Sleep aid kit has feminine packaging

-- Packaging Digest, 12/1/2008 2:00:00 AM

Marketed toward women, especially those who sleep next to snoring husbands, the Sleep Pretty in Pink kit features a sleep mask, 30 gel caps that contain a holistic sleep formula and pink earplugs rated to reduce noise by 32 decibels. Sleep Pretty-in-Pink parent company DAP World, Inc., offers the promise of several nights of beauty sleep at a suggested retail price of $25. The packaging—a bright pink purse-shaped box—was designed by DAP president and CEO Doug Pick in conjunction with designer Mark Divers (www.diverstudio.com).

Made from a standard .018 SBS paperboard and printed in four-color process by the graphic arts company Bert-co (www.bertco.com), the award-winning purse-shaped carton is designed with what Pick calls the “Barbie phenomenon” in mind. “If you look at our society as a whole, you see that when boys are born, they're generally wrapped in blue, when girls are born, they're wrapped in pink,” he explains. “The significance of the color pink is carried through women's lives.”

Pick is quick to note that other manufacturers also have observed the power of pink for marketing to women. “Whether it is a chain like Victoria's Secret that has really parlayed a lot of their success recently on just the color pink or other manufacturers that have recognized that number-one women are the core shoppers, these companies are recognizing the fact that women are making the buy decisions at retail stores,” Pick comments.

Although he is not trained as a packaging designer, Pick takes a primary role in all design done for DAP World products. He explains: “I'm the type of guy who will walk the aisles of stores just looking at products and go 'Wow, that really caught my eye!' And why did that catch my eye? Depending on the set, I try to be contrarian in my approach to packaging. So if everybody else is using the color blue in the category, which is very common in the sleep category, then you can bet that pink is certainly going to stand out.”

If retail sales are any indication of the packaging's shelf impact, the design is performing well. DAP'S Hearos line of earplugs, with about a dozen different SKUs, represented 100 percent of the company's business about three years ago. As of presstime, one SKU in the line represented 25 percent of DAP's business. In 2007 alone, DAP sold 15 million pairs of earplugs.

Talkback

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As a marketing consultant, speaker and author who specializes in the women's market, I usually advise companies against using pink as a ploy to capture women's dollars and sell their prodcuts. However, this packaging works for me. Maybe because if I'm not getting a good night's sleep, I want a solution that jumps out at me and is reasonably priced. Your "pink purse" kit does both.

Gerry Myers - 2008-5-12 18:27:00 EST

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