"The customized, lizard-embossed glass bottle is used purely for aesthetic value," SoBe director of brand development Bill Meissner tells Packworld.com.
Each bottle, supplied by Anchor Glass (Tampa, FL), has a three-color, litho-printed neck sleeve, supplied by American Fuji Seal (Bardstown, KY), that features the SoBe name and the slogan, “Love Bus Brew…Shake Your Goo!”
“The neck sleeve helps the product pop off the shelf more, and it also makes the product appear more full,” says Meissner. “A fair amount of space must be left when the product goes through the retort process, so it appears as if you have a low fill.” The neck sleeve starts at where the product fill ends and extends to the top of the green and yellow steel closure from White Cap (Downers Grove, IL).
Designed with a cartoon version of the Lizard Love Bus careening across a landscape, the six-color screen-printed clear PP label, which produces a no-label look, is supplied by Spear (Mason, OH).
Love Bus Brew is co-packed by the North American Coffee Partnership, owned by Starbucks and Pepsi, at the Dairy Farmers of America facility in Springfield, MO.
The suggested retail price is $1.24 to $1.49. According to the company, the price represents a modest premium compared with other chocolate drinks. “We’ve had lots of success with dairy-based products,” says Renee Coughlin, senior vice president of marketing. “We have great expectations for Love Bus Brew given the incredible popularity of chocolate.” National launch is planned for the fall.
