Cooperation is key to private label design: manufacturers, retailers and others need to pool information and efforts to create the best private-label packages

Food & Drug Packaging, June, 2004 by Pan Demetrakakes

Private-label packaging design, at its best, is a highly collaborative process.

The result can be attractive, effective packaging--as long as all the collaborators do their part.

With national brands, packaging, like most other aspects of a product, is totally under the control of the manufacturers. They seek feedback from trade customers and consumers, of course, but they make virtually all the important decisions.

But with private label, decisions on packaging can come from manufacturers, packaging suppliers, retail customers and others. The process depends on how much input each player wants to, or is capable of, contributing.

In some cases, the retailer--whose name, after all, is usually on the product--takes the initiative. Through ideas generated either internally or in consultation with a third-party designer, the retailer develops a concept and, in some cases, specific package designs.

"It's a true partnership," says Bob Bischoff, vice president of design with Federated Design. "Some [retailers] are very strategic and have specific ideas on how they want packaging to be presented. They're a dream to work with. With others, it's more of a general philosophy, and we work together on the design."

But the initiative in packaging design can rest elsewhere than with the retailer. Tanja Mordeson, national sales and marketing manager of RC International, a manufacturer of private-label personal care products, says her company routinely takes almost total responsibility for packaging development.

"More and more, [retailers] consider [packaging] to be added value, and there are very few private-label manufacturers that are not offering these kind of services to the retailer," Mordeson says. "I don't know of very many retailers that are still handling this stuff internally. Oftentimes, when they are, they're being extremely overcharged by ad agencies, unfortunately. I've seen that happen on a few occasions."

When RC International undertakes a private-label project, Mordeson tries to get a firm idea from the retail customer about the general direction the product line should take.

"They'll tell you, 'Well, I want to go a little higher-end, This is going to be more of a spa type of line,'" Mordeson says. "Or they'll say, 'This is going to be the medium line. The current private-label offering is going to be the dollar line, and we want to take it up a notch.'"

Getting the necessary feedback isn't always easy, Mordeson says: "That can be a little bit frustrating. You'd think that the retailer would want to be more involved with that than they actually are. But they look at you as the expert in the field, and often want you to come up with the name and the concept."

Manufacturers' input

On the other hand, some manufacturers aren't as forthcoming as they could be with packaging design input, Bischoff says. Even when manufacturers aren't experts in packaging, their knowledge of production, consumer demographics and other aspects of a product can be very useful in package design.

"We don't get as much research as I know [manufacturers] have on their particular items or their particular categories," Bischoff says. "The results of packaging would be even stronger if there were synergy between the manufacturers and design firms. Right now, all they basically do is pay the bill and get routed the keylines."

Many private-label products originate, not with the manufacturer or the retail customer, but with middlemen. Such companies develop and distribute private-label products, but don't manufacture them or sell them directly to consumers. Some of them are independent companies that collaborate with manufacturers and retailers; others are cooperatives of wholesalers and/or retailers.

Topco Associates LLC falls into the latter group. The Skokie, Ill.-based cooperative supplies private-label products to Meijer, Ukrop's, Giant Eagle and other food retailers. Some of these bear the retailer's name; others are "all-member brands," specific to Topco.

"We don't like to think of ourselves as in the private-label business," says Maryruth Wilson, vice president for brand and product innovation. "We like to think of ourselves as in the privately owned brand business."

Topco takes responsibility for just about all of its packaging development, especially for all-member brands. But it uses feedback from both retail customers and manufacturers, Wilson says.

"On the all-member brands, a lot of the work initiates here, but I do tend to rely on the membership to give me feedback, and they're not a shy group," she says.

The manufacturers that Topco deals with aren't any shyer. "I have found in some categories, the manufacturers are very adamant," Wilson says. "When they think I'm making a mistake, they will call me up and say 'No, no, no. You don't understand the consumer.' And we welcome that kind of feedback. Sometimes we agree to disagree."

To imitate or not?

One factor that often sparks disagreement is how much a private-label product should follow the packaging of the national brand it competes against.