Inside Design: Wrapping It Up
This Christmas, Estée Lauder will commemorate three classic Lauder fragrances with a special gift box complete with doors and a flock finish.
‘tis the season for gift sets.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorThis year, marketers will wrap up the retail season with some eye-catching holiday gift sets. Brands and suppliers have pulled out all the stops to ensure that gift sets glitter, sparkle, and shine on shelves.
“I think people’s expectations of what a gift set should look like have really heightened over the past five to 10 years,” says Ron Sasine, vice president of business development for supplier AGI Klearfold. “There used to be the feeling that a nice box was good enough. Now, whether it’s through a package’s structure or decoration, a lot of value is being given to the presentation of a gift set.”
Setup boxes, cartons, and bags are staples for this time of year—and customers can expect to see a number of distinctive looks. Some have been achieved through unique constructions, and others through the application of specialty finishes.
Unique Structures
Setup boxes are one of the most popular packages for gift sets. “Setup boxes are here to stay for a long time because they are extremely giftable,” says Humberto Rebolledo, executive director of packaging for Estée Lauder fragrances. “The appeal of a holiday setup box is that if customers want to, they can simply stick a bow on it and give it to someone as is.” Working together, marketers and suppliers are creating unique setup box constructions. In addition, suppliers are innovating to provide cost-effective alternatives to the standard setup box.
This holiday, Estée Lauder will introduce a special setup box for a collection of commemorative gift sets paying homage to the company’s founder, Estée Lauder. “Every holiday season, the company likes to include a program that commemorates some of the classic Lauder fragrances, which Lauder’s whole fragrance business was founded on,” says Rebolledo.
The 2005 commemorative collection features three of the fragrances Mrs. Lauder herself designed—Private Collection, White Linen, and Youth-Dew. The gift sets come with a book that presents the history of how Mrs. Lauder developed the fragrances.
To showcase the fragrances, Lauder’s design department fashioned a very special setup box. Instead of a typical lift-off lid, the rectangular box features doors that swing open. The box was produced by Knoll Printing and Packaging, which does 90% of its work creating gift set boxes for brands such as Calvin Klein, Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs, and Elizabeth Arden.
By incorporating hinged doors rather than a lift-off lid, the box provides customers with an unexpected way to open the setup box. “It involves a different type of interaction with the consumer,” says Rebolledo. “When the consumer opens the doors, it’s a more luxurious experience.”
Brands looking for luxurious yet cost-effective setup boxes will be pleased with the newest options suppliers have developed.
Last year, AGI Klearfold launched its Evolution Box, which it calls an alternative to a setup box. The Evolution Box eliminates the need for the lightweight paper wrap typical of a setup box. Instead, the box features a solid-bleached-sulfate (SBS) paperboard blank that is joined to a scored chipboard stiffener. The SBS blank/stiffener construction is then glued to create a tray and a lid.
The SBS blank can be decorated on directly, and marketers can apply the same decorating techniques that they would to a paper wrap. SBS also offers a smooth finish. “Usually, the paper used to wrap setup boxes is very thin, so the rough texture of the chipboard shows through it,” says AGI Klearfold’s Sasine. “The Evolution Box allows you to have the smooth finish of a premium-quality folding carton.”
According to Sasine, the Evolution Box is more cost-effective to produce than setup boxes. “We can make the boxes about twice as quickly as we can make setup boxes, and they require about half as much labor to make. The faster throughput and the reduced labor means it’s a less-expensive package.”
IBC Shell Packaging recently launched its alternative to the setup box. Like the Evolution Box, the Vizion box also allows for direct printing and decorating. “Any decorating accomplished on a wrap we can now do directly on the box—and the results will usually be better,” says Norman Kay, president of IBC Shell. “For instance, multilevel embossing looks and feels better on the Vizion. If you take a standard wrap, emboss it, and mount it to a box, the embossing practically disappears because of the pressure required to adhere the wrap to the substrate. When we do multilevel embossing on the Vizion, the dimensional effect remains.”
An added benefit of Vizion is that the carton is heavy in weight, which translates into a luxurious feel. “What the Vizion does is combine the best features of traditional folding cartons (optimum surface printability, texture, and choice of substrates) and the best features of a rigid setup box, which are durability and the impression of weight,” says Kay.
What gives the Vizion box its weight is the number of paper layers the box incorporates. “One of the ways we achieved the heft of the box is that the base alone has eight layers of paperboard to it and the sides have four layers,” says Kay. “That might appear to be cumbersome, but it’s not, because the paper is assembled into compact layers. In fact, when you feel the box, you’ll wonder where all the weight is coming from.”
Because there is so much weight in the base of the box, Kay says that marketers can even opt for a lighter lid and still retain the heavyweight feel. This gives marketers the options of using lids in PET, PETG, and PVC.
Kay says that speed of production and lowered costs are benefits of the Vizion. “We produce the Vizion using high-speed equipment,” says Kay. “This saves time and money. Another big savings is doing away with having to print a box wrap separately, which eliminates the entire paper-mounting procedure.”
The Evolution Box and the Vizion indicate a new trend in the industry for setup box alternatives. On the marketers’ side, Rebolledo says these boxes provide the kind of solutions that Estée Lauder is looking for. “They’re fantastic,” he says. “We’re working with them now to see what different looks we can get with them.”
A Soft Touch
In addition to unique structures, companies are updating the ways they decorate gift sets. Flock is one way to convey an immediate sense of luxury. This holiday, some of the biggest name brands, including Estée Lauder and Victoria’s Secret Beauty, will feature flock on their setup boxes.
The sides and doors of Estée Lauder’s commemorative setup boxes, discussed in the previous section, are covered in flock. Three colors of flock—white, tan, and beige—were produced, one for each fragrance. “The big challenge was to custom color-match the flock,” says Estée Lauder’s Rebolledo.
To convey luxury, Victoria’s Secret Beauty’s Rapture setup box features maroon flock hot stamped with ornate gold stripes.
IBC Shell recently applied acrylic flock to a holiday setup box for Victoria’s Secret Beauty. Wide gold stripes in register were hot stamped on the maroon flock. “Getting gold hot stamping to adhere to flock is very difficult because the flock wants to reject the gold foil,” says IBC Shell’s Kay. “We formulated a special foil that would adhere directly to the flock, and we increased the dwell time (the amount of time that pressure is maintained on the foil to adhere it to the flock). This was one of the more difficult jobs we did this year, and it came out great. We were even able to apply the hot stamping in just one pass.”
Though flock ultimately conveys luxury, a lot of brands may choose not to use it because of the cost. “Flock definitely looks luxurious and upscale—but of course, it’s more expensive,” says Gary Semenetz of Knoll Printing and Packaging.
Brands that don’t want to use flock can consider other soft-touch materials. FiberMark, which specializes in decorative packaging materials, introduced its newest soft-touch material called Senzo by Corvon. The material has a silky, matte finish. It can be decorated using offset printing, postembossing, silk-screening, and hot stamping.
“The soft-touch finish engages people right away. They want to feel it,” says Christine Ricci, director of marketing for FiberMark. “We’re targeting this toward high-end luxury brands.”
High Shine
Shiny wraps, such as holographic papers and special-effect films, continue to be popular for holiday gift sets. “As far as decoration this holiday season, I think it’s all going to be about shine and glitz,” says Jean Antretter, senior design director for Elizabeth Arden.
Holographic papers are still in high demand. “Elizabeth Arden will be using a lot of holographic effects this season,” says Antretter. “It gives you the most pizzazz on the counter.” She says that holographic papers will adorn the holiday gift sets for Arden’s Red Door and Provocative Women gift sets.
According to Antretter, the industry has come a long way when it comes to producing holographic papers. “We’re seeing a little bit more innovation as far as how to achieve holographic wraps,” she says. “There used to be shim lines, which look like a defect across the paper. You couldn’t avoid them without wasting a lot of excess paper. But suppliers have really worked to solve that problem.”
AGI Klearfold’s Accents Dimensional Coating added a sense of motion to the graphics on a Lancôme setup box.
Suppliers are also working to achieve better special effects. This year, AGI Klearfold developed a foil wrap for a Lancôme Paris 2005 holiday setup box using its new Accents Dimensional Coating. Using Accents, a clear texture was applied over the wrap’s printed graphics using the coating station of a printing press. Accents allowed AGI Klearfold to create a sense of motion for the wrap’s snowflake pattern. “Regions of glossy parallel lines reflect light, and alternating the direction of the lines controls the reflected gloss,” says AGI Klearfold’s Sasine. The texture’s pattern was created in Adobe Photoshop. “By using Accents Dimensional Coating, we created a prestigious and more-interactive appearance,” Sasine adds.
Thanks to metallized Mylar, Clinique’s Merry Clinique setup boxes will shine on shelves.
Film wraps are another way to make gift sets shine. This holiday, Clinique got into the holiday spirit with some shiny gift set folding cartons produced by Arkay Packaging. The cartons were decorated with metallized Mylar and a UV coating, and the words Merry Clinique were embossed. “The cartons really followed Clinique’s minimalist approach,” says Mitchell Kaneff, chairman and CEO of Arkay. “They were very elegant and understated, yet attention-getting.”
Kaneff adds that metallized Mylar can create a range of effects. “The thicker the metallized material is, the more reflective it is,” he says. “So if you’re looking to do something with less artwork on it, this would create the desired special effect.”
Engelhard Corp., which specializes in special-effect films, will launch some new reflective films for marketers. In early 2006, the company expects to launch three new special-effect iridescent films in its Aurora special-effect film line. In addition, last year the firm launched Aurora DiamondFire film, which is its highest-reflectivity film that is very brilliant and colorful.
“Reflective materials really catch customers’ eyes as they are walking down the aisle,” says Kaneff. “And at the end of the day, that’s what you need to do to sell more product.”
Clearly Prestigious
Another way to ensure customers notice a gift set on shelves is to make sure its products are in clear view. In this case, transparent packaging is helpful.
The holiday gift boxes for Burberry feature a transparent finish and side-to-side sliding doors.
Dapy Paris created some luxurious polystyrene holiday gift boxes for Burberry Brit. Seven boxes were designed in colors of cream, red, and smoky gray. The boxes’ most unique feature is their transparent side-to-side sliding doors, which provide customers with full visibility of the products. “The sliding door also offers users a different type of interaction than a lift-off cover,” says Jennifer Chouraqui, U.S. agent for Dapy Paris. “It’s fresh and very contemporary.”
Combining plastic with other materials is also a growing trend. “I’m seeing a lot going on now in mixed materials,” says Chouraqui. “For instance, I’m seeing transparent covers matched with fabric- or paper-wrapped bases.”
“By combining different elements, you can make transparent packaging more upscale,” says Gary Korba, COO of supplier MG New York and formerly vice president of creative global package development for Estée Lauder. MG New York, which supplies items including compacts and bags, specializes in combining plastic materials with fabric, polyurethane, metal, and canvas.
Gift Sets That Keep On Giving
Perhaps the type of gift set most valued by consumers is one they can use again and again. “I have a philosophy on gift sets—I really think they should be able to be turned into reusable packaging,” says Korba.
The more durable and upscale a gift set’s packaging is, the more customers are likely to reuse it. Some companies are designing their packaging with the reusability feature in mind. For instance, Estée Lauder’s Rebolledo says that for Lauder’s commemorative boxes, the company made sure the labels on the back of the boxes were 100% removable so customers could reuse the box.
One of the most reusable types of gift set packaging is the gift bag. Today’s gift bags pay homage to current trends, especially those in the fashion industry. “Each brand has a DNA, an identity,” says Korba. “So to create gift-with-purchase bags, you must try to tie that together with current trends in structures, color, and graphics.”
Johan Pot is vice president and general manager for Quick Pak, the packaging services division of Multi-Color Corp. that does much of its work packing out gift sets for brands such as Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret Beauty, and Kao Brands. He says he has noticed marketers like Victoria’s Secret focusing on designs that can endure beyond the holiday season. “There were years when we would shrink-wrap products together with gift-set vehicles like a sled or a Christmas tree,” he says. “Those days are gone. We’ve seen a strong departure over the last two years from seasonal-looking gift packaging.”
By designing gift sets with a not-so-seasonal look, brands may realize a cost benefit. “Less-seasonal packaging provides for a longer selling window,” says Pot. “When you establish a really seasonal look to your packaging, once you get past the Christmas selling window, you end up in the situation where you don’t have a choice but to mark down the price of these gift sets. But when your packaging doesn’t have that seasonal appearance, you can go into your January sale period without the financial exposure of having to immediately mark down the assortment following Christmas.”