Editors’ Choice Award Winner: Cosmetics
Lipsticket
by Passport Cosmetics
As sample packages gradually become popular for packaging retail products, the brands that launch these packages first are generally the first to capture customer attention. Last summer, Passport Cosmetics introduced Lipsticket, a package featuring supplier Orlandi’s ColorKiss single-use direct-application lipstick sampling technology. Passport was the first brand to launch ColorKiss as a retail package.
Introduced to the cosmetics market by Orlandi in 2002, ColorKiss comprises a small-sized card that is pretreated with lipstick. To apply lipstick directly from the card, users simply peel off the plastic cover, fold the card in half, and slide the card onto their lips, transferring the lipstick. The package is easy to use, portable, and sanitary because each applicator is individually sealed. “With so many new brands and products leaning toward portability, travel friendliness, and convenience, it was very clear that ColorKiss had a great potential to enter the retail market,” says Dale Beal, vice president of marketing for Orlandi.
“As soon as we saw ColorKiss, we thought that it made total sense for our brand,” says Erin Cotter, Passport’s creative director, who founded the company with partner Meredith McGann. “The package is all about ease of use, portability, and innovation, as is our brand. We were under serious time constraints, as we wanted to be the first to market with it.” The product was on shelves after less than three months of development.
Passport came up with a unique marketing slant for ColorKiss. Because the brand’s theme is travel friendliness, it decided to package the ColorKiss cards in an airline-ticket–style envelope, also supplied by Orlandi, and to call the product Lipsticket. The cards were hand-packed into the envelope.
“I really appreciate the twist on the sample-type card—the marketing gives it new life,” says awards panelist Jerrod Blandino, founder and creative director for Too Faced Cosmetics.
“The name Lipsticket is adorable—great branding association,” says awards panelist Maureen Kelly, founder of Tarte Cosmetics.
“The Lipsticket book plays up its easy transportability feature even further by incorporating names of destinations into the shade names,” observes panelist Jeff Wass, director of package engineering for Avon Products.
Each Lipsticket package contains three shades of lipstick. Cotter says that Lipsticket isn’t meant to replace a customer’s regular-sized lipstick; it is simply meant to be a travel-sized version for when portability is a must. “It really goes where a traditional lipstick container would never fit,” she says.
Awards panelist Lisa Carroll, group creative director for Coty Inc., says, “I think this package is really fun. You can carry it around in your wallet and refresh yourself.”
Panelist Maiken Erstad, design director for Dragon Rouge, adds, “From cell phones to iPods, everything has become smaller and more portable, so I think it is definitely a trend that probably will not die away too quickly. I think it is clever for brands to pay attention to that.”
Because the concept of ColorKiss was new to the retail beauty market at the time, one challenge was ensuring customers would know how to use it. “It was imperative that we include graphics on the exterior of the package that could clearly explain what the product was, what its benefits were, and how you apply it,” says Cotter. “I collaborated with Orlandi, telling them exactly what we were looking for as far as the shape of the package. Then we worked with our incredibly creative graphic designer, Debbie Chin, on the packaging graphics.”
Brands such as Rimmel, Paula Dorf, and ForPlay Cosmetics have each launched their versions of ColorKiss. But Passport is remembered for being the first to do so.