As the upward trend of consumers’ personal weight in developed countries steadily increases, consumers are getting progressively more concerned about high-calorie, high-portion size drinks. They are also concerned about their general health, creating an interest for wholesome foods from far-away and ethnic places. These two trends have caused interesting responses from food conglomerates and soft […]

Heinz refreshes its ketchup package after 42 years On Feb 4th, Heinz released its new ketchup package. The announcement, to the surprise of many, made the major news publications, including the Wall Street Journal. In their press release, Heinz gives us the drivers behind the design, specifically to be able to cater to the needs […]

½-Gallon Milk Carton Benchmark We are going to be venturing into assessing a number of carton package products on the market soon, and we wanted to establish our benchmark first. We do believe that gable-top packages are indeed the benchmark for carton family-packs on the market, which typically pack milk and juice. One of the […]

In this first article of a proposed series of death-matches, we will be looking at good and bad examples of everyday packages from the marketplace, and comparing them using our metrics that we have developed over the years. As usual, packages being low involvement products, we, as packaging professionals, naturally see a lot more detail […]

Here is another aluminum can design that stands out among the ones we have seen lately. This design adds no new functionality, or tangible consumer value, apart from some potential branding opportunity. However, we do believe that even in that area, this design is rather limited. The idea here is to use a process called […]

We have seen a number of aluminum can concepts lately. Some of these are attractive designs with consumer appeal. They do, however, add no new functionality, or tangible consumer value, apart from branding opportunities. We do believe in sensory appeal, and its positive impact on consumer perception especially at POP.

The 360 Paper Bottle is one of the more refined pulp based concepts that we have seen. Concepts like the 360 Paper Bottle certainly have sex-appeal, driven by their strong environmental image. Here at PackageRepublic.com, we wanted take the 360 bottle, and using it as a proxy to evaluate the uphill battle these concepts will […]

Clam-shell packages, and other hard to open packages designed to eliminate shrinkage in retail outlets have been the source of increasing consumer complaints in recent years. Most of them require tools such as scissors or box cutters to open. They are almost impossible to open without tools. In a recent article, the NY Times reports […]

Occasionally, we come across interlocking package designs. This particular design, which is for a medical drug promotion, interlocks two mirror image packages in jig-saw fashion, one for hand sanitizer, and the other for hand moisturizer. Bundling complementary products in interlocking package designs is not new. But is it innovation?

Two of the most important emerging factors in the package world over the last decade are recyclability and renewability. For many consumers, the difference between the two has not been clear, and continues to blur as new technologies emerge. Recyclability is what is taking place today with trillions of PET bottles that are produced every […]