How Packaging Makes a Difference

I enjoy seeing innovative packaging in any kind of product. You could say I'm even a sucker for it...if I need a generic product and don't have a brand name in mind, and one brand has a sleeker, cooler-looking package, I'll go for that one. Maybe it's the "dumb consumer" side of me.

Some examples of great packaging ideas...

• Ketchup/Mustard/etc. - remember the days when there weren't the squeezable, lid-at-the-bottom bottles of your condiments? It seemed like such a "duh" idea, but someone started the solution to the hated condiment juice leak problem.
  

• The Fridge Pack - consideration for refrigerator consolidation and organization (say that 5 times fast); you can also throw in the boxed-beverage packaging here...although it seems to have only caught on with wine
  

And one I just think is fun and more relevant to my overall point in this post...

• Coors Light bottles - the Rocky Mountains on the label turn blue when the beer has achieved that refreshing, "Tap the Rockies" coldness. Kind of unnecessary, considering I have the sense of touch and conditionally learned "hot" and "cold" when I was a toddler...but I admit that when I see those blue mountains, I think, "Wow! Cool!"

Hygiene products are something that I (and I'm sure most men feel the same way) generally don't have a preference for, and usually just go with what's on sale. Here's why I love what a new company, NXT (pronounced "next"), has done with shaving gel. Let's face it...shaving is boring...that's why I most definitely do not do it every day (that and my laziness). Once the vibrating razor came into play, I was all over it...3 blades? pshh why not 4? Then came the Gillette Fusion. 5 blades of pulsating, razing madness - and I'm sticking with it. But as far as shaving gel goes, I'm definitely not tied down to anything. If I'm perusing the shaving gel section for what is normally a maximum of 60 seconds, and I see this...

...you best believe I'm buying it. Call me a sucker for simple influences, but when I have to go through the bore of shaving multiple times a week, I wouldn't mind pumping some gel out from an LED-flared can.

Why I like this company is that they dedicated their efforts toward putting LED lights in their cans, justifiably convinced that it will sell without advertising. They even went out on the limb to decline buying the valuable "middle-shelf" space, thinking that it pops out more when seen on the bottom shelf, looking down at it. It sounds like it will not be a crappy product in a cool can though - they renamed what's normally "sensitive" gel to "light" and controlled the lather in it for those who need to shave around the various facial hair configurations that exist. So they've put money into the production, but obviously saved on their non-existent advertising and low-budget shelf-space. Those of you heading down the shaving product aisles of places such as Target and CVS in the next month, prepare to be dazzled.

P.S. I had trouble thinking of great packaging ideas, probably because a lot of them have become standard or lost their lure...anyone think of any more?