Continued

5 Wrapped and Stacked

Consumers today crave product presentation and packaging that is easily accessible, ecologically compatible, and technologically crafty. Here are some retailers and brand marketers that have wrapped their heads around presentation, making it easy for consumers to understand, connect with, and ultimately buy products:

• Simple and direct. Grapedistrict, a wine retailer in Amsterdam, has transformed the wine buying process to a smooth, easy experience. In cooperation with Grapedistrict founders, corporate branding firm VBAT created the store based on the idea that everyone should be able to select a wine they like, regardless of technical acumen. Instead of the conventional wine categorization, which can confound the average shopper, Grapedistrict categorizes wines by flavor, arranging bottles into nine color-coded zones. Categories, which along with color include an image and name, range from pale yellow for light, white wines to deep purple for full reds. Signage evokes lifestyle experiences so that each wine category corresponds to certain moments, like a light picnic in the park or an intimate meat-based dinner at home.

• Responsible. Timberland streamlined the packaging of its shoes to be not only aesthetically consistent, but also environmentally friendly, communicating its commitment to corporate responsibility, sustainable manufacturing, and good citizenship. To publicly affirm this global commitment, Timberland’s revamped shoebox contains nutrition-label-style green content information including the energy used to produce the shoes, the percentage of energy used from Timberland’s own sources, the percentage of time in making the shoes, the location of the factory that manufactured the shoes, the number of hours of employee community service, and the percentage of factories held to Timberland’s corporate code of conduct. With print advertising and P-O-P displays to support the redesign and branding message, Timberland’s creative repackaging targets the growing base of corporate and environmentally concerned consumers, effectively encapsulating the wrapped and stacked trend.

• Earth-friendly—literally. At the end of their useful product life, consumers can recycle Po-zu’s Fall 2007 collection of eco-friendly slippers, which are made with natural materials such as vegetable tanned "leather," coconut fiber, and natural latex. The company’s green packaging takes sustainability to a new level as consumers can use the shoebox as an organic seed tray. Once the seeds, which are not included, sprout, consumers can plant the entire biodegrable box in the earth..

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