Benick Brands USA, LLC, Glastonbury, CT, hopes to heat up sales this season with its Vaporizer ice melter by repackaging it in a holographic stand-up bag. The glitzy bag underscores the product’s premium sodium chloride and calcium chloride reformulation, and, according to president Timothy Sellew, “has tremendous shelf impact.”
Rolling out in time for winter, the 9-lb bags sell for $3.99 in the United States; a version for Canadian markets is printed with bilingual copy. The full-coverage holography may be a first for a retail flexible pack. The premade bags (see sidebar) are produced by Peel Plastics Ltd. (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) with a Slide-Rite® reclosure feature from Pactiv (Lake Forest, IL).
Chris Pianta, Benick vice president-marketing and product development, conceived of the holo bag. “We wanted a highly visible package including one that stood up on shelves. It’s attracting new retailers and is generating a higher level of consumer interest.”
Differentation’s cost
Pianta acknowledges that the premade bag costs three times that of a standard pillow-pack bag; Benick still sells Vaporizer as a 10-lb nonresealable bag for $2.99 to $3.49. “The visibility and the package features have thus far outweighed its added costs and pricing,” Pianta offers. “But you really have to offer a value-added product or need to stress the point of differentiation to make the premium packaging worthwhile.”
Pianta cites the packaging’s goal of high visibility in providing a package that stands up on shelf unlike a flat pillow-style bag. Ahead of the product’s prime selling season, he reports that “we’ve had all positive feedback from retailers. It grabs attention to itself and to the category. Our feeling is that if it ‘pulls’ enough attention, it could generate some early season sales.” Pianta explains that typically consumers do not purchase an ice melter until after the first snow.
Several customers and an unnamed larger chain were carrying it in late summer in Canada. In the United States, Pianta says it will be geared more toward grocery and mass merchandisers.
He says the design “marries” into the company’s family of products using the elements that include the Vaporizer logo and snowflakes. On the back panel, extensive copy that includes technical specifications, directions for use, and cautionary warnings overprints most of the holography.
Consumers primarily targeted are female and older people, reports Pianta: “Reclosability is a feature some people are willing to pay for, including those who don’t like to leave bags of chemicals open.”
Because of the repeating holographic pattern, no two bags are exactly alike, just like a snowflake. Like skiers, Pianta hopes for a cold, snowy winter.
