Major retailers have played a significant role in pushing the sustainable packaging agenda front and center, and many brand owners are finding that the effort to green their packaging is paying off in cost savings along the way. We most recently reported on this trend in our April 2008 issue.

What do you do when Wal-Mart tells you it plans to slash your product’s shelf space and asks you to drop the unit carton your brand has traditionally utilized?
 
The short answer is, of course, comply.
 
Insight Pharmaceuticals faced just this challenge with its Anacin Advance Headache Formula product. Traditionally presented horizontally in a carton at shelf, the brand feared the changes would impair its ability to gain consumer attention. The new vertical display, though good for the retailer, undercut the brand’s efforts to make it easy for consumers to find the product.
 
As an over-the-counter drug, Anacin Advanced must meet stringent regulatory labeling requirements; eliminating the carton reduced valuable space needed to communicate dosage and drug fact guidelines. It also lost the carrying device for delivering a carton insert that provided more detail.
 
Insight settled on an extended-text label as the best solution and selected the EasyTab label from WS Packaging Group’s MultiVision line. The label features a pre-curve in the top panel that makes it possible to wrap around tight-diameter surfaces, critical because of the amount of information the new label would carry. The prime label also had to maintain the brand identity of the original carton, which would continue to be available at other retail outlets.
 
Eliminating the carton on the 60,000 Anacin bottles sold at Wal-Mart keeps 3.8 million square inches of chipboard out of landfills. And the brand also realized a noticeable savings in the cost per package. BP


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