See Me, Feel Me

Give a present to a child of a certain age and she’ll likely be more interested in the box than its contents. Well, maybe she’s onto something. Secondary cosmetic packaging does more than hold a glass, plastic, or metal container. It carries and promotes the brand. Ideally, it also should carry enough shelf appeal to catch the eye and sufficient emotional content to capture a consumer’s heart—without incurring additional manufacturing costs. That’s a heroic order for any substrate.

Across product categories, customer requests for innovative printed products have grown dramatically in recent years, in keeping with a broad-based change in print purchasing behaviors that has positioned more and more products in the luxury end of the market. In the consumer goods market in particular, brand-sensitive customers are discovering what cosmetic manufacturers have known all along: that high-quality printing and finishing can increase the value of their products.

The production of special printed effects depends on a precise combination of factors, including the printing or coating application (metallic, matte, or gloss, etc.), the mode of application (spot, flood, dispersion, or fine detail) and the substrate, (coated or uncoated, compound or synthetic). Bringing all of these elements together is a complex process. However, when the print discipline, application, and substrate align as they should, the stage is set for a perfect marriage of form, function, and aesthetic appeal. In terms of the print discipline, offset lithography is typically the method used for the printing of cosmetic paperboard packaging and labels.

Differentiation is the name of the game

Most secondary or exterior packaging is made of paperboard—in sheets, tubes, and an endless variety of custom shapes and sizes. In terms of package design, printing, and converting, paperboard brings several advantages to the table. According to Clare Mateo, European sales and packaging manager for MeadWestvaco, the printing possibilities for paperboard are many and varied; colors turn out crisp and bright, and a variety of basis weights and finishes enable end users to execute complex designs without compromising quality or violating budget constraints. For intimate care applications especially, user-friendly paperboard tends to reassure with soft or softly textured finishes, especially when compared with synthetic alternatives.

“Aesthetic features designed to create visual impact or surface enhancements (e.g., textures) designed to produce a unique tactile experience can help a brand owner break through the clutter,” says Andy Luke, senior marketing director for MeadWestvaco’s Packaging Resources Group. “The approach, however, must fit the brand. In some cases, where a clean look is more in keeping with the brand image, less is more.”

“Paperboard can do so many things,” adds Don Droppo Jr., vice president of marketing at Curtis Packaging, a printing, packaging and converting company located in Sandy Hook, Conn. “It offers customers a set of eye-catching applications incuding superior graphics, unique shapes, multiple coatings (matte, gloss, iridescent, UV, aqueous, micro-encapsulated, reticulated, suede), and it’s derived from a renewable, recyclable source.”

Paperboard also lends itself to the extensive capabilities of newer presses to produce sophisticated printing and coating effects—UV, metallic, pearlescent, holographic, and so on—that contribute to the quality look and feel of prestige products, as well as a growing number of mass-marketed cosmetic and personal care items.

Economics, marketing, and the drive to differentiate account for a number of overlapping trends in cosmetic paperboard manufacturing. According to Luke, the industry currently is experiencing increased demand for “features that suggest luxury or elegance, such as foil stamping and the use of metallized films and foils, as well as for features that build brand identity or create visual impact.”

To give a different look and create a different tactile experience for the customer who picks up a package, Luke says, “Some customers reverse the paperboard, using the non-clay coated side as the exterior surface.” Mateo states that brand managers looking to boost their products’ eye appeal often will upgrade the category of paperboard they use to one that is smoother, whiter, brighter, and more printable. To reduce the overall package weight, customers also may eliminate internal fluting or reduce the basis weight of the stock. Another cost-saving measure is reflected in customer demand for printing on the inside of a carton to avoid using inserts.

All that glitters

Underpinning a trend toward more and more complex packaging is the growing demand for papers with softer, more luxurious high-end textures, finishes, and special colors, as well as special effects ranging from UV printing and coating effects to foil stamping and fine embossing/debossing on standard board to film and foil lamination.

On press, therefore, plain white paperboard often undergoes a dramatic transformation. Features like dispersion coating and drying capabilities enable printers to lay down simulated metallics at the start of the process or during the press operation and print over them, producing a more cost-­effective alternative to foil-stamping for budget-conscious print buyers. For example, says Droppo, the dispersion coating tower on Curtis Packaging’s uniquely configured 51˝ KBA Press enables the company to lay down a heavy metallic silver first, dry it and print up to eight transparent colors over it, giving Curtis the ability to simulate metallic golds, silvers, platinum or bronze.” CurtCHROME™ is the trade name of a proprietary, eco-friendly, single-pass process developed by Curtis that represents a significant cost savings over foil laminate to print and folding carton buyers.

Whatever design and production choices are made, the packaging as well as the product inside must support the positioning of the brand and strengthen the brand awareness of quality-conscious consumers. The moment a consumer sees the product on the shelf or picks up the package is an opportunity to create an impression or build brand identity. Packaging that supports the brand at these initial touch points can create huge advantages.”

Creative printers are capitalizing on the demand for innovative yet cost-effective paperboard packaging by developing their own proprietary solutions. Curtis Packaging describes its CurtCRYSTAL™ product as a patent-pending, proprietary printing process that lowers the cost of achieving tactile, micro-embossed-like effects by eliminating the need for off-press processing and embossing dies. Likewise, the company’s CurtCHROME™ metallic printing process is said to simulate the brilliance of foil at a fraction of the cost. To a great extent, the choice of substrate has ramifications up and down the supply chain from design to delivery. Paperboard suppliers are stepping up to the plate with grades designed for superior runnability, cost-­effectiveness, and customer appeal.

So the next time you’re ready to tear into a package of your favorite shampoo, skin cream, or perfume, give a moment’s thought to the careful choices that were made in order to bring that product to your discerning hand. Have some respect. Open it properly.