France Freeman—Courtesy Costco

It’s generally acknowledged that retail consumers make snap judgments when faced with shelves of wine. While varietal, origin and price are the first elements consumers evaluate, it’s the package—bottle size, shape, color and label or décor—that seals the deal. What’s in the bottle is key to future purchases, but that first impression may persuade consumers to take the plunge and make the first buy.

Luring shoppers to a display and making eye/hand contact with the first bottle includes one packaging element that’s often overlooked: the shipper/carton. The appearance of a shipper can compel merchandisers to feature wines on endcaps (at the ends of retail store aisles) and attract additional interest and sales, according to leading wine retailers.

A simple brown corrugated case shipper may serve the basic function of safely transporting bottles to the retail floor, but more elaborate decoration can further your brand message.

Curtis Mann is the senior business manager for wine, beer and spirits at Raley’s Family of Fine Stores. Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Raley’s has 120 supermarkets in Northern California and Nevada. Mann emphasized the importance of shippers for retail displays during his presentation at the Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in August.

Although he’s not seen a tidal wave of new shipper design, “People have gone beyond just cardboard,” he told Wines & Vines during a recent interview. In grocery retail, “The label sells. Shippers can influence what is or is not displayed” at individual stores, depending on local demographics.

Wineries would be wise to take a lesson from the rapidly growing craft beer industry, Mann said. “Look at beer. People buy beer in 12-packs. Brewers like Lagunitas Brewing Co. display variety packs in different forms, building an in-store billboard. It’s good to get that billboard display. Vintage dates are not required on a wine box,” he said.

“What we see are items on display get a 24% increase (in sales) vs. those featured in our print ads,” Mann noted. “When people come in, they are looking by varietal. They generally are not too brand loyal, and they are willing to switch” if drawn to an in-store display.

Individual store merchandisers implement display levels. “At the store level, case shippers are important,” he said. “Stores like to build displays, and they are probably more interested by the box.”

Mann said that box manufacturing and printing has improved along with attention to the shippers. “There are only so many opportunities to promote your product. Your best opportunity is to take advantage of what you can.”

Packaging may not be the reason consumers buy your product, but he stressed, “It’s an important component that you can continue to activate after sales via clear, concise messaging.”

Expensive wooden presentation boxes are never discarded at Raley’s, and they may be re-used after their initial display, Mann said. Corrugated case shippers may be recycled at checkout. He recommended using 12-bottle case shippers vs. lay-down six-packs, which are difficult to position at retail.

“Think about selling for retail: Stacking flat six-packs is difficult. To sell a lot of cases, they have to be easily stackable,” he said.

Cues from Costco
Costco is considered the largest wine retailer in the United States. But statistics suggest that compared with other retailers, the Issaquah, Wash.-based big-box chain offers a fairly limited array of wine brands at any given time.

Annette Alvarez-Peters, Costco’s assistant general merchandise manager, spoke to Wines & Vines about the chain’s wine strategy. “In the role of merchandising, we know we have a rule of five and five: five feet away and five seconds for our member to see the product and make a decision if they want to purchase it.”

Humans are attracted by colors: “If the shipper case is displayed in a white or brown box on a pallet next to a pallet with a full-color glossy box with bottle design or messaging, our member will notice the full-color box,” she explained. “The only tool a supplier has to advertise its brand is its mother carton or tray pack. This allows the supply chain to have a ‘billboard effect’ for the item.”

“We have seen slower sales when the tray packs have been in plain-colored boxes without brand messaging. It is very important to convey the message of what is inside the box to our members. Many are moving quickly through our warehouses; we want to ensure they are able to spot the product from a distance,” she emphasized. “We reuse the boxes at the front end, where the cashiers pack the merchandise for our members to carry out,” which carries the branding further to the end-user.

Costco has 11 wine buyers throughout the United States “They are all very creative and understand the importance of driving sales,” Alvarez-Peters said. Costco works with the supply chain to design ready-to-display cases. “We know this can only make the item successful for both parties.” She cited Kendall-Jackson’s Grand Reserve and La Crema brands as wine cases that work especially well.

When planning a package:
• Use heavy-grade (not flimsy) corrugate
• Ensure the proper glue is used. “Many times the glue was not strong enough, and the product fell through,” Alvarez-Peters said.
• If designing for a Costco, the logo should be positioned toward the bottom of the box. “Every case we merchandise is ‘ready-to-display’ and cut on the sales floor,” so design elements on the lower half must carry the message to aid sales.
• Stack 56 cases together when designing your “billboard” to ensure the tray pack is attractive when stacked together.

Get the design down
“I love it when I am asked to design a 12 x 750ml case. It’s a challenge to take the stuff that comes together on the label and make it work on a 3-D box. I present case designs in 3-D simulations,” said Jim Moon at Jim Moon Designs in Mill Valley, Calif.

“More than half my new branding assignments will include new shippers. That said, many clients who did not initially ask for a custom shipper have come back and requested a compatible design to support their bottle package design.”

Moon agreed that by floor-stacking wines, retailers have done their share to increase demand for high-design cases. “An attractive case design is like a billboard. Customers are going to see the case a lot easier—sooner—than a face label. This is particularly true in a crowded field, which describes many retail settings,” he observed.

Consider case shipping design for redesigns as well as brand introductions. “It just makes sense. It creates design continuity, which helps support the new branding. It also creates a definite point of difference for those vintners who have no case design at all,” Moon said. “Blank corrugated cases start looking pretty insignificant—and cheap—when placed next to a well-designed case.”

Price point and sales channels make a difference. Despite the retailer comments about display difficulties, Moon noted, “Ultra-premium wines are often sold in six-bottle lay-down cartons. The unit price (and wine allocations) mean that packing these premium wines in 12-bottle cartons may not make sense.

“Winery wine clubs are not going to get too many requests for a full case of estate reserve that sells for $100 per bottle,” Moon noted. These wines are likely to be packed in a single box or in a six-bottle lay-down case that might very likely be a custom wood container with laser-etched branding.

“A winery’s estate wines, on the other hand, are delivered in custom designed corrugated cases. I also think that it is fair to say that new wineries (or new brands from an established winery) that are looking to make an impact in the market are wise to consider a strong, highly visible case design. New market entries need all the attention they can muster,” Moon said.

Market forces are pushing wineries to have a stronger branding presence, he observed. “Distributors and retailers often pressure wineries to re-design their respective labels and POS (point-of-sale materials), which would include an attractive case design. Wineries with both red and white wines elect to differentiate their cases. Often warehouses confuse wines if there is a common case design for both reds and whites—or different varietals, for that matter. Differentiating these cases by varietal is an expensive proposition.” While high-production wineries can afford to do this, he said, smaller wineries usually ship their wines in a common case with a specific wine face label glued to each carton.

Flashier boxes add to packaging cost. “Obviously, the more colors, the greater the cost,” Moon said. He pointed out that glass companies include case shippers in their bottle pricing. “The printed case price is added to the overall glass order. These basic shippers must be manufactured in advance so bottles can be shipped to the winery/bottling line in them.”

Customized, decorative cases are a different story at both retail and in tasting rooms. “I think it all comes down to the retailer,” Moon said. “Higher price-point wines are most likely to occupy a shelf facing alongside other competitive wines of the same varietal. Case-stacked wines are often special promotions where added visibility is important. A nice case design will attract more attention. Obviously, Beverages & More is going to have a different strategy than a Dean & DeLuca.”

Erica Harrop is president/CEO of Global Package LLC, a Napa, Calif.-based supplier of high-end bottles. Her clients’ wines tend to sell at premium price points, and in contrast to the mass retailers’ recommendations, many choose lay-down cases to display their costly wares.

“A lay-down carton can be custom die cut to use the top flap as a pop-up display,” Harrop said. “Corrugated die cutting technology opens many doors to designing a unique, usable display.”

Specialty cartons are most commonly chosen by wineries needing more than 3,000 to 4,000 cases in a run, she said. “Otherwise it’s too expensive.”

Given the tight timelines for bottling runs, timing is crucial. “The winery needs to place its (case) orders in advance of the glass run to get the best pricing. Sometimes that’s not logistically possible,” Harrop said.

Cartons are important at the distribution level as well as retail, she pointed out. “Custom cartons are very important for identifying (a specific wine) in a large distributor’s warehouse. It is good advertising. Box stores really need this kind of promoting for case stacking.

“Smaller, boutique wineries don’t feel the need for this type of advertising, because they may not sell multiple cases to one location. But we believe that it is another great branding method for getting out a quality message,” she said.

Harrop predicts that decorative case designs will become more prevalent. “As the industry becomes healthy again, and we see more consistent brand strength again, we will see more investment put into the brands. This includes spending on printed cartons and other packing materials.”

Get into the box factory
The designer may or may not influence who supplies the box, Jim Moon said. “It all comes down to the winery’s glass provider. The glass companies have their own relationships with corrugated container printers. He personally favors Packaging Innovators Corp. in Livermore, Calif., because of its high-quality presses and ability to nail complex designs.

Packaging Innovators vice president Mark Mazzoco concentrates on corrugated containers. “We provide multiple-part displays to simple designed boxes. Color is added to the box either by flexo or litho printing,” he said.

“The number of winery customers requiring many colors and high-end print is growing. Wine cases in BevMo and or Costco need to attract customers,” he confirmed. “Higher end wines, reserves and wine carriers are stepping up the quality of packaging sold in the tasting rooms.”

Although the majority of cases from Packaging Innovators use the direct-print method, the company recently purchased a digital printer for use on short runs, which should be available in early 2015.

Mazzoco explained the direct-print process, in which one or more printing plates actually touch the carton material. Not surprisingly, simple one-color jobs are the least expensive. “Plates are fairly inexpensive,” so a one-color plate reduces cost. “Add-on costs are based on a larger percentage of print including die-cutting if printing extends beyond scores and/or edges of the top or bottom flaps. Also, metallic inks are more costly.

“All finishes on direct-print boxes are more expensive. It is another color and most of the time heavy in coverage. The overprint varnishes (OPV) are the same in price if matte or gloss. OPV does help against rub and will show the matte or gloss characteristic based on the substrate it is printed on,” Mazzoco said.

Major wine retailers, he added, are becoming more involved with the selling of the wine. “There is a great push for quality of print, both in substrates, colors and numbers of colors, registration, line screens and overall quality of print.”

Retailers, he thinks, are averse to six-packs because they are more expensive and take more time putting together. “It appears that most of the time they are used with the intention of going to restaurants and/or tasting rooms for retail use. Often they are purchased (by the winery) with those intentions and (then) end up as another more expensive version of a shipper.”

Heritage Paper, also in Livermore, Calif., is another major supplier of corrugated boxes and displays. Its expansive facilities, proudly 90% solar powered, provide an education about current digital printing technology. The immaculate facility is equipped with massive Hewlett-Packard (HP) equipment. Last year, Heritage hosted an HP open house, and another was planned for December 2014.

Raw sheets of corrugate material in various strengths and sizes arrive from the Heritage plant in nearby Lathrop, Calif. Heritage prints corrugated boxes with and without insulation.

“We have the ability to provide all sizes—standard and custom—depending on bottle size and quantity being shipped,” said Jim Clark, Heritage Paper’s director of new business development.

“We can print any image on the corrugate in matte or satin finish in litho quality. We can run small quantities (less than 100) or large quantities (more than 10,000) without the need for printing plates,” he said.

Heritage maintains a strong presence in POS displays, Clark said. Some are “simply an unwrap of a pallet, placement of a custom pallet wrap or a three-case stand-up case display” for simple cut/tear top box that exposes the bottles within. “Usage of these systems is growing with retailers: liquor/beverage, grocery, convenience and warehouse stores,” Clark said.

Those are the simple options. Others are more complex, like a mocked-up car or truck, which require instructions and a standard set of tools to assemble. Heritage Paper’s factory floor is home to examples of its own elaborate corrugated displays suitable for trade show booths. A fearsome-looking automated die-cutting machine creates accurate shapes and scores the boxes.

Wineries seeking retail displays are becoming staple clients, said Clark, who cited Gallo, Constellation, Chateau Ste. Michelle and some smaller vintners as customers. The company supplies single-bottle and gift packs as well as carriers for two to six bottles suitable for retail/tasting room sales and wine club shipments.

The digital-printing process is almost fully automated. More human intervention is required for short runs, but if a winery experiences a shipper shortfall or has a last-minute need, re-runs can be delivered within a week; valuable winery real estate can be saved by print-to-order.

The HP printers use organic inks to build up a limitless number of colors. Depending on desired colors and color saturation, the first pass is faint. As many as seven passes intensify the hues according to computerized registration. Watching the process is like seeing a photographic image develop and come into focus.

“Digital printing allows the customer to change graphics easily to meet their marketing needs,” Clark said. “This is a growth area for us.”

If sales growth is among your goals, extending your brand image with decorative case shippers is something to consider.