Colgate-Palmolive is the market leader in fabric conditioners with two of three top brands outside private label, Cuddly and Fluffy.
The sensorial segment of fabric conditioners has reinvigorated the entire fabric conditioner sector in Australia, continues to grow and has a very strong appeal to consumers.
An influx of private label brands, the inclusion of fabric conditioning agents into washing powders and liquids and scents into their selling propositions, and the arrival of more aromatherapy variants within ranges are creating a more fiercely competitive environment.
In response, Colgate-Palmolive felt that it was time to reinvigorate the Cuddly Aroma Therapy’s pack design. The overarching project objectives were to improve impact on shelf and to ensure greater appeal amongst the hedonistic/sensorial consumer. Hedonist consumers are motivated by evocative fragrances and packaging. They are more likely to try products based on fragrance and design appeal alone.
So design company, Tweak, was asked to assess Cuddly's overall pack design and update it.
The Cuddly pack consists of several key components: the big idea, the droplet, architecture, pattern and the colour palette.
An initial research stage was designed to garner an understanding of the key attributes offered by the product.
“What are the benefits of aromatherapy?” was the first question. Aromatherapy is the use of aromatic plant extracts and essential oils to influence mood and general wellbeing. Cuddly Aroma Therapy allows consumers to experience these benefits when they wear their clothes. During this stage, it was also observed that essential oils are commonly depicted in the form of a small droplet. This is also the case with the Cuddly Aroma Therapy brand mark. This feature developed into the ‘big idea’ for the range. The new design amplifies the droplet ten fold. Consideration of the pack form guided its contours and generated a rhythmic synergy between the bottle shape and droplet.
On a practical level, the droplet provides a strong architecture. It’s ownable by the brand and creates impactful shelf shout. Conceptually, the huge droplet underlines the amount of aroma and softness found in every drop. This promise of quality is authenticated by the trusted Cuddly brand contained within the droplet.
However, in order for the design to be successful on a supermarket shelf, it had to convey much more on an emotional level. That is where the design of the floral pattern plays a very important role.
The floral pattern was chosen to communicate the fragrance, but also to convey a mood and through that achieve an emotional response. Fragrance marketing has been achieving exactly this for decades, and so the Tweak designers looked here for inspiration. Fine perfume packaging is most often very simple and typographic. It is the job of perfume advertising therefore to tell a story, evoke a mood and elaborate on the qualities and attributes of the perfume. Beautiful models and celebrities are observed in the foreground of emotive photography, depicting luxurious textures, stylised floral element and atmospheric themes.
It was these floral elements, textures and atmospheric themes that Tweak’s designers adopted.
Tweak designer, Shane King describes his work, “The pattern carries the eye gently around the pack and droplet device. Flowing lines and speckled floral detail engulf the pack in a flurry of aromatic expression. The abstraction of fragrance communication generates a feeling around the fragrance, highlighting a unique offering not available in regular fabric conditioners. A style and sophistication reminiscent of fine fragrances is also achieved.
“The colour palette has been chosen to “pop” on shelf and further reinforce the intense aroma. The psychology of the palette addresses the two moods offered, a warm palette for the Energising variant and cool palette for the Relaxing one. The tonal range has been controlled to define the droplet creating a foreground (droplet) and background (pattern). From deep tones, to bright popping tones the effect is a multi-layered fragrance experience.
“Lastly, as with all shrink sleeve labels which are formed to irregular shapes, there are areas of distortion. Even the most stable of label zones can be affected. The pack has been designed with this issue in mind. Zones with the most distortion contain pattern, which with its organic shapes disguise the distortion. The droplet and its contents are in the most stable zone, however any slight distortion is disguised by its organic flowing shape.”
