on a card and retail them, says Zafonte. Neutrogena has had success in this area. Beal says Orlandi expects Color Kiss to have appeal as a retail product, and to possibly be on store shelves early next year.
Xela Pack customer Princess Cruise Lines came up with an interesting cross-promotion idea for samples of its spa products. The samples, packaged in Xela Pack's custom-shaped PaperBottles, were used as stateroom amenities. They also served as samples for the full-sized products retailed in the on-board Lotus Spa, according to Gentile.
For many companies, sample packages make ideal vehicles for retail products specifically because of their unit-of-use appeal. One benefit with unit-dose containers is their hygienic properties. They allow customers to apply product without contaminating the entire product supply, as they would, for instance, if they had to stick their hand into a jar to access a product. Other benefits include preserving product purity and allowing for precise, on-the-spot application.
"The monodose containers help to avoid any external contamination," says Giovanni Ferrari, chairman of monodose container supplier Lameplast S.p.A. (Rovereto di Modena, Italy). "This is very important to ensure product quality and to allow companies to reduce the quantity of preservatives in formulations, especially for customers prone to allergic or adverse skin reactions due to preservatives."
Returns on Investments
A conference titled, Sampling: Putting Your Product Where It Should Be—In Her Hands, was held on day two of the HBA trade show, which took place in New York City on September 28–30. Executives from four sample packaging firms were presenters: Jim Gabilanes, vice president of sales for Flexpaq (South Plainfield, NJ); Charles Hinz, national accounts manager for Diamond Packaging (Rochester, NY); Don Hopta, vice president of Klocke of America Inc. (Ft. Myers, FL); and Eric Ludwig, president of Telmark Packaging (Hazlet, NJ). The four speakers emphasized that, often, product marketers pay too little attention to developing effective sample packages, when in fact samples are vital to a product's marketing program.
"We've found that sample packaging is almost an afterthought for some companies," said Hopta, who led the conference. "There are numerous pitfalls with that approach. By waiting that long to develop a package, you're shortchanging your sample packaging, which is your first method of making a first impression on customers."
Ludwig outlined an ideal schedule to help conference attendees get a better idea of the optimal timeframe typically needed to develop an effective sample. He suggested marketers allot 16 weeks for developing a sample. He stressed that those 16 weeks of production work should take place only after a company has decided on the type of sampling strategy it wants.
Ludwig said that enough time should be budgeted for the following seven steps: graphic development, package stability and compatibility testing, package component production, package filling, secondary packaging fulfillment, shipping, and distribution.
Moreoever, Ludwig said that when most marketers plan for sample packaging, they budget only for the cost of bulk product and the sample vehicle itself, without allotting funds for the cost of graphic development; print plates, dies, and tooling; secondary packaging; and distribution. Testing is also crucial.
"Testing is so important," said Ludwig. "For example, even if you're using two similar substrates from two different suppliers, you need to test both substrates. Different substrates are compatible with different products." Ludwig gave an example of a condiment company that had modeled its sample package according to one supplier's substrate, but then decided to switch to a similar substrate from a different supplier. Ludwig said that the condiment didn't turn out to be compatible with the second supplier's material, and the product leaked on the production line.
Gabilanes and Hinz said that although companies should be stepping up their sample packaging programs, they can also find ways to cut costs. They said that suppliers are continually working to design sample packages that are more cost-effective, yet high-impact. Brands can learn to take advantage of all that suppliers have to offer by developing a close relationship with a sample packaging supplier. Another suggestion of Hinz's: "Try to get your sample packages produced by a turnkey establishment for cost-effectiveness. Turnkey operations [like Diamond Packaging] can help you to get everything done—production and filling—in-house by the same company."
Finally, companies should consider whether their product is the type that would benefit from sample marketing. For instance, Ludwig said that, in the past, sample packages for deodorant have been more expensive than retail packages for deodorant. Marketers should consider factors like those when weighing the benefits of samples against the costs.—Jennifer Kwok
Many companies are also realizing that unit-dose containers can help make their products more distinct on the shelf. In the past, containers such as monodose plastic tubes may have been perceived as having more of a pharmaceutical appeal. Today, however, even upscale luxury beauty companies are turning to these types of components. This year, Givenchy began retailing its No Surgetics concentrated antiwrinkle treatment serums in monodose tubes.
The opaque white polypropylene tubes were supplied by Lameplast. The 0.33- and 0.5-ml tubes were produced so that five tubes were connected in a strip. A total of 30 tubes were provided so that customers could get a full-month's regimen in one package.
To make the tubes look upscale for Givenchy, Lameplast embossed the Givenchy logo on each tube and hot-stamped each twist-off cap with Givenchy's logo in silver. Adding to the product's upscale appearance is the secondary packaging, which features a silver base and a clear lid.
Brands like Givenchy are helping give monodose containers a prestige impression. "Unit-dose technology has transcended its use in cosmetics, from being a practical sampling device to being a sophisticated way of packaging the beauty enhancing products of the twenty-first century," says Ignacio Lopez, business development manager for LF of America (Hollywood, FL). As part of the LameplastGroup, LF of America is the contract packaging facility in the United States designed to fill Lameplast packaging.
Not just for the pharmaceutical market, Lameplast's monodose containers are used by such high-end brands as Givenchy. In addition, monodose containers also carry a contemporary appeal often more in-line with the image of ultramodern treatment products. "I think it depends on the approach," says Lopez. "Many cosmetics, especially on the fragrance end, are in very elaborate containers. For treatment products, however, monodose containers provide more of a modern, clean look."
Lopez adds that unit-dose containers are more common in the European retail market than in the United States. As a result, U.S. brands that retail unit-dose packages may gain more customer attention because such packages are still so distinct. "At the last couple of trade shows, a lot of people were stopping by our booth and telling us how refreshing it was to see something different, instead of repeatedly-used pumps, droppers, or glass vials," says Lopez.
Another unit-of-use product making its way into the area of sampling is the DelPouch from Cardinal Health (Philadelphia). The DelPouch comprises a pouch with a foam applicator pad attached. It is available in sizes from 1/2- to 3-g capacity, with various shape options for both pouch and pad. Applicator pad- foam densities can vary for products of different viscosities. "DelPouch can handle formulas from waterlike solutions to creams with viscosities of 100,000 cP," says Bruce Hepke, Cardinal's director of business development. The application is unique and convenient for consumers. "There's a no-mess factor," says Hepke. "You don't have to apply a cream to your fingertip first." In the cosmetics market, interest has come primarily from companies with upscale product lines.
As in-mail, in-magazine, and other types of sample technologies move forward, pressure will continue to be placed on marketers to deliver high-impact sampling while catering to companies' budgetary requirements, says Dilts. And the challenge of getting noticed will remain. "Consumers expect sophisticated samples that help them make purchasing decisions," Dilts says. "At the same time, marketing budgets are stretched as thin as ever, so we manufacturers have to be smart about creating value-laden samples."