An upscale drug chain in the U.K. is hoping a clear, stand-up pouch holding boldly colored translucent shampoo and bath products will entice teenage girls, the products' targeted demographic, to part with their pocket money. Introduced in upscale British drug store chain Superdrug in February, the products are made and filled under a private-label arrangement by Dewhirst Toiletries in Bedfordshire, England.
The products are sold under Superdrug's Secret Weapon brand name at a mass-market price of £1.99 each (US$3.20). The clear pouch holds 300 mL of product and showcases the translucent product that's formulated in vibrant colors such as blue, yellow, purple and red. It also includes a reclosable, hinged polypropylene closure. Both the premade pouches and closures are supplied by Innovative Packaging Netherlands, represented in the U.S. by Scholle Corp. (Northlake, IL). The pouches have an outside layer of 12-micron (48-ga) polyester, reverse-printed via gravure in three colors that's adhesively laminated to 100-micron (4-mil) low-density polyethylene.
According to Andrea Walters, account executive at Dewhirst, the company chose a stand-up pouch for its novelty, as it would stand out from the rigid containers typically found in the category. Dewhirst believes this is the first stand-up pouch for personal care products in the U.K. that's not a refill pouch. Indeed, Dewhirst's market research showed that girls responded very positively to stand-up pouches on the market for other products, such as drinks.
To further appeal to the teenage girls, the package, gravure-printed in three colors, contains lively, irreverent copy such as "Body treats and funky accessories to bring out the devil in you" and "Tried and tested on men." Each of the four varieties has its own version of a stylized devil character, screen-printed with fluorescent inks on a clear p-s label, supplied locally.
