To market, to market: new attention-grabbers for ready-to-drink beverages: from healthy to 'exhilarating,' new ready-to-drink packaging brings convenience and pizazz to consumers

Food & Drug Packaging, March, 2005 by William Makely

A ready-to-drink beverage package doesn't operate under the rules that govern "normal" beverage packaging. It is designed to be used in a different universe.

I can buy a bottle of nice wine and take it home for tonight's dinner with a few friends. Pour a few glasses, enjoy the ambience. But I can't take it to the concert in the park, because they don't allow glass containers. But wait, Baroke's produces four nice Australian wines in cans--specially-coated cans that won't interact with the wine. I can have some wine and brie at the concert after all.

While I'm in the store I can also buy a quick drink, something hot and quick--a pick-me-up. Look, there's the new Wolfgang Puck coffee, and it's in a self-heating cup! Convenient!

All beverage packages strive to appeal to shoppers in some way, either physical or emotional. The classic, muted bottle of scotch says, "If you drink me, you'll be a gentleman." The bright, cartoony kid's fruit drink says, "Hey kid, let's have fun!" Milk offers good health (and good teeth).

Ready-to-drink packages--for a variety of reasons--need louder voices, stronger, more unique appeals. For one thing, they have a strong presence in convenience stores where crowded shelves and coolers demand stronger shelf presence. Wherever they sell, they also tend to rely on a strong brand image to sell their special appeal.

Appealing to the energy lover

Take JOLT[R], which has just been relaunched. "The expresso of colas," as it tags itself, contains twice the caffeine of other drinks, and promotes itself as "exhilarating." The re-launched drink projects that image in a battery-shaped resealable can decorated with crackling images of electric discharges and lightning-bolt JOLT logos.

Several years, JOLT was promoting the same energizing effect, but it's packaging was similar to all the other polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in the soft drinks aisle. Today, after a decline, it is re-born in ready-to-drink, resealable packaging that projects its unique appeal.

Snapple Elements is another energy drink recently re-packaged. Elements went from glass to an impact-extruded aluminum bottle in 2003--one of the first to use the new technology. Now it has hit shelves in a new design that reverses the original marketing emphasis. The word "Energy," previously secondary to the primary brand image of a different colorful graphic for each Element, is now primary, while the individual graphics take second place. The aluminum bottle features a touch of white ink over a silver metallic base coat for a "frosty" look.

Appealing to the healthy consumer

HiOsilver[R] Inc. sells highly-oxygenated water--artesian spring water that contains more than 10 times the amount of oxygen found in natural water, as well as magnesium for increased cardiovascular performance. Traditionally, hiOsilver has bottled the water in glass, because oxygen can leak over time from plastic containers. However, glass containers aren't allowed everywhere that active consumers like to go, and even some retail outlets have begun shunning glass because of breakage concerns.

So, the company recently introduced its water in aluminum cans. They are convenient, recyclable and acceptable everywhere. And they enable the healthy water to compete better against other energy drinks, according to hiOsilver's president Howard Hoffmann. The glass bottles are still available---some of the company's health-concerned consumers still prefer the purity of a see-through glass container.

The hiOsilver name, by the way, bears no relation to the Lone Ranger's famous cry. The hiO refers to the water's high oxygen content, and the company's founder grew up near Silver Springs. Maryland.

Another healthy product in new packaging is POM Wonderful--another name open to misinterpretation. POM stands for pomegranate, the fruit supplying the main juice in the drink. "Wonderful," while it may represent some consumers' reactions to the product, is actually the name of the variety of pomegranate used to make the drink, which is blended with other fresh juices to make the company's five flavors.

POM recently switched to a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle from glass. The objective was similar to those of hiOsilver--to give consumers a package acceptable in more venues, and because increasingly, some retail outlets are not allowing glass on their shelves due to safety and breakage issues. Since POM bottles are often found in produce sections where breakage could potentially contaminate fresh produce, this was an important issue for the company.

The new plastic bottle, which mimics the original glass bottle exactly, represents pomegranates balanced on each other, complete with the "crown" of leaves at the stem.

Wine, women and cold beer

Baroke's does indeed package a proven and patent-protected technology called Vinsafe[R] which it developed over seven years of research and testing. Vinsafe involves technology for the wine construction, can lining and filling specifications required to achieve premium quality, stability and longevity (up to five years) for the wine. Baroke's wine-in-a-can is packaged in a 250 milliliter tab-top can, offering consumers two glasses of quality wine.