Cosmetic/Personal Care Packaging.

• You're at:
• Home \
• Magazine \
• Archives 2005

• Print
• Email

Business Beat

The 2004 edition of Pack.Vision focused on current trends in globalization and how they relate to package design and production. The panel's main speaker was Frédéric Loeb, president of consulting firm &Loeb Innovation, which compiled the Pack. Vision study. Also on the panel were Michel Fontaine, director of packaging for L'Oréal, and Nicholas Thorne, director of research innovation for Alcan Packaging.

According to Pack.Vision, as more companies distribute their products globally, companies shouldn't assume that just because their product is selling well in their home country, it will do well abroad in its packaging as is. "Anything that looks too foreign for consumers' tastes won't be successful," said Loeb.

Instead, companies selling products worldwide need to take into account the role that packaging plays. Packaging is important because it's a brand's means of expressing its identity to foreign markets and of differentiating itself from other international packages. "Branding integrates packaging," said Loeb.

According to Loeb, brands have two choices—to either design packages so that they are tailored to suit the traditional tastes and customs of each market, or to sell products in packages that have no distinct cultural link.

Pack.Vision says that mass brands especially tend to adjust their packages for global markets. It points to the example of L'Oréal's Garnier Fructis, which produces larger-sized packaging for Garnier Fructis and packages with different aesthetics for Malaysia and Brazil. On the other hand, luxury brands tend not to change their packages according to country. "With regard to packaging, a luxury brand ensures that its packaging remains the same worldwide, even if the packages are manufactured in different factories around the world," said Loeb. He used the example of Lancôme, which sells the same packaging with only French and English text to worldwide markets including Asia and Brazil.

The costs involved with producing different packaging for many different countries are driving more brands to design packages so that they can be more cost-efficiently adapted to different markets, said Loeb. "In order for designs to be more efficient, designers are being forced to streamline," he said. "We try to keep it simple so that packages can be globalized."

As far as determining how an international product should be managed locally, mass brands in particular are relying on regional offices that are more familiar with a specific market. Fontaine spoke about how L'Oréal typically prefers to produce packages for each country within that country.

The panel discussed other current topics relating to globalization. One of them was the trend for brands to concentrate on visual branding that can easily be translated overseas, such as using logos. "In the United States especially, brands like Nike and McDonald's tend to focus on logos, or even the shape of a bottle, to brand a company," said Loeb. "Companies want a logo that can be easily identified no matter what country a consumer is in."

To compile the Pack.Vision study, &Loeb Innovation surveyed many firms, including design agencies such as Dragon Rouge, Carre Noir, and Desgrippes Gobe; beauty brands such as Lancôme, Estée Lauder, and L'Oréal; and suppliers such as Rexam PLC and Saint-Gobain. The company also performed international research and visited international exhibitions.

As a conclusion, the study encourages companies to take a more discerning look at the factors involved in globalization. Loeb's parting comment: "A thorough understanding of the consumer and the methods of distribution are key factors to success. Universal packaging and designs do not necessarily coexist because everyone doesn't have the same desires, values, and tastes."

CPC Packaging Awards Estée Lauder

The CPC Packaging staff recently recognized The Estée Lauder Companies for being the magazine's 2004 Packager of the Year. Estée Lauder executives Roger Caracappa, executive vice president global packaging, quality assurance, merchandising, corporate store design, retail store operations; Gary Korba, vice president of creative global packaging; and Harry Bennett, vice president of package engineering, accepted the Packager of the Year award plaque.

Caudalie Joins Shiseido, Christian Dior in Orléans Loire Valley

Beauty brand Caudalie has announced that it will open a 4800-m2 facility in Orléans in France's Loire Valley region. Packaging and product distribution will be handled at the site, as well as sales management, administration, and billing. Construction is scheduled to start in June 2005, and operations will begin in 2006.

The site will serve as Caudalie's logistics unit, responsible for delivering products throughout Europe. It will replace Caudalie's logistics centers in Milan and London. According to Bertrand Thomas, the company's chairman and CEO, Caudalie, which produces antiaging products based on grape seed polyphenols, chose the location in Orléans because the city is strategically located one hour away from Paris, with operating costs less expensive than they would be in Paris.

Thomas says that another highlight of the location is its proximity to a vast cluster of cosmetic and perfume company facilities located in Orléans. Caudalie joins notable brands in Orléans including Christian Dior, Shiseido, Guerlain, Paco Rabanne Parfums, Soprogem/Gemey, Facospar, and Pier Auge.

Christian Dior's 55-acre Orléans plant is the company's worldwide production and distribution center. It handles 88% of exports of makeup and Christian Dior perfumes to countries including the United States. In Orléans, the firm also conducts primary product development and research for its brands including Benefit, LVMH, and Fresh. It also draws on outside research conducted by students at Orléans University (L'Université d'Orléans).

The 17-acre Shiseido facility in Orléans provides package engineering, research, development, and production for Shiseido products, including brands such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake, and Narcisco Rodriguez. According to the company, the state-of-the-art facility will soon be the first cosmetics facility to have ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 1800 certification. The company has also recently added new quality-check machines developed with a company called Helios in Orléans.

Shiseido's president and general director Daniel Guillermin told CPC Packaging that the proximity of packaging, raw material, and other suppliers in the Orléans region are convenient for the company. "When it's possible for luxury product manufacturers, it's always better to have suppliers located closer to designers," he said. "When we have high production volumes, we can find a lot of subcontractors in the area to do package assembly and even production."

The city of Orléans is located in France's leading region for the production of cosmetic products. Of the more than 9400 cosmetic and other companies based in the area, there are suppliers for cosmetic bottles, films, and labels; logistic suppliers; raw material manufacturers; and formulators.

Economic development organization Orléans Loire Valley Development has been instrumental in helping companies like Caudalie find locations on which to build their sites, facilitating setup, and obtaining financial incentives for companies, among other services.

HBA Show Looks Inward

The organizers of the Health & Beauty America (HBA) trade show announced a new exhibition called Inside Beauty. It will be collocated with this year's HBA show, to be held September 27–29 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. The event will focus on the development of cosmetic and personal care products that promote health, beauty, and well-being.

CPC Packaging Calls for Entries

Packaging excellence will take center stage again when the CPC Packaging editors select the winners of the magazine's 2005 Editors' Choice Awards.

Twenty beauty entries will be awarded in four categories: cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and sample and promotional packaging. Qualifying entries will be those that launched on U.S. shelves in 2004.

To highlight the winners, CPC Packaging's May/June issue will feature a one-page story on each. We hope that the stories about the winning brands and their supplier-partners will inspire others to reach for the same level of excellence. Our coverage will provide an inside look at the package development process involved. In addition, our annual panel of leading package designers and industry professionals will give readers another perspective on the packages' designs. The comments of our panelists will be included in the features.

Award plaques will be presented to the winners at a reception to be held at the EastPack trade show, which will take place at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on June 13–15.

Last year, CPC Packaging was pleased to cover such companies as Avon, Bvlgari, Christian Dior, Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, Estée Lauder, Lancaster, Neutrogena, Revlon, and Unilever Home & Personal Care, all of whom were Editors' Choice Awards picks.

CPC Packaging's editors will soon be visiting mass, limited, and boutique retailers to select our nominees. If you would like to enter your company's 2004-launched package in our awards program, please send it by March 19 to CPC Packaging, Editors' Choice Awards, 11444 W. Olympic Blvd., Ste. 900, Los Angeles, CA 90064. If you have any questions about our program, please contact group editor Daphne Allen by phone at 310/445-4263 or by e-mail at daphne.allen@cancom.com.

Albertsons Launches Beauty Line

Design firm Anthem Worldwide (San Francisco) has helped supermarket chain Albertsons launch a new private-label beauty, OTC, and health brand called Equaline. The line could potentially consist of 1240 SKUs in seven categories, in 25,000 stores across 37 states. Because the launch is so vast, Anthem Worldwide designed the packaging to be versatile so that Albertsons could modify key category visual elements while still allowing the line's look to remain consistent.
Plans are in the works to expand Albertsons's new Equaline brand, which will be sold in the corporation's grocery stores and pharmacies.

"We expect that our Equaline brand will perform on a few different levels for us," says Terry Lee, vice president, corporate brands, for Albertsons. "Certainly, we expect to see on-shelf performance, and ultimately, we anticipate seeing reduced packaging development costs."

Equaline will be sold under Albertsons's five grocery store banners—Albertsons, Acme, Jewel, Shaws, and Star Markets; and its two pharmacy chains, Sav-On and OSCO.

"The bigger story is less the launch of the Equaline brand than of Albertsons's bold approach to not just create private-label brands that can compete with national brands, but to essentially leapfrog them as well," says Ted Leonhardt, president of Anthem Worldwide.
From left to right: Nick Lo Prinzi of Color Carton Corp., chairman of the holiday dinner dance; Deborah Danis of The Glass Group, CIBS president; Steve Contreras of Standwill Packaging, 2004 CIBS president; and Tony Colica of New Island Printing.

CIBS Gets into the Holiday Spirit

The Cosmetic Industry Buyers and Suppliers (CIBS) got festive at the association's holiday dinner dance. Held December 4, 2004, at the New York Hilton in New York City, the event saw more than 1100 people.

New Web Site for CPA

The Contract Packaging Association (Naperville, IL) has redesigned its Web site, www.contractpackaging.org. In addition to providing guidelines for hiring a contract packager and other information, the Web site provides several interactive features that cosmetic and personal care brands are sure to find helpful.

The Web site features a search engine to help visitors find contract packagers according to company location, types of containers filled, and types of products handled. A "Request for Quote" section allows companies to inquire about the services of any of the association's members.

CPC Packaging Names Publisher

Canon Communications announced that CPC Packaging group sales manager Patricia Spinner has been named group publisher of CPC Packaging and Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News.

Spinner graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and has 15 years of experience in business-to-business publishing. Since joining Canon in 1997, she has demonstrated a remarkable level of commitment and success within the CPC and PMPN sales teams. She has also been instrumental in the delivery of several brand-building initiatives and has built solid relationships with key industry groups and advertisers.

Back to top