The Homa Files

Excerpted from Beverage World “Isn’t That Special?” September 9, 2008 

It may seem like science fiction, but in the not-too-distant future, a beverage bottle might do more than just sit there when you pass it in the grocery aisle.

Several companies around the world are working on this kind of technology right now…breakthrough technology will replace stagnant images and text on a beverage label with digital ones that can be made to flow across the product, presenting information about ingredients, special promotions, or whatever the marketer desires…some pretty impressive technologies are already widely available.

One is called Liquid Lens. It can be used with glass or plastic bottles to make it seem as if an object is floating some 18 inches around the bottle, or inside the bottle…another technology called GWrap can display 3D images and animation on a beverage package. GWrap uses a thin film that contains a series of micro lens arrays that when printed to, or placed over, an interlaced graphic image, displays the eye-catching images…

Another company…Vacumet, is putting the finishing touches on holographic technology that will make it seem as if images are projecting out from the plane of the curvature of, say, a beer bottle…

Among the beverage marketers themselves, Coors stands out as one that has not been afraid to spruce up its packaging portfolio with special effects. Among these has been the Cold Activated Bottle, introduced in 2007. The packaging changes color when the beer is cold enough to drink. Coors says it resulted in a 7 point trend change for the brand…

Edit by SAC

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Another big trend in packaging is sustainability.  Many companies are re-working their packaging to use recycled materials and reduce overall waste.  In doing so companies are finding that not only are they able to appeal to consumer preference for “green” products, but also save money.  This year Coca-Cola introduced re-designed its bottle tops that are 24 percent lighter and reduce Coke’s plastic consumption by 4 million pounds a year.

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Full article:
http://www.beverageworld.com/content/view/35243/

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This entry was posted on September 23, 2008 at 7:07 am and is filed under Mktg - Packaging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.