PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

JUBILEE PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net 28 The product at the Point of Sale Functionality meets design On competitive supermarket shelves, it is important that your product stands out. Sales researchers know that the vast majority of purchasing decisions are made sub-consciously and emotionally. But what opportunities do you have that will encourage people to buy a product that already has an enormous amount of shapes, labels and closures on the shelves? Market research has shown that it takes only up to seven seconds for a buyer to make a purchase deci- sion. In addition to the product, brand and price, it is the packaging that is ultimately responsible for sending out positive vibes and encouraging people to buy. But how can you make a prod- uct stand out in which functional and logistical demands already determine design to the maximum effect? Creativity begins with the mould. Here, embossed or debossed ele- ments can be achieved as well as special shapes. In issue 5/2017, we featured an eye-catching container which SMI created for Paradise Food’s TruTru Wara Brand. An important objective was that the bottles should be easily recognisable on the supermarket shelf. The decoration, which is based on traditional Papua New Guinea cul- ture, looks almost like a real tattoo on the upper part of the bottle. It is wrapped around the entire surface of the bottle, which made it necessary to perfectly align both ends of the tattoo. SMI was able to realise the design within the mould; its technical depart- ment designed the bottle and then manufactured the mould for the blow moulding machine. New colour and finish effects com- plement the variety of bottle design options. Special effect pigments have not been used for a long time due to the high PET process temperatures and food contact concerns. It was with this in mind that Penn Colour came to NPE in 2018 to present some new solutions. Together with Husky and PET Engineering, the company has developed a multi-layer hot runner that processes the compound in the middle layer at a lower processing tempera- ture than the two outer ones. While the inner PET layer is food-grade approved and separates the special bicolour, thermochromic and phospho- rescent pigments from the drink, the middle layer can achieve its optimum effect in the finished bottle. Simple and streamlined bottle shapes are currently in vogue. Small single-serve bottles continue to grow in terms of container size and are becoming more and more popular with on-the-go consumers. The droplet-shaped PET bottle realised by Krones holds 200ml, and with a weight of just 4.4g is extremely light. What is particularly interest- ing: it can be produced on a standard blow-moulding machine suitable for lightweighting formats. An option for nitrogen injection offers the additional advantage that the containers are stabilised for storage and transport. In terms of dress, too, the mini-bottle offers multifarious design options: different labelling techniques enable several disparate designs to be imple- mented – despite the small size, cus- tomers need not feel deprived of dis- tinctive design and marketing potential. Droplet-shaped 200ml bottles Labelling is the most obvious ele- ment in bottle design. Labels serve dif- ferent functions on the bottles. As well as providing essential product informa- tion, they should also convey a brand image that makes the product look appealing. In addition to roll-fed labels, in-mould labelling solutions and shrink- sleeve labels are becoming increas- ingly popular. From a designer’s point of view, these labels offer full creative licence as they provide labelling which covers part of, or the entire bottle area, with or without a cap. Colour and finish effects