What could be more indispensable and simple than water, probably nothing. Yet marketing water is not so easy, because there are many competitors on the market and it is increasingly difficult to bring a consumer to a specific brand.
An attractive and creative packaging design not only attracts a potential buyer, but also influences his decision-making process, which is why all the world's major brands pay close attention to the design of bottles and secondary packaging.
Let's see what the customization of a bottle entails and the 3 packaging trends.
A personalized water bottle: creative packaging and engineered design
Just take a tour of a supermarket to notice how many different types of water bottles are on the shelves. The reason is simple: each company wants to communicate with its target audience and induce them to choose their own product.
Packaging customization is essential but increasingly difficult, precisely because each brand focuses on uniqueness.
The creativity of designers must be associated with the technical evaluation of packaging which, in addition to being attractive, must have appropriate characteristics to the liquid it contains and to the use by the consumer.
To conceive new formats and innovative designs for water bottles requires the work of a team capable of analyzing the market, proposing brilliant ideas, designing every aesthetical and technical detail of the packaging.
The design of a customized packaging involves the evaluation of a series of elements:
- Shape and dimensions
- Performance of the container
- Aesthetic specifications
- Blowability
- Resistance to top load
- Deformability due to pressure
- Stability
It is necessary to understand already in the design phase if a creative packaging is easily achievable and allows to reach a good productivity.
Water bottle packaging trends
Industry trends say that consumers are increasingly attentive to packaging and the impact it has on the environment. However, we must also take into account the performance and the rules.
Ecological bottles: rPET and Label Free
The first input to follow to make bottles for mineral water is that towards more ecological materials. The transition from the use of PET to rPET represents a great step forward in this direction.
Today, technicians and designers, in addition to conceiving 100% recyclable packaging, can design Label Free bottles with attractive shapes and which, in addition, guarantee a recycling process free of hydrochloric acid, glues, benzene.
Interactive packaging also for water
Augmented reality has also reached the packaging sector and today there is more and more talk of "smart packaging".
An example of this evolution is the ASA (Augmented Shopper Assistant) app promoted by CONAI (National Packaging Consortium) which, through an augmented reality system, allows you to add virtual information, visible in real-time, framing a package.
To understand how quickly this trend is spreading, we must consider that a recent research has shown a 120% increase in smart packaging in the last two years.
Tethered Closures: creativity has to deal with the law
The SUP (Single Use Plastic) directive says that from July 2024 only the use of caps that remain attached to bottles made of single-use plastic will be allowed.
This element must also be considered when designing innovative packaging for water and any other beverage.
The design of the bottle, especially of the neck, must be designed to accommodate a tethered closure that will prevent its dispersion into the environment.
