- Brands are finding packaging can be a key component to extending their reach outside of their core categories and aisles
- Leveraging a familiar logo on a new or unique package format can help maintain shopper familiarity and extend brand trust while showcasing a brand’s creative chops
Construction Materials
- This multi-pack offering includes colored glass bottles with pump-style dispensers and tins with screw-top lids
Package Focus
Brand and Product Name: Carlsberg Beer’d Beauty
Primary Package: Plastic and metal
Secondary Package: Paperboard carton
Product Category: Men’s Grooming
Package Details: Innovative Factors: Emulation of Carlsberg’s signature emerald bottle and vertically positioned logo
In Germany, venerable beer brand Carlsberg introduced a men’s grooming set under the Carlsberg Beer’d Beauty brand. This limited edition set of shave cream, aftershave, and moustache cream is housed in a combination of plastic spray pump bottles, metal tins and paperboard cartons. The line extension exploits the familiar logo, font and emerald green color found on Carlsberg beer packaging.
Initially launched as a limited edition extension, but since expanded due to its success, Carlsberg dialled into key consumer insights to expand its well-known beverage brand into premium skin care. Carlsberg understood that men were in serious need of masculine grooming products. According to Carlsberg consumer research, 40% of men admit to using their wife’s or girlfriend’s beauty products weekly, and 67% of Carlsberg drinkers are interested in grooming products that contain beer. Taking those insights to heart, Carlsberg leveraged the “beautifying properties” of its beer’s main ingredients along with a packaging line-up that tied directly to their famous green beer bottle and vertical logo display.
According to Mintel’s Extend My Brand trend, brands in declining or heavily regulated markets are being forced to extend into new territories and new sectors to survive. However, some companies are embracing this challenge and are going all out with their brand extensions as a way to show off their creative chops. Branching out into sectors or demographics that are completely removed from their main line of business can act as a form of attention-grabbing self-promotion that will cause people to take notice and spur purchasing decisions.
While price is a key factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions, brand trust also plays a pivotal role. Repurchase consideration based solely on brand familiarity can reach as high as 70%. As outlined in Mintel’s upcoming 2017 Packaging Trends Report, brands can use that sense of loyalty to extend their product portfolio well beyond their traditional categories, and the development and exploitation of unique and functional packaging decorated with clear, on-pack messaging can be a primary motivator of the purchase-decision process.
Yet while price has invariably played an enormous role in consumer decision-making, so too has another critical factor: trust. And it’s the tried and true brands which have the advantage in that regard. As such, established brands have begun to leverage that trust in new ways; namely, by extending it into new categories.
The Carlsberg Beer’d Beauty limited edition range was been created through a partnership between the Research and Development branch of Carlsberg Breweries with cosmetics producer Urtegaarden, and offers male grooming products made from real Carlsberg beer, which contains natural ingredients such as barley, hops and yeast, rich in vitamin B and silicium, said to have beautifying properties for both hair and skin. The grooming set, which was created in support of Movember to raise funds and awareness of vital men’s health issues, comprises shaving gel, aftershave cream, and moustache cream.
Mintel Packaging Analyst’s Points of View
- Package structure, functional components, even unique, use-occasion-appropriate sizes can help disrupt a category or aisle into which size a brand is looking to extend its reach.
- Leveraging a familiar logo on a new or unique package format can help maintain shopper familiarity and extend brand trust while showcasing a brand’s creative chops.
- When a brand looks to extend its reach, consumer engagement is paramount. Tying in such brand cues as logo design or an “owned” color can be key.
- Prominently placed on-pack messaging regarding a package function, convenience, or lifestyle can help ensure shoppers/consumers both see and understand what benefits or advantages the new brand has vs. entrenched offerings.
- In many cases, younger generations are exposed to brands from their parents early on. Take advantage of that legacy or heritage association by utilizing specifically designed packaging to engage these younger generations separately in order to expand new offerings.
Mintel is the world’s leading market intelligence agency. David Luttenberger is Mintel’s Global Packaging Director. He has 25 years of diverse global packaging experience.