Answering Five Critical Questions Can Simplify Selection of a Functional Closure

Answering Five Critical Questions Can Simplify Selection of a Functional Closure

In order to select a functional closure for a new or repackaged product that satisfies the packager's budgetary and branding requirements, the retailer's needs, and the ultimate consumer's preferences, closure specifiers must allow sufficient time to weigh the options early in the selection process. During these early stages, it's also vital to solicit input from others, to gain a fuller understanding of the product and its lifecycle, including how it's to be packaged and capped, how it will be transported and stored, and how it will be used and by whom. In addition to representatives from the various functional areas within the brand owner's organization, it's essential to get input from outside players like the bottle, label, and closure manufacturers. Many of these outside companies have experience with similar products, so they can help by identifying potential packaging pitfalls and making recommendations.

Packaging serves three major functions: (1) safely containing the product, (2) communicating the product's brand messages and claims to the consumer, and (3) ensuring ease of access to the product itself by the consumer. When creating a new package, thinking about a very small detail may make a difference in the success of a new product or a repositioned brand. Bottle, label, liner, dispensing closure, overwrap, cardboard box or clamshell, or any other secondary packaging elements impact not only consumer perception of a product's quality but also affects production line efficiencies, storage and transportation economics. Consider a small detail: the dispensing orifice of a closure on a salad dressing package. If the salad dressing is of a creamy consistency, the ideal orifice would be large, allowing the dressing to flow freely. However, if the dressing is a Balsamic Vinaigrette, one would want to use a smaller, elongated orifice shape to allow for a smooth flow and greater control by the consumer to avoid dispensing too much. All these details need to be thought out and experimented with before making a final decision.

As you can see, it's essential for brand owners to ask themselves some crucial packaging questions early in the process. The focus of this white paper is on the selection of closures, because my long-term observations forced me to conclude that far too often, closure selection is an afterthought in the overall package selection process. Hence, what follows is a set of questions that we recommend asking as part of new-package decision-making.

Question 1: Does the overall packaging concept take into account the brand owner/marketer's most pressing concerns/needs? Does it reflect the product category's standards?

The overall packaging design must be reflective of the marketer's overall brand identity. For many consumer product categories, like grated cheese, creamers, liquid condiments, etc., brand owners typically want to look as much as possible like the leader in that category.

Household chemicals pose a variety of challenges in closure selection, depending on whether they're dry (e.g., dry fertilizer that can be shaken or broadcast on a lawn) or wet (carpet cleaner), intended for indoor or outdoor use. From a consumer perspective, the first priority is that it should allow using the product effectively without the need to come into physical contact with it, so the package/closure combination must allow them to avoid touching the product with their hands. From the brand owner's perspective, it must also contain the product securely to prevent leakage or spillage during transportation or storage.

Personal care products such as body washes, shampoos, conditioners, bath salts, etc. come in a wide range of textures and forms; package designs change frequently as brand managers strive to stay in touch with changing consumer preferences. Typically, brand managers for these products are often most interested in enhancing their curb appeal to consumers through the use of unique package shapes and attention-grabbing graphics. Dispensing packages became a norm in the personal care market. One sees lots of closure innovation in this segment around the form and color, while the dispensing and other functional features (i.e., ease of opening, safe re-closure) of the package are rarely changed. Broadening the selection of closure types will most definitely improve functional features of personal care packages.

In the category of pet foods, treats, and nutritional supplements, while manufacturers tend to focus on controlling packaging costs, consumers care most that the dispenser keeps the product fresh after opening, contains the smell of the product within the package (because these products often have very strong aromas), and is easy to open and reclose.

Other important concerns for brand owners/mangers include shaping the "defining moments" of a consumer's interaction with the product. Executives at Proctor & Gamble, the consumer products giant, have written about the company's concepts of the "first moment of truth" and "second moment of truth" in relation to consumer products packaging design.1 The first moment is essentially the consumer's first encounter with and reaction to a product in the retail environment that draws him/her to the specific shelf space. It's the retail equivalent of "curb appeal" in real estate. The marketer wins if the consumer decides to purchase. This moment of truth is often based on package shape/color/contrast, sometimes on the design of the closure. The second moment of truth is the impression the consumer forms through the process of using the product. Every subsequent usage continues to shape this second moment of truth. When thoughtfully selected, closures can play a huge role in shaping this second moment, thereby building and maintaining the brand loyalty, and either confirming or negating the purchase decision the consumer made back in the store.

In choosing closures and other elements of the overall package design, brand managers/owners also must give significant consideration to their target audience's requirements, such as those associated with child-resistant packaging, which must be easy enough for elderly consumers to use while preventing children from gaining access to the product inside. Similarly, a poorly chosen dispensing closure can make a significant difference in a meal experience for anyone, but especially for someone who has difficulty in handling the package or closure with confidence. For example, salad dressing spilled by a child or an arthritis suffereror, actually, anyone who's just momentarily distractedcan easily ruin a whole bowl of salad, casting a pall over the whole meal experience and creating a negative second moment of truth for that product.

Sustainability is another important brand owner consideration, as managers seek to reduce unnecessary elements of the overall packaging, such as overwraps, liners, or cap designs that require more plastic to manufacture. However, it's important to consider what level of functionality or consumer confidence may be lost by eliminating such packaging components. For example, liners typically serve two purposes: (1) ensuring the product's freshness and potency by keeping out moisture and oxygen, thereby extending its life and (2) providing tamper evidence. Some categories of products don't require a liner (such as many household chemicals), but they're often used to enhance the perception of quality or to prevent odor leakage during transportation and storage. In consumer focus groups that Weatherchem has conducted on closure designs, roughly half of the focus group panelists reported that they disliked liners, considering them just another barrier preventing them from getting to the product inside; the other half were strongly in favor of their use because of concerns about the potential for product tampering.

Question 2: How difficult will it be to integrate a specific closure design with the manufacturer's production/packaging processes and other elements of the overall packaging design?

As outlined previously, a dispensing closure used must be chosen in the context of the overall packaging design. The bottle, label, liner, closure, overwrap, cardboard box (often used for nutritional supplements or over-the-counter drugs), or clamshell package must all function together as a unit. For example, the bottle and closure must fit together perfectly with a matching thread pitch and profile, or the package design will fail in its mission of containing the product and preventing product leakage or sifting during transportation. If the product is to be further protected with a liner, the liner must integrate with the bottle and closure to allow closing the package securely, both on the packaging line and after the liner is removed by the consumer.

Today's increasingly popular heat-shrink labels represent another challenge in the overall packaging design process. For example, closure specifiers must balance the size of the thumb indent on an easy-open flip-top closure with the requirements of the heat-shrink label. If the thumb indent is too large, the label may burn at the indent point on the closure during the heating process. If the thumb indent is too small, it won't provide the consumer with enough leverage to open the closure easily.

Dispensing closures are often slightly taller than regular screw-on caps. For a manufacturer that uses an outer packaging element such as a cardboard box (for extra space for marketing messages or use directions) or a clear clamshell package (to provide an extra layer of tamper evidence), a change from a regular screw-on cap to a dispensing closure may require a change to the outer package to accommodate the greater height. For many manufacturers, what might have seemed like a relatively insignificant change could lead to a very large capital expense if this consideration is not factored in early.

Closures must always be evaluated in terms of how they will integrate with the brand owner's existing production and packaging lines, including any size or shape limitations imposed by the capping equipment, the speed at which bottles are filled and caps applied, the ability to incorporate a liner during the capping process, methods of delivering closures to the capping lines, etc. Particularly when a new closure design is intended to replace a previous one, packaging engineers may need to make some adjustments or additions to the capping equipment and the induction sealing equipment used in adding liners. Fortunately for brand owners, Weatherchem's Technical Solution Group offers technical expertise that can be invaluable during this conversion process. This service can save brand owners thousands of dollars by preventing many packaging problems before they arise.

Shipping specifications must also be taken into account in the closure selection process. For example, as mentioned previously, when converting from a traditional screw-on cap to a dispensing closure, the height of the overall package may increase. This may necessitate a change to a larger shipping carton in order to accommodate multiple layers of product, or alternatively a reduction of layers in the carton, which in turn leads to the reduction of product quantities and increased shipping costs. Or, consider what might happen if the brand owner decides to introduce a very distinctive package and closure combination in order to boost consumer interest, as is often the case with products like dairy and non-dairy creamers. If the previous closure had a flat top and the new one has a contoured one, this can complicate top loading because it will be more difficult to pack layers of product securely in the shipping carton. It may also make it difficult or impossible to get the same number of items into the same size carton, increasing shipping costs.

Question 3: Given the necessity of minimizing the brand owner's legal liability, have all relevant safety and regulatory issues been taken into consideration?

For many categories of consumer products, but especially for those related to personal health care, brand owners have to be able to prove that the claims made on their labels or packages remain valid until the product's expiration date. Choosing an appropriate combination of bottle, liner, and closure is often critical to maintaining a proper seal, which is in turn critical to maintaining the product's potency and extending its shelf life.

Government regulations on ingredients listings, dosage recommendations, warnings, and other required wording often mean manufacturers are left with extremely limited space on the label for the product's branding messages. For products with larger closures, the closure itself can offer additional real estate in which these branding messages can be located. Look for closure suppliers that offer the flexibility to incorporate brand identity elements or instructional information into the closure's design, such as

through custom colors, special shapes, or embedded logos or taglines. For example, Weatherchem's Flapper, LiquiFlapper, NutraGen II, and FlapMate closures all offer product manufacturers the opportunity to build their brands by incorporating embossed logos into their products' dispensing caps.

As mentioned previously, the first major function of a package design is to contain the product safely, particularly during later packaging stages, transportation, warehousing, etc. The bottle and closure must work together to prevent product from spilling or sifting out during handling, especially in products without a liner under the closure.

The need for a liner is largely determined by the product inside the package. For example, most food items are packaged with liners, even though they aren't always absolutely necessary for dry products like spices and seasonings that will be used up relatively quickly. The closure manufacturer typically punches the liner material into the cap, and then the whole liner/closure combination is attached to the bottle on the capping line. Even though liners can add significantly to packaging costs, they are often integrated into the overall design because they tend to heighten consumers' perceptions of quality and product safety. In fact, liners can represent as much as 20 percent of the total closure cost.

It's always important to balance the brand owner's need to reduce legal liability with the consumer's desire for convenience. For example, for nutritional supplements or other products that don't absolutely require child-proof caps, closures should be evaluated to determine if they allow someone with arthritis to open and close it easily. By the same token, they must provide sufficient difficulty in opening to be safe enough for use in households with small children. Weatherchem offers a variety of user-friendly closures to satisfy these needs.

Question 4: Does the overall package design, including the closure, take into account the retailer's business realities and preferences?

In retail environments like supermarkets, drugstores, and discount stores, the amount of shelf space available is always severely limited, and packaged products that don't sell quickly may lose their high visibility shelf positions to more popular competitors. Retailers will also consider how efficiently a product utilizes the shelf space it occupies, including the overall height of the packaged product. A taller functional closure (or the taller box needed to accommodate it) may make it necessary to move a product out of its usual shelf space.

Not surprisingly, retailers are most interested in selling products that turn over quickly, so they tend to allocate more shelf space to them. Branded products are under additional pressure since the recent recession made the private-label brands more visible and acceptable by consumers. So here lies an interesting question for marketing managers and packaging engineers: can we increase a product's consumption rate through subtle packaging changes? For food staples like salad dressings, many consumers prefer packages with closures with small to medium openings that control the amount of dressing dispensed at one time. In contrast, closures with a full round orifice or a screw-on top will allow for faster flow of product during dispensing, which of course increases the consumption rate but likely frustrates the users. If the brand owner is watching the new development in the dispensing closure segment, he or she is seeing new dispensing solutions that may help them provide to their consumers controlled dispensing without impairing the dispensing rate.

Functional package features like a dispensing closure can increase a product's popularity and generate new consumer trials as well. A package with visual stopping power that combines an arresting shape or color with a convenient closure design can often help shape that first moment of truth mentioned previously.

Growing concerns with sustainability and recycling have made retailers increasingly interested in minimizing or eliminating packaging materials that don't add value to the consumer's experience. Many are anticipating that if European-style environmental regulations are implemented in the United States, retailers may become the entities bearing the cost of recycling and reducing waste.

Question 5: Does the closure work with the overall package design to establish and maintain consumer brand preference?

Consumers often base their initial perception of product quality in part on how well the closure and the package work together as a unit. Can they hold and open the package with just one hand? Is there an audible snap when the cap is reclosed? Closures that provide these advantages help build customer loyalty by providing greater user convenience and confidence that the package is securely closed.

Consumers also care about packaging that helps keep the product fresh over the long term, prevents moisture penetration (especially for products like dry creamers and fiber supplements), helps ensure product safety, and dispenses the product easily and cleanly. A variety of closure designs have been developed to address these concerns for various categories, including closures that seal the package against outside air, are compatible with tamper-evident liners and protective overwraps, and provide controlled dispensing.

Ease of dispensing can be critical to maintaining brand preference, such as when the closure's orifice (opening) helps minimize drips and spillage during use. A poorly thought-out closure choice may lead to product dripping out of the package or on to the consumer's hands, or dispensing more product than desireda perfect example of one of those negative second moments of truth discussed previously. Such an experience may mean that consumer never purchases that brand again because of the negative associations that come with seeing the package. In contrast, a well-designed closure can create a much more positive second moment of truth.

Although a closure with a round orifice may be appropriate for thick liquids such as honey or molasses, which are often squeezed from a bottle, less viscous liquids like salad dressings, syrups, creamers, or sauces typically work better with an elongated orifice designed to provide better control over the volume dispensed, and to reduce the risk of spills, spatters, etc., especially when being used by young children. Weatherchem's LiquiFlapper closure features a unique teardrop-shaped orifice and sharp cut-off lip to provide controlled directional flow of these types of liquids, preventing drips and spills that could otherwise leave the bottle unsanitary or sticky to the touch.

Similarly, for powdered fiber supplements, the orifice should be designed to make it easy for the consumer to dispense just the right amount of product. Dispensing closures like Weatherchem's Flapper design make it convenient to pour the supplement directly into a glass or spoon, eliminating the need to dip a used spoon back into the package, which raises the likelihood of contaminating the product.

Another way in which packaging can build consumer brand preference is by offering multiple dispensing options, such as for grated cheese, with a shaker top on one side and a larger opening for spooning or pouring on the other. Grated cheese, once sold in cardboard composite packages with a rotational top, is now more typically sold in PET containers with dual-sided flip-top closures, such as Weatherchem's Flapper closure, which provides a vapor seal to keep the cheese fresher longer, as well as a concave sift surface designed to make the lid easier to close by eliminating product buildup.

Summary

Obviously, no single functional closure solution can be right for every packaging challenge. However, with careful planning, thoughtful input from all the parties involved, and good advice from outside vendors, brand owners can choose closures that balance their needs and cost constraints with the preferences of retailers and consumers.

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