Packaging for AyurCream™

 

I am looking for a design quote for the work described below. I expect to carry this forward with a request for printing labels (assuming I do not use silk screen). The initial order labels would be modest -- probably 5,000 of the normal and large, perhaps 10,000 for the sample jar size. I am ready to order a premium label since this will be a high-priced retail skin cream sold in health food stores, not as a cosmetic, but as a "skin nourishing nutrient cream."

The first decision is to use the form: AyurCream normally -- it would not be written "Ayurcream."

Next, as a matter of good practice, the word must appear at some prominent place on a "publication" at least once with the MARK shown: AyurCream™. It is generally not necessary to use the mark more than once and it would be a distraction to use it repeatedly in one publication in print or electronic. The rule would be one of common sense -- the usual reader or browser will move through a publication and should see the mark somewhere prominently displayed. If he "misses seeing" it, but it is still prominent enough to be what the usual person would notice, that should be fine.

The next decision is that this is NOT a drug and NOT a cosmetic product. So, all packaging and promotional material must include the basic "positioning" of these two concepts:

A denial of the usual claims that make a product into a "drug" or a "cosmetic." Click here for a pop-up window that shows those details.

An assertion of the truth that "only the body heals and the proper diet can and should prevent or treat a disease and a proper diet can or should nourish the body so that the body then produces attractive aspects. Click here for pop up window that presents a bit more of this central concept to all our "Ayurceutical" products.

The "Positioning" of such a new product as ours calls for special skills of research and design.

Clearly "Ayurcream" introduces a word that has been virtually never used. Thus it is unfamiliar to the broad public. It may be guessed at in Asia, but will be a complete mystery in the Western World. ("Ayurvedic" is a well known term in India, certainly, but it is not immediately clear that the prefix "Ayur" means life or more specifically, health, while "-vedic" refers to "book" or "teachings."

(We also will be selling to health food stores, for the first time, in addition to our normal mail order and web site promotion. For the health food stores we have an additional NEW concept -- selling to "exclusive agents" who have paid a fee to become registered exclusive agents for a specified area, receiving goods on consignment (without advance pay) and earning a commission based on sales, certainly, but also on the amount of electronic, interactive training their staff has taken of our Vibrant Life web-based courses. We expect to charge a fee to register as an exclusive agent, ship goods on consignment only as much as his fee payment covers. With the consignment sale there is no control over prices by the health food store, only by the owner (Vibrant Life) so we can be certain of having no discounting or price competition amongst sales outlets. All competition will be based on quality of service (based in part on the training they have had) and availability of inventory. Prices allowed to be charged on consignment sales may not be less than the prices for the same products offered on the VL web sites.

There may well be a need for "positioning" these marketing concepts as well as the NAME of the new product and the TYPE of product it is. There is a lot of "NEW" going on here. Click here for a pop-up window on all the "new" things that are being introduced at one time!

Part of this package includes an instant web site developed for the exclusive agent, such as this example here.)

Positioning is vital to the success of marketing any product where the name given to it is actually a word never heard of.

"Ivory" soap is a good example of a name that most people would understand easily. When Ivory Soap was first introduced many years ago, Proctor and Gamble had a real positioning problem. They came up with one of the most brilliant ways to differentiate their soap from all others by saying, "It floats!" That feature, of course, had to be "built into the soap" and had nothing to do with its value as a cleaning product -- but it allowed "positioning" that would clearly make it the most well-known name of soap in the world.

If we could, for instance, create into Ayurcream a mechanical feature such as, "It bubbles gently on your skin for seven minutes!" or some such, that feature could be used to position Ayurcream as at least different, and if well done, better, than other creams.

The marketing people are often demanding of the production people that they "build in" some aspect of the product that will make it different, even if not usefully different, JUST so they can use that difference as a POSITIONING point. The production people who understand marketing will, themselves, dream up features they can build into the product to make marketing easier.

"Ayurcream" uses a term that practically no person will understand.

If you say, "Ayurcream makes your skin like a baby's skin." you are using "positioning. But you would also be using a truly worn-out comparison -- worn-out means no longer useful. Coming up with FRESH comparisons is what drives Madison Avenue and makes SOME artists wealthy.

People who first see "Ayurcream" will have some attraction to it because people love "mysteries." But when it is mysterious it must then quickly be made known or the next reaction takes place:

It is not only that they don't understand this term, it is also a law that as soon as they sense that a unknown word is being used they will have a tendency to shun that word and that product.

Such as:

This new type of noodle is thick as zilly and as good as smarrq.

There is, thus, a peculiar demand on anyone using an unknown word in marketing. Since it is generally much easier to get a trademark on an unknown word ("Ayurcream") than a familiar word, the ease of getting the trademark is counter-balanced by the great need to spend ink, paper and money to present that word -- the presentation will be far faster and more effective if the full technology of "positioning" is known and practiced.

There is very much more to this -- many pages written by Mr. Hubbard on this subject. We utilize the Management System published by Mr. Hubbard, including his work on "positioning."

Positioning can be done by comparing some word with another word, but the real power of positioning comes from comparing the unfamiliar with the image of an object that is very familiar or gives an obvious impression.

He is hard to get to know!
He is like a cute puppy!
Her dance style is a bit sluggish!
Your blood will flow easily and abundantly.
This cream has an ancient heritage from India.
This new cream creates the LIFE of a child in your skin!

 

Next, there are three different sizes of container:

A sample jar, perhaps 50 grams. The size we use will depend on finding suitable supplies Rather we may well find a "blister" pack or tube pack that is less expensive to produce and works well.

A "normal" jar, possibly 4 ounces. This will be the primary promotional item. Tentatively it should have a retail price of about $25.00 and a margin of profit sufficient to allow usual trade discounts.

An "economy" sized jar, possibly 12 ounces. This will be priced at about twice the cost of the normal jar, but contain about three times as much contents.

The size depends on the "normal" jar as the base unit. The sample size should be of such size to "look like" a sample next to the normal size.

The style of jar, once found, may determine the sizes we settle on. The jar on the left is probably too fancy for us and would not be used. But, the jar on the right might be too plain, even though it might present the easiest surface for a label to be applied. The style and size of jar are important decisions yet to be made. I would appreciate suggestions from the designer.

I want the main packaging theme to emphasize a "box" for each normal size jar. That is, the "product" is a "boxed jar" and the box has the theme and color that carries through on the jar.

The normal size jar is intended to be packaged in individual boxes -- one box for one jar.

The sample jars would not be separately boxed.

The economy jars could be, or might not be, boxed individually -- the cost of the box enters in here.

I will be finalizing the size of the jar, therefore also of the box, as soon as possible.

The first design element involves a color and pattern for the background to be printed on the outside of the box material, with the same or a related color and pattern for the background of the label.

This design element should be a "random texture and random set of compatible colors with a blurringg or motion effect in the image. Here is an example. In this example the random and colored pattern is "behind" the word "AyurCream."

I produced this color pattern by starting with a color swatch produced from a Word Art image which I then stretched, blurred and manipulated in my photo editor program.

I expect an artist familiar with the proper tools can turn out dozens of such color/pattern combinations and that I can look at several. I would expect to be able to say, "I like example E but would like it 'more blue' or 'show more motion'."

The basic pattern, once selected must be produced in a large enough format such that it can be used to cover the entire surface of the box (BEFORE it is die cut to form a box) for the economy sized jar without repetition on the surface. I don't yet have the size of a prospective jar, nor the flat dimensions of a "ready-to-assemble" box. But the entire surface of that box should be printed with this pattern. When various parts of the box are die cut, or creased, these interruptions in the pattern will be fine -- will be what I expect.

As a safe approximation of the flat size of a box that would hold the 12 ounce jar, I believe that 3.25 x 3.5 inches will be large enough. The image on the right is of a "pop up" box, three inches cubed. These are probably referred to as a "top tuck box." This source sells this box at $0.19 each. Presumably we would want an uncolored box for the printing. Another source had the same size, same price, for "white gloss" surface. One source I found showed a 12 ounce jar with dimensions above so the box would have to be a bit larger, or 3.5 x 3.5 inches. That cube of a box calls for 21 square inches of surface for the pattern to cover. A design that is, or can be stretched to cover 24 square inches would be large enough for any of my needs. (I am not sure of the proportion of a flat box -- the image/pattern may need to be longer than 7 inches in one direction.)

The box will also be overprinted with words as may be necessary or desirable. Tentatively I want this box to stand out on a shelf, with as little distractions as possible on the surface -- the viewer should see the mass of color and pattern, with a logo/word on some panel -- if there is to be text it should be limited to one panel of the box.

Some part of this color/pattern will then serve as the background for the actual image of the word on the label, such as shown to the left. The word, above, has been "floated" onto the background without my really knowing how to do that. Obviously the word image needs to have transparency around the letters so the background can show through. The word should be such as above.

I like the idea of the word being at some sort of angle or curve different from a straight line. I approximated that with the image here. I count on the artist to use his own creativity on how this might look.

I used Word Art fonts and formatting -- then made this particular example a bit blurred. Again, that is not set in stone and the artist can use his creativity on this.

These paragraphs have the color/pattern used as an image and as a background for this part of the page. The colors are probably too distractive to use for an entire web site, but could be used for spot color here and there.

The usual label has three panels: center panel for the product name/image, left and right panels for text data. I will be drafting the data for the end panels -- but the designer should leave enough space for what might be a "normal" label for the size of container we have.

Presumably the label for the sample jars will not have the same amount of data in any side panels. I have to address this separately -- whether or not full data is needed on a sample, whether an "insert' can be printed to accompany the sample and whether the data could be printed on the outside of the box leaving only the more simple label for the actual jar.

Subject to cost and appearance, I'd like the box to have a white glossy coating onto which this pattern can be printed. If this affects the cost more than it might seem worth, I'm ready for suggestions.

I look for guidance on that from the designer and I'll be looking for more data on this also.

The pattern and logo design is the first step of the contractual request. I am then awaiting guidance on whether the label can be applied to the jar by silk screen, or whether a printed label is needed. I look for advice on that. Presumably I will be able to contract with one firm for the design and separately for the production of labels. I look for recommendations, too, from the design firm for a firm to supply boxes as I wish, with the printing done.

It is not a required criteria, but I would also be interested in "screens" of the pattern that could be used as the background for web pages. I have a web site, www.ayurcream.org -- soon to be put up. I don't want a distracting background, but there could be, for instance, a 20% screen, or a 10% screen of the final pattern which would be suitable for a subtle background impression on every web page.

I also want to have a "corner" of the logo that I could use as an icon on a web page or for other uses. I've inserted one that I did here. I will want an icon as a link to the home page on every web page for that site -- it can be square, or round, should look OK in a very small format.

The final element in this design package is a self-display carton that could be used to ship 12 jars of normal size (each in its own box) and then be folded and assembled to form a display panel that promotes the product -- suitable for putting on a counter. If this winds up being too expensive I would cancel it. Most of my customers are mostly likely to stock this item on a shelf with other jars and bottles. The flat form of this particular example is as shown on the right. I probably would want the design for this box to be a separate quote since I suspect it would be expensive to design. I also suspect I can find stock boxes with simple imprinting instructions so that the whole thing doesn't have to be designed from scratch.

There is one more, separate, design project. I would like to contract out for an image and logo that portrays the trademarked word "Ayurceutical™." The concept and meaning of that word has already been published on various pages in considerable detail. I am not ready to request a quotation on that until I have gathered all that information in one place for an artist or design firm to study. However, here is one short description here in a pop up window.

Finally, I would think someone out there is offering a combination of jar, lid, label, small box, display box and even shipping box -- that set would probably be something I could make fit my needs. Advice on this would be appreciated.

Karl Loren