Shampoo and conditioner bottles promote hair-raising sales: packaging must help hair-care products stand out on the shelf—and in the shower - Hair Care Packaging

Food & Drug Packaging, Oct, 2003 by Pan Demetrakakes

Hair care products really need to stand out on the shelf.

And some of them are literally turning themselves upside-down to do so.

Tottles are just one of the ways that hair care products are attempting to distinguish themselves through packaging. Odd shapes and sizes, unique closures and colors, and other brand-identity strategies abound on the shelves of drugstores, mass marketers and salons.

Shelf presence is a need shared by many consumer products, of course. But hair care products have certain unique packaging requirements. As with fragrances and cosmetics, the packaging for hair care products needs to evoke beauty, style, femininity (or masculinity), and whatever other qualities the marketer wishes to associate with the product.

However, compared with cosmetics and fragrances, most hair care packages hold large amounts of product. Many of them are used daily, and they're seen as less of an indulgence than cosmetics and fragrances, making price more of an issue. For these reasons, it's harder to design hair care packaging with the elaborate, unique (and expensive) shapes of many cosmetics and fragrance packages.

Another consideration for hair care packaging is that many of the products come in lines. A single line can comprise several types of shampoo, conditioner, hair coloring and other products. Packaging must both tie the line together and allow consumers to distinguish individual products within that line--sometimes while they have soap in their eyes.

Where to find it?

Sales venues are another important factor. Shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion and other hair care products are sold in a variety of locations, from beauty salons to mass merchandisers to upscale department stores. Each venue brings different packaging priorities to the forefront. (Some salon products have a habit of appearing on retail shelves, much to the marketers' chagrin--see "Salon brands want to wash away diversion" on page 47.)

Different hair-care companies--and different divisions within the same companies--take different approaches to all these challenges. Some opt for a time-honored strategy among consumer products in general: Make color do all the work.

For instance, the Thermasilk brand of Unilever's Helene Curtis division, which uses all high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles, features different shades of lavender for different lines, such as medium violet for Moisture Infusing shampoo and deep purple for Heat Activated. This approach has the virtue of simplicity. The drawback, some designers say, is that there are only so many shades of one color to work with.

A more prevalent strategy is to use the same bottle color throughout the line, but vary the color of a small element, such as an icon or lettering, on the label. For instance, L'Oreal's Vive brand features white polypropylene (PP) bottles with orange type spelling out "Nutri-Moisture" and burgundy letters for "Color-Care." (The exception is "Smooth Intense" shampoo, which comes in a vibrant orange bottle.)

By the same token, Procter & Gamble's Pantene line uses white HDPE bottles for its shampoo and conditioner, with the formulation ("Smooth & Sleek" or "Classic Care," for example) in type of varying color. Bill Winkler, P&G's associate director of hair care package development, says the pearlescent white color of Pantene bottles and the "Pro V" logo were determined to be the mainstays from a brand-identity standpoint; a recent redesign kept those elements while altering shapes and other aspects.

Worldwide choices

One of the priorities for the Pantene redesign was to standardize the packaging worldwide, Winkler says: "We wanted to design a package having one shape equity around the globe, replacing the several different package shapes used for Pantene in the various [global] regions."

On the other hand, one of Unilever's recent major line extensions, Dove shampoo and conditioner, came out with different bottles for the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. bottles are tall and slender, with color-coded circular closures (light blue for shampoo, white for conditioner). The European packaging is squatter, with broader closures that are all dark blue, and an upside-down bottle for the conditioner.

The Dove hair care line used a couple of elements to tie into the equity of the well-known soap brand, says Matthew Okin, senior packaging design director for Unilever Home & Personal Care North America. "The bottles include Dove's signature "smile'--a curvature on the top that conveys a positive feeling," Okin says.

Color was another important element. "Dove's new hair care line centers on the proposition of Weightless Moisturizers--delivering superior moisturization with out weighing down the hair," Okin says. "The packaging reflects this positioning with a soft, white container that is slightly transparent, and graphics that convey the purity of the Dove brand along with a light, weightless feel."

White is a popular color for hair care products. It conveys the feeling of purity, and it's easy to achieve in HDPE, which is naturally opaque.