Strauss: ‘We don’t have to reinvent the wheel but sometimes we have to think about things differently’

Dr Shira Rosen, packaging development manager, Strauss Group, is based in Israel, and spoke to guests at the EuroPack Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, this week. 

Look at the box itself

She spoke about how the company is putting consumers at the centre of its advertising campaigns to relaunch its packaging and how manufacturers need to ‘use the box, to think outside of the box’. 

“I try to take the packaging as a platform for bringing innovation, but by itself innovation is not enough​,” she said. 

“We have a lot of roles for our packaging - it should be protective, enhance the consumer experience, increase sales, create brand loyalty, be cost effective, sustainable and express the soul of the brand​. 

“To think ‘outside the box’ we need to look at the box itself and break down the elements to create resources. For example; a multipack sleeve carrying eight yoghurt pots can be turned into a game for children, transforming the package of a salty snack can be recycled into a shopping bag; using the resources to differentiate the product​.” 

Dr Rosen said Strauss launched its Alpha Strauss FoodTech Community two years’ ago because the company didn’t have a big R&D division and wanted to be at the forefront of technology. 

Since then, it has filmed customers tasting its products in pilot projects and used the footage for TV commercials including a hummus restaurant ‘Avi’s Hummus’, in Tel Aviv, which served packaged hummus without the clients knowing it and asking customers to ‘pay by taste’ if they liked it. 

“We understood packaging has an immense influence on how people capture the brand and the taste of the product. One of our products is hummus, but people prefer to eat it homemade, or in restaurants, not as they refer to it as ‘industrial hummus’, which they claim doesn’t have the same taste​,” said Rosen. 

60% rise in sales

“We opened the restaurant in Tel Aviv and filmed people’s reactions to our ‘industrial hummus’. After the success of the advertising showing people being filmed we relaunched the product in supermarkets and saw a 60% rise in sales​.” 

The company did the same with a lentil salad with sweet potatoes. It is a premium salad but to keep it simple and affordable it is sold in plastic tubs. 

Again, the company switched the packaging and renamed the product Il Mercato and sold the product in expensive-looking glass jars in a delicatessen, filming customers tasting the dish and using the footage for its TV advertising. 

“It was a creative way to tell a story and show how people react in live situations. We use the people to sell our product​,” said Rosen. 

“The main problem is we are all used to thinking in a certain way and our mind is accustomed to what we know. I am a great believer in assumptions. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time but sometimes we have to think of things differently​.” 

Rosen added at Strauss there are a lot of resources in the company so it tries to combine the different brands and change the look and feel of them. 

Bazooka Joe chewing gum

It took its Bazooka Joe chewing gum and combined it with a chocolate bar to make pink chocolate, it added the flavor of one if its cereal bars into a milk drink and sold one of its salty snack range without the name of the flavor on the packaging so customers got a surprise when they tasted it. 

Another project, was a chocolate pudding with whipped cream. Strauss wanted to experiment with a new taste, play with the different layers and textures. After a few trials of selling the product with an edible wafer, straw and chocolate spoon it came up with a milky shake which can be opened at both ends. 

“The ipsin Shake opens from above and below but we had a lot of challenges because milk is sensitive to contamination​,” she said. 

“We discovered the aluminium seal and cup should be produced in one step otherwise the product wasn’t good. We took injection mold technology and combined it with IML. Normally, you inject a product from the middle but we injected it from two points, put the label on it and sealed it at the same time, in one stage​. 

“It took one year to develop but we built a strong story to sell the product, positioned it for youngsters and invited them to create the milky shake dance and put it on YouTube with the best one wining a prize​. 

“Thousands of people went on the internet. It was a very successful campaign​. 

“Each revamp made the brand stronger, but it is not enough and manufacturers need to be more effective in combining added value,​” she said. 

“Contradictions are a part of our life; our consumer has contradictions. He/she wants to have it all but doesn’t always give all in return. People want to save the environment but will they will pick the cheapest option​.” 

“Manufacturers need to create things and turn them into a reality, combining the why, how, what. Look at the box as a multi-resource, turn existing elements into new roles, elimination, combination, patterns you didn’t think of until now, new perspectives, in a two-way direction​.”