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Youth and Teen Packaging: The Key to Popularity

In this article, find out more about some of the recent stylish launches in youth and teen makeup, fragrance, and personal care packaging.

Palette Power

In the makeup category, palettes continue to be popular. A streamlined black compact won't speak to young customers—but a creative concept will.

In August, Sugar Cosmetics (Irvine, CA) launched Storybook Sugar, a whimsical compact that houses six eye shadows, six sugar-flavored lip glosses, and applicators. The compact opens like a diary and fastens with a Velcro closure. Adorning the outside of the compact is cushiony plastic decorated with graphics inspired by Japanese anime. The graphic design is the work of J3 Productions.

"The colorful graphics make the compact youthful," says Carisa Janes, creative director for Sugar Cosmetics. "The design also incorporates the signature Sugar Wink Girl icon, recognized by loyal Sugar girls."

Hard Candy Cosmetics (Costa Mesa, CA), whose target market is customers ages 12 to 24, also recently launched a unique palette. Called Lunch Box, the compact comes in a carton with a handle attached. The compact houses three trays—one for eye shadows, one for lip glosses, and one for powder and concealer. A variety of brushes and applicators are also included. Supplier Innovative (New York City) supplied the packaging.

"There is so much packed into this tiny palette," says Tammy Bartel, public relations coordinator for Hard Candy Cosmetics. "The idea is that you will need nothing else once you put this in your purse."

Pinkie Swear, another brand targeting youth and teen customers, also recently launched a new palette called De-Lip-Cious. The compact's five lip gloss pans are configured like pie slices. The pie-slice-shaped pans are a favorite of the brand, which used a similar design for its Cutie Pie Color Wheel compact. Pinkie Swear founder Stephen Robinson says that interesting-shaped pans are an example of the creative elements that young customers look for in packaging.

Suppliers also offer many palette compacts with unique shapes. At the HBA trade show in September, World Wide Packaging (Florham, NJ) showed several new items designed with teens in mind. One, which resembles a flower, features petal-shaped pans surrounding a circular mirror. Another is a CD-style compact that, unlike other types of CD compacts on the market, has a swiveling lid.

"Teens want their compacts to have a unique shape to them or to dispense product in a unique way," says Pamela Strickland, vice president of sales for World Wide Packaging. "Suppliers must create designs that are different from, for instance, a standard lip gloss tube."

Single Servings

Unique shapes are also popular for single-product makeup components. Food items are still a common source of inspiration.

Lotta Luv LLC's (New York City) Snapple lip balm packages are inspired by the look of Snapple's beverage packaging. The lip balm pots look like Snapple bottle caps, and another container in the line is a miniature version of a Snapple bottle. Provided by supplier Everglory, the packages were a finalist in this year's International Package Design Awards.

"Teens are obsessed with lip gloss and flavors right now—that's why products like the Snapple balms are doing so well," says Jeanine Recckio, founder of trend forecast firm Mirror Mirror Imagination Group (New York City). The company publishes its Crystal Ball Teen Trend Report biannually.

Candy shapes also continue to be a big hit. Supplier Alcan Packaging Techpack (Chevilly-Larue, France) offers its Sweet package, which is shaped like a piece of wrapped candy. The package twists open into two halves, each of which has a product chamber.

Hard Candy's new Eye Candy compact is designed to look like a piece of hard candy. "I think that teens look for compacts that are fun and a bit whimsical, but still cool enough to share with their friends," says Amy Zunzunegui, product development manager for Urban Decay and Hard Candy. "The Eye Candy compacts are fun, given the range of colors and decorations. Yet, they are still somewhat sleek and have that 'coolness factor' that teens are looking for."

Part of what makes the compact so cool is the way it slides open at the top. Created by HCT Packaging (Bridgewater, NJ), the compact started off as a stock item. "This was a design by HCT Packaging that we customized using our own colors and decoration so that it looked completely like Hard Candy," says Zunzunegui. "We simply molded the compacts in our custom colors and put our heart logo on it. The look is very simple but very effective."

Good marketing and well-designed packaging can be a powerful combination. "Hard Candy's components are fun and playful," says Sephora's Pasley. "However, it's the entire concept of Hard Candy—the product names, flavors, colors, and presentation—combined with great components that is the key to its success. Hard Candy does a fabulous job in balancing all the elements to ensure that the packaging does not overpower the concept, or vice versa."

Open-Minded

Like the Eye Candy compacts, cosmetic components that open and close in a novel fashion can be a powerful gimmick for youth and teen customers. For suppliers, this is often an important consideration when designing stock components.

Alcan Packaging Techpack's Innovation Center is charged with developing new stock designs. Its staff includes a makeup artist who works with the engineers to ensure that packages open, close, and dispense products in a way that is effective and convenient for consumers. The company's stock packaging portfolio this year included many designs for the teen market. Each of the components opens in a unique way.

Round Tray is an ABS compact. It is shaped like a cylinder and features a swiveling ABS/SAN outer sleeve with a rectangular cutout. The sleeve rotates around until its cutout is positioned over the product well. An applicator, which slides into the core of the compact, can then be inserted into the cutout to access the product. "We try to find fun ways of integrating applicators into a package's design," says Ludovic Anceau, marketing director for Alcan Packaging Techpack.

Another recent development is the Teen compact. Reminiscent of a motorcycle helmet, the domed-shaped compact features a clear lid that slides open like a helmet's face shield. A mirror and an applicator are housed in the compact's base.

Finally, the firm's Dedo dispenser is designed to fit on a customer's finger like a thimble. To dispense product, customers must simply push their finger up on the dispenser's piston, and product flows through a hole on the domed top.

Mix and Match

For young customers, there is great appeal in having the power to mix and match the product colors of their choice. "Teenagers often want to switch between the products they use, making packages that they can customize ideal," says Alcan Packaging Techpack's Anceau.

In stock packaging, stackable components that allow customers to build their own palettes are evolving in design. Alcan Packaging Techpack recently launched two stackable designs for the youth and teen market: Pyramide and the aforementioned Dedo. Pyramide's trapezoidal pots can be stacked, as can the Dedo dispensers.

One of World Wide Packaging's new stackable components is called the Color Wheel, which features multichambered pots. "You could put a whole cosmetic palette in it," says World Wide Packaging's Strickland. "For instance, one layer could hold eye shadow, one could hold lip color, and another could hold concealer."

Compacts aren't the only packages being made interchangeable. Launched in August, Hard Candy's Get Personal pencil system allows customers to interchange lip and eye pencils, as well as applicators. Customers can purchase the system's Connector, which is a double-ended barrel. A pencil cartridge or an applicator can then be snapped on to either end of the barrel.

"We thought this would be the perfect pencil system for the teen market because it is completely customizable," says Hard Candy's Zunzunegui. "The most challenging part of this project was determining how to package the pencils and the Connector Kit so that it made sense for the customer. We really wanted to show them that this was a completely personal product." The packaging was sourced through Westlake Packaging (Agoura Hills, CA).

Fun Fragrances

In the youth and teen fragrance department, fun packaging still reigns—but with a slightly more sophisticated and elegant twist.

The first Barbie fragrance launched in August. It is licensed by Puig Beauty and Fashion Group (Barcelona, Spain). The eau de toilette is packaged in a glass bottle with a pink translucent flower-shaped cap. It is a surprisingly streamlined package for its target audience of girls 6 to 8 years old.

"The primary bottle was designed to look precious and glamorous, yet simple, with clear glass to show off the pink-colored product," says Lucy Dassonville, global brand manager for Mattel Fragrances. "The flower cap is the fantasy element that gives the package a young and joyful twist."

The bottle was supplied by Saint-Gobain La Granja S.L. (Segovia, Spain). Dassonville says that the bottle needed to have soft edges and be designed to fit comfortably in a young girl's small hand. S.T.E. Packaging Development S.L. (Sant Cugat del Valles, Barcelona, Spain) supplied the cap. The Royal Promotion Group (New York City) created the in-store displays.

On the primary bottle, the only reference to Barbie is a discreet logo. However, Barbie's face was printed prominently in a Warholian fashion on the fragrance's carton. "Considering the brand, there were three important elements that had to appear on the carton: the picture of Barbie, the color pink, and a large print of the Barbie logo," says Dassonville. "We also wanted the carton to have a modern and fashionable look to it, which is why the picture of the doll appears with a pop-art effect, and the pink color was used in different tonalities and prints."

On marketing fragrances to a younger market, Dassonville says, "Generally, bottles for young customers are fun, colorful, and inspiring. The color, shape, finish, and print—all these elements should talk to the young girls and communicate a story."

Chupa Chups also launched its first fragrance this year. The fragrance packaging is inspired by the look of Chupa Chups lollipops.

The primary package comprises a glass bottle housed inside of a square plastic container. On the front and back of the plastic container, swelling domes mimic the curves of a lollipop. Designed without a bottom, the plastic container lets customers push up on the glass bottle from the container's bottom so that the sprayer pushes against the container's top, dispensing the fragrance via a spray-through orifice in the container.

Like the Barbie bottle, the Chupa Chups bottle is sophisticated in look and function, yet it is also fun-looking. Part of what contributes to the package's youthful look are the bright colors used for the plastic containers, depending on the fragrance.

Coty US LLC (New York City) is the distributor for the Chupa Chups fragrance. The glass bottle was molded by Gerresheimer Glas (Düsseldorf, Germany), and the dispenser was provided by Emsar Inc. (Stratford, CT).

"Teens are getting more and more into decorating their bedrooms," says Mirror Mirror's Recckio. "More than ever before, they want a fragrance bottle that will look cool in their rooms."

 

Bath and Body

For children especially, personal-care packages often feature unique shapes. The Disney Princess bath and body line, launched this fall by Boom! Creative Development (New York City), features pink and gold caps shaped like princess crowns. The caps not only help to tie the line together, but are also an ideal way to market the line's princess theme.

"The princess crown cap has a toylike appeal that can spark a young person's imagination," says Rebecca Killian, Boom!'s vice president of creative, who led the project's package engineering team.

Clariant Masterbatches created the custom colors for the caps, which are made from polypropylene. The pink caps were provided by Jackel, and the gold ones were supplied by Crystal International (Toronto). The pastel-colored high-density polyethylene bottles were custom molded by Novapak Corp.

"It's a smart custom-looking line," says Doug Silady, senior director of packaging for Boom LLC. "We spent a lot of time with it, from a creative standpoint as well as from an engineering standpoint."

Getting Graphic

For youth and teen customers, bold graphics on secondary packaging elements, such as labels and outer packaging, are very effective.

For the Can of Peace and Can of Cheer gift set packages for Avon's mark line, the company chose to use colorful paper tubes. Supplied by Chicago Paper Tube & Can Company, Inc., the tubes were decorated with illustrations using four-color process printing. Silver foil accents match the tube's silver caps.

Too attractive to throw away, the tubes are likely to be reused. "We thought the tin can was a unique, gift-able package that could be reused as a storage container for pencils or makeup brushes after it was opened," adds Michelle McCabe, product development manager for mark.

"Reusable packages provide added value that will make a teen purchase an item because they think, 'It looks cool and I can put it in my room,'" says Mirror Mirror's Recckio.

Shrink sleeves are also a good choice for adding graphics to a package because they offer more label real estate. Ameri-Seal's (Chatsworth, CA) PETG shrink sleeves were chosen by Body Drench for its Sweet Mary Jane line of suntanning products. To match the line's youthful look, the shrink sleeves were rotogravure printed in eight colors with graphics of the line's signature cartoon girls, which Body Drench's national sales manager Quinn Redeker describes as a cross between a Varga pinup girl and a Charlie's Angels character. To sweeten their appeal, the products are housed in a box similar to a Barbie doll's.

For added visual punch, a company called Vision Glow of North America (Sanford, FL) has created a new luminescent pigment that can make packages glow in the dark. The pigment can be mixed in a package's glass or plastic at the point of manufacturing, or can be silk-screened on.

"I thought to myself, 'What a great idea it would be to use the pigment in a lipstick or compact package. It would be easy to find at the bottom of a purse because it illuminates,'" says Serena Peregood, Vision Glow's national director of marketing, cosmetics division.

Not only does the company offer a range of luminescent pigment colors, but depending on which master pigment is used, packages could be made to glow in one color for a few hours, and then change to a different glow-in-the-dark color after that. "As soon as it is re-exposed to a light source, the first color returns," explains Peregood.

"Anything that has a 'talk value'—that teens and their friends will talk about—is very important," says Recckio.

Innovation Never Gets Old

Since trends in the youth and teen market change so quickly, sourcing stock components makes it easier on brands to get new products to market quickly. Suppliers are continually updating their stock offerings.

"The demand for creative teen and tween packages increases monthly," says Tim Thorpe, West Coast president for HCT Packaging. "The pressure put on HCT to be innovative has unquestionably increased—tooling of components has more than doubled for us in the last year. The best ideas that HCT puts forward at each trade show are almost immediately swallowed up."

"Suppliers for the teen market have to continually innovate," says Alcan Packaging Techpack's Anceau. "A package style can last for one or two years. After that, it becomes old-fashioned."

Thus, the goal for suppliers is to try to design packages that are up-to-date but that will also have longevity. World Wide Packaging's Strickland adds, "Sometimes, something that was popular five or six years ago will become trendy again. Slight modifications may need to be made to make a design a little more 'now'—we do that so we can use the package again."

And just because it's a youth or teen making the purchase doesn't mean that a package shouldn't be worth their money. "Young customers deserve quality packaging as much as adults do," says Anceau. "And they can feel the difference between good and bad quality. The question is, will they be willing to pay the price for good quality? Nevertheless, we feel that brands have to give added value to their packaging to retain a good brand image."

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