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Sometimes no amount of clever graphic tweaking will do. To really make a splash with packaging, you have to grasp the nettle and address the structure.

No longer is packaging seen merely as a cost. Enlightened clients view it as a valuable asset in building market share, while gaining a legally protectable design and even making production and distribution cost savings.

This changing perception of structural packaging is partly due to the market emphasis on the way a brand is experienced by consumers - how it feels, how it works - and the need to provide practical benefits to gain consumer loyalty. These may be a spray nozzle that has two intensities of jet, a leak-proof shampoo bottle, or a bottle with better grip.

"It's all about the delivery of the product. We don't say we're packaging designers - we're brand designers who design experiences," says David Bicknell, creative director of structure at Blue Marlin, which recently created a bottle shape for Schweppes International (see box, page 32).

Technological advances have given marketers more scope, along with technology transfer from other sectors. The performance of PET has improved and major manufacturers such as Tetra Pak are continually coming up with new packs. One of its latest, Tetra Recart, is a retortable fibre competitor to the food can with indefinite shelf-life that can withstand its contents being heated.

Aerosol packaging has developed hugely since cans can now be shaped and embossed, while more attention is being paid to developing consumer benefits such as removing the need for lids.

"Shaped aerosol can technology has been around for a while, but it costs a lot more to do," says Sue Rogers, director of the British Aerosol Manufacturers Association. "But those who have gone with it have found that the added differential on-shelf has made a huge difference."

Whatever the techniques, what is essential is a grip on costings during any structural project. Often this takes place well into the process, but PI3, this year voted Design Agency of the Year by the packaging industry at the Starpack Awards, has found that the best way to do this is by introducing cost models at the earliest concept opportunity rather than after research and refinements. This is helped by requesting an integrated project team from the onset, including representatives from finance and production departments.

"Otherwise, it's a fine art," says PI3 strategic innovations director Steve Kelsey. It certainly seems to be a trend, according to Martin Bunce, director of packaging specialist Tin Horse, who adds that clients now want to do cost benefit analyses "before you've hardly started".

"It's part of the changing landscape we have to get used to," says Bunce.

"We have to develop a few more skills in assuaging the doubts."

Packaging change is a long, tough process. Models play a vital role, with specialist model-makers creating life-like versions of the product for more effective market research and testing.

London firm Finish Creative Services works for designers and brand owners producing models in various materials and finishes, often adjusting the prototypes as the results come off the machines. "We bridge the gap between the creative design side and the technical side. We can talk both langure in the brand's £1m advertising and promotional campaign, running from now until February 2004.

Johnnie Walker, the world's bestselling whisky brand, has created an internal 'brand bible' to introduce the latest bottle packaging for Johnnie Walker Red to the global brand team. The document was created by the-field.

Collins & Hayes, the luxury furniture manufacturer, has appointed design and new media agency Eventer Design to develop a corporate identity for the brand, following a three-tive about a brand," says Steve Gibbons of designer Dew Gibbons.

Kelsey adds: "It's part of our strategy that we deliver intellectual property to our client. It helps if the board knows that competitors can't get at it and it's protected by patents."

Generally, the motivation for structural change is to achieve brand differential.

ICI's Dulux Easycan achieved this by being the first to put solvent-based paint in a screw-top PET can, an innovation directly driven by consumer benefit. ICI had realised that consumers found traditional tin paint cans hard to hold and open, as well as messy. The solution, developed with Tin Horse, was a shaped can for easy grip, an innovative screw-top and a brush-wipe feature to rest the brush. It was possible because PET barrier performance had improved. "We caught the changing technology at the right time," says Bunce.

With new processes developed for both the shrink-sleeve manufacture and the lid mechanism, investment was "significant", says ICI Paints marketing director Kerris Bright. And while it won't be recouped in the short-term, customer feedback since its launch in spring has been overwhelmingly positive.

"We wanted to solve the problems and you can't do that just through graphics," explains Bright. "We're the brand leader in paints and we want to stay there, so we have to be innovative and drive the category forward."

Sometimes the payback time is surprisingly short. Tennent's expects to recoup the investment in its revamped bottle, developed with Design Bridge, within just one year, despite investing in moulds and making modifications to the production line to develop a more distinctive, long-necked bottle that was still robust.

This is due largely, says a spokesman for Tennent's, to the decision to put together a development team of designer, bottle manufacturer, client and machine modifier from the outset, which saved considerable time.

While it's too soon to get sales figures, within two months of its launch with the redesigned bottle, Tennent's was already being taken up by 700 extra stockists.

There isn't always a need to drastically change production lines. Persil wanted to introduce a limited-edition PET jar with a unique shape to replace the box that housed its Persil Capsules.

Working with a PET supplier, the in-house team looked at developing a rounded jar, but was able to reduce production times and cost by using an existing injection-moulded pre-form and adapting the blow-moulding process to create the distinctive shape.

"Investing in pre-form and blow-moulding tooling is quite a lengthy process, so we decided to use an existing pre-form with a suitable neck diameter," says Paul Naylor, packaging development manager at Persil.

This not only saved money, but also enabled Persil to move from agreement of the design to production capability in just eight weeks.

Similarly, Blue Marlin's bottle shape for Schweppes International was able to use existing machinery despite its unusual curved shape, inspired by the original 18th century bottle. "Schweppes wanted a new shape that was distinctive, but must cost no more and run down existing lines with the minimum capital expenditure," says Bicknell.

Blue Marlin worked closely with the glass bottle suppliers to create a taller bottle that was sculpted, but retained the same contact points as the previous cylindrical bottle, enabling it to run down the same line.

Sometimes the drivers of packaging change are practical and financial, such as PI3's creation of PET bottles for five Allied Domecq spirit brands, which had the huge financial advantages of being 50% lighter than glass and less likely to be damaged, as well as being easier for consumers to grip.

Costs were kept down by the use of the same pre-form mould to create variants in decoration and shape for each of the different brands, including Canadian Club and Sauza. The new bottle has three patents.

"Costs don't have to go up," says Steve Aldridge, director of structural packaging consultancy a.m. associates, which halved production costs for Halford's vacuum-formed cycle light packaging. "Often we reduce costs because everyone is into minimalisation."

New products, starting without the same production line considerations, can inevitably be braver. Blockhead, designed by Brandhouse WTS, has a wide, flat format that stands out in the suncream sector, achieved by specially engineering the bottle to give more width in the centre for stability. The addition of 20% Adflex gives it tactility and it is stored upside-down with a leak-proof seal on the cap.

Trebor's recently launched 24/7 mint and gum brand also has packaging that makes an impact in the form of a pod-shaped dispenser designed by Seymour Powell and Dragon to appeal to a young adult crowd.

And there's plenty of exciting stuff out there to come. PI3 predicts the emergence of applications for 'Buckyspheres'. Named after engineer Buckminster Fuller, these are carbons specially engineered and mixed with polymers to produce very tough, lightweight plastics.

So scope to create radical pack structures can only increase - all that's needed is the will to make the investment and the ability to use the correct application of materials and technology in the right way for the right brand.

PACKS OF THE MOMENT

Trebor

The Trebor 24/7 mint and gum brand, launched in March, has an eye-catching pod-shaped polyurethane pack with moulded dispenser designed by Seymour Powell in conjunction with brand specialists Dragon.

Dulux

Tin Horse's packaging for Dulux took solvent-based paint out of the traditional tin can and into a shaped PET can for the first time. The patent-protected Easycan took three years to develop and has graphics by Design Bridge.

Persil

Two years after launching Persil Capsules in a box pack, Lever Faberge brought out a limited-edition, distinctive, transparent PET jar in May that shows off the brightly-coloured round capsules.

Schweppes

Schweppes International wanted a more ownable bottle shape, but stipulated that designer Blue Marlin use the same production lines. Its solution, being introduced in mainland Europe, was achieved in glass and PET versions.

Blockhead suncream

Blockhead, designed by Brandhouse WTS, breaks the norms in the suncream sector and achieves shelf standout with a wide, flat polypropylene bottle designed to stand lid-down for easy application. It has a leak-proof seal on the cap.

Eight steps to innovative structural packaging

1. Concept phase Draw up a cross-disciplinary project team. Scope out opportunities for the brand, bearing in mind technical requirements. Qualitatively test half a dozen conceptual ideas.

2. Detailed design Choose several options and develop in detail, taking into account more detailed incorporation of technical constraints and the potential for creating a legally-protectable shape. Carry out a cost-benefit analysis.

Possibly pre-order machines to minimise lead times, although this risks cancellation or modification if later research results are poor.

3. Prototype Make working prototypes. Quantitatively research and test them.

4. Final design Finalise one design to incorporate all remaining manufacturing and production constraints. Commission a detailed model to check design data is accurate.

5. Specify Sign off specs, agree implementation timetable, place orders with vendors.

6. Prototype mould Give design to tool-makers to make a prototype mould for transit and stability testing, or even further consumer testing. And/or commission a pilot mould.

7. Testing Carry out product stability tests and line trials. Maybe further consumer research, but changes at this stage will be costly.

8. Go-ahead Tool up by completing the production moulds. You are now ready to activate full production.

PACKAGING INNOVATION SHOW AT TOTAL PROCESSING & PACKAGING 2004
Date: March 29-April 1 2004
Venue: Birmingham NEC

Visitor profile: Aimed at anyone involved with the design of packaging, The Packaging Innovation Show at Total Processing & Packaging 2004 is for marketing directors, brand managers, packaging designers, retailers and packaging innovation managers.

Exhibitor profile: Rexam, one of the world's top five consumer packaging groups, is sponsoring the event, alongside the Faraday Packaging Partnership; Delcam, a global leader in the supply of CADCAM; and design company KinneirDufort. The initiative is also being supported by the British Brands Group, the Design Business Association, design companies Fitch:London, PI3 and SiebertHead.

The 2020 Vision Design Challenge Innovative packaging design is key to the successful marketing of new products, and the 2020 Vision Design Challenge has been created to inspire the packaging industry, marketers, retailers and all involved in the supply chain by showing what major design groups and the creative industry believe is the future of packaging. The Packaging Innovation Show at Total Processing & Packaging 2004 will showcase the best creative thinking applied to packaging in the retail environment for the year 2020.

To enter the 2020 Vision Design Challenge, contact Mary Murphy on 01424 777 783 for details.