Back in Black

The use of black in packaging is having a moment, reports Suzanne Vranica in The Wall Street Journal (2/28/13). In part this is because black helps “break through the clutter,” says Domenick Tiziano of Air Wick, which is using the hue on packaging for “a new line of cone fresheners.” A rival brand, Renuzit, is also introducing black packaging, but not on its cone fresheners, so fortunately it’s unlikely the two brands will sit next to each other, black-to-black, on store shelves. The other reason for the black comeback is that, in a soft economy, it “subtly conveys” a premium product, or an “affordable luxury.”

Black is showing up in, of all places, “the once-cheery laundry detergent aisle, a veritable ’60s kaleidoscope of blues, greens and oranges.” Soup cans are also “going darker.” Even Pantene, traditionally packaged in white, is going black. Anheuser-Busch used “eye-tracking technology to observe how well” consumers saw black packages on the shelf compared to other colors. As a result, it introduced Beck’s Sapphire in a black bottle with a black label, at a price some 20-25 percent higher than regular beer. The higher price point is supported by a claim that the beer is made with “German sapphire hops.”

Haagen-Dazs used focus groups to determine that black gelato packages worked harder than gold and white. High visibility was a particular concern in the category, as brand manager Cady Behles explains: “A lot of people don’t enjoy walking down the frozen-food aisle. It’s cold and you are slightly uncomfortable,” she says. U by Kotex, the feminine protection brand, was an early adopter to black, striking a contrast with traditional pastels going back to 2010. The brand has since “built up a 7 percent market share in the $2.6 billion US business.” The competition for attention is intensifying: “The number of new product introductions” is “up 52 percent from 2002, according to market research firm Mintel.”