'Beautifully Engineered' faucet packaging

Delta Faucet redesigns its packaging using preprinted boxes that include product photography to help instruct users. Inside, a new thermoformed tray stabilizes parts.

Delta Faucet redesigned its carton exteriors for retail-bound packs (left) and for its trade customers (above). More colorful pr
Delta Faucet redesigned its carton exteriors for retail-bound packs (left) and for its trade customers (above). More colorful pr

By the end of May, Indianapolis-based Delta Faucet Co. expects new packaging to be available throughout its nationwide retail and trade channels for virtually its entire line of more than 3ꯠ residential and commercial faucets. The packaging includes improvements in both graphics and structure that are based on input from consumers, retailers, and trade professionals.

“We changed our logo, developed new advertising, and created a new ‘Beautifully Engineered’ tagline for the products—so that overall corporate identity change drove a packaging change at Delta,” explains Kristen Burkman, the company’s consumer marketing manager.

“In the past we used corrugated inserts, padded mailers, paper bags, and bubble cushioning to wrap individual products that we then placed into one of 20 or 25 primary boxes,” notes packaging engineer Chad Courtade. “We didn’t have a systematic approach, and packaging was somewhat of an afterthought,” he admits.

The packaging approach was understandable given that many of these faucets were sold at wholesale outlets where contractors and plumbers would purchase them for installation. “But with the increase in retail sales to consumers at outlets such as Home Depot and Lowe’s,” Courtade says, “we realized our packaging fell behind graphically and structurally when compared to some of our competitors.”

Seeking input

In 2000, the division of Masco Corp. “put together a major effort to reposition Delta’s brand and image in the marketplace,” recalls Burkman. She explains that consumers were tested in Louisville, KY, and Bethesda, MD. “We wanted to learn what consumers were looking for, how they felt about our brand, and how our products and packaging compared to competitive brands.

“We didn’t receive any major complaints about our packaging, but we learned that we weren’t giving consumers enough information. So we decided to revamp our graphics so that consumers would have the information they needed to make the purchase.”

The limited product information was offset-printed directly onto mottled white corrugated, typically in two colors, with spot labels, according to Courtade. “We changed the printing method completely,” he says, “and that’s one of the major improvements we’ve made. We’re having linerboard preprinted with four-color process printing, and we’re able to go up to seven colors plus varnish. For our highest-volume models, we’re using four-color product shots, and that allows us to convey a really strong message on our [top selling] boxes.”

Printing of the 40# paper linerboard and box converting steps are done by supplier Inland Paperboard and Packaging (Indianapolis, IN). All text, except for the Delta logo, is printed in English, Spanish, and French to accommodate exports to Canada, Mexico, South America, and Asia.

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