Shower cleaner has built-in remote spray trigger

From New Zealand company Wet & Forget Ltd., a new, once-a-week shower cleaner promises “no scrubbing or wiping,” and a “soft vanilla essence” fragrance, delivered in an ergonomic bottle with an integrated remote trigger sprayer. Wet & Forget Shower, introduced in the U.S. in early 2013, uses no harsh chemicals and, according to Wet & Forget global production plant manager Paul Trendall, provides three months of cleaning power in a 64-oz bottle versus the eight 32-oz bottles of daily shower cleaner required for the same 12 weeks of cleaning.

In preparation for its U.S. launch, Wet & Forget worked with Berlin Packaging’s Studio One Eleven to create a more user-friendly packaging solution than the one used in its home country. The existing packaging was a stock, 2-L detergent-style bottle sold with an attached bag holding a remote trigger sprayer and an injection-molded storage holster that had to be installed after purchase.

Berlin’s solution was a white high-density polyethylene bottle custom-designed around the Mixor® HP Remote trigger sprayer from MeadWestvaco. The component is designed to nest in any opening in a bottle body, removing the need to hang the trigger externally with a secondary mounting component.

Explains Trendall, “The remote trigger sprayer and snap-adapt connector are built into the bottle, with a companion snap-adapt closure [also from MeadWestvaco]. The first time the consumer uses the product, they simply snap the connector directly into a hole built into the closure and securely covered during shipment, eliminating the need to unscrew the cap and replace it with a new closure assembly.”

The bottle is designed with a horizontal handle on top and a vertical opening on the side that contains the built-in holster for the sprayer. When the sprayer is in use, the holster area acts as a secondary handle. Along with its ease-of-use advantages, the sprayer also provides 360-deg operation and is said to release 65% more product per squeeze.

According to Berlin Packaging senior packaging consultant Lisa Edison, the fact that the holder was integrated into the body of the bottle so close to its base created an extremely difficult-to-mold bottle. “This area also created a potential webbing area,” she explains. “We went through multiple revisions of trim and vent tooling in order to overcome. Success was finally achieved by carefully programming the bottle profile to accommodate the low and wide base profile.”

While bottle design was done in the U.S., label graphics for the U.S. iteration were created in-house at Wet & Forget’s New Zealand headquarters. Digitally printed in four colors on the front and flexo-printed in three colors on the back on a waterproof polypropylene label stock, graphics were chosen to highlight product benefits. Elements include a blue background with bubbles denoting water and an image of a vanilla leaf with the phrase “soft vanilla essence,” indicating the absence of a chemical odor. Positioned prominently at the top of the label is the copy, “12 weeks cleaning power.”

The new bottle replaced Wet & Forget Shower’s existing container in New Zealand and Australia, doubling sales of the product in those countries, and enabled placement of the product in 1,100 U.S. retail stores, including Ace Hardware, Do It Best, True Value, Aubuchon, and garden center retail stores. It is also sold on Amazon.com and the Wet & Forget Web site.