Clorox Anywhere Packaging Design

Following up on our story from September on Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface cleaner we had the chance to learn about the design of the bottle. 

The industrial design behind Clorox Anywhere hard surface cleaner is unique.  Buenos Aires-based Tridimage did the ID working from Clorox's desire for a bottle design that conveyed comfort of use and aesthetics. 

Clorox's Vicki Friedman said the company wanted an ergonomically designed bottle, created to be comfortable for the consumer to use. 

After Tridimage did their part Clorox Creative Services handled the graphic design in-house.  The packaging design went through several different mock ups before the final design was agreed upon.  The final design features the custom bottle in white with matching crisp white and blue graphics as we reported earlier.

Thanks to Tridimage for sharing their design image.

Clorox Green Works

Oakland-based Clorox has been quite the hot topic of late within green circles with its recent acquisition of Burt's Bees.  The company most well known for producing bleach is working on crafting a greener image with consumers.  Using its strong brand recognition and fueled by tremendous growth and interest in greener more eco-friendly household products Clorox has introduced a new product line called Green Works.  Green Works combines the strong trustworthy image of "clean" the Clorox brand enjoys with new product formulations that are 99% natural. 

Green Works is made from plant-based ingredients derived from coconuts and lemon oil, one of the products in the line, the Glass & Surface Cleaner also uses corn-based ethanol.  The ingredients used in Green Works products are sustainable, non-allergenic and biodegradable. "We worked with our suppliers to ensure that they were providing natural, plant- or mineral-based raw materials and asked them to show us their entire supply chain to prove the ingredients were natural. What we have with Green Works products are cleaners with the most natural profile available in today's market: Our products are all at least 99 percent natural and we will not be satisfied until we can get our formulas to be 100 percent natural," said Suzanne Thompson, Vice President of Research & Development, Cleaning Division.   

All Green Works packaging is currently stock packaging according to Mary Seltzer with Ketchum, a PR firm handling the Green Works product line.  The packaging is easily recyclable.  Creative design for the packaging and labeling was done by Clorox's in-house design team. 

"Our brand marketing team wanted a label design that would create shelf-pop versus traditional cleaners and communicate the brand promise of powerful cleaning done naturally. We wanted something that was clean, simple and yet still powerful. Something that would stand out from what we typically see in the cleaning aisles, which is how we came up with the Gerbera Daisy design. The daisy is a visual icon for what Green Works is about. Natural, Simple and It Works."

Clorox to Buy Burt's Bees

Oakland-based Clorox announced last week it will acquire North Carolina-based natural products company Burt's Bees for nearly a billion dollars.

Clorox produces a number of household cleaning products including its name branded bleach and Brita water filters.

Burt's Bees, which makes lip balm, lotions, hair products and other grooming items, is expected to have sales of about $170 million this year. The company was founded in 1984 in Maine, and is now based in Durham, N.C.

In addition to Burt's Bees focus on providing consumers natural products they have also been leaders in using eco-friendly packaging.  Most of their packaging contains high levels of post-consumer recycled plastic.  In its line of hair care products the packaging is made from #2 HDPE plastic containing 80% post-consumer content.  The labeling on many of the company's products contains the statement, "We take care of the environment in the choice of our packaging."

It is not known what impact, if any, Clorox's acquisition of Burt's Bees will have on their packaging.

Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface Daily Sanitizing Spray

When Oakland-based Clorox came out with their new Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface daily sanitizing spray I was impressed.  This product was a big step for the staple cleaning brand.  Known as a more conservative traditional type brand this new spray represented a change for the company.

Clorox along with other brands is facing increased competition from among others Method, based just a few miles across the bay in San Francisco.  Method is offering consumers what it considers more environmentally sound products and then placing strong emphasis on packaging design.

I think the new Clorox Anywhere is a responsible product and a perfect example not only of how a company like Clorox can react to a company like Method, but also an example of how a company can look within a highly successful brand like Clorox bleach and reformulate, producing a product that doesn't alienate its loyal customers but is also much more responsible and practical environmentally.

I've seen others in the green community have criticized Clorox Anywhere as "just bleach and water" and overpriced etc.  I disagree.  While yes the product is made of water and a tiny amount of bleach - what Clorox has done is provided the consumer with the smallest amount possible of bleach necessary for the product to be effective at its mission - disinfecting.  I would much rather have a consumer use a product like this than something which is way overkill for the job.  And most mainstream products on the market today are just that.

The product contains .0095% Sodium Hypochlorite (bleach) and water.  The company has taken the guess work out of making an effective disinfectant. 

Packaging Design

The product's packaging is quite impressive.  The design of the packaging was done by Buenos Aires-based Tridimage and was custom produced by ALPLA in Georgia for Clorox.  The bottle is a custom made HDPE #2 bottle.

The design had two main goals according to Clorox's Vicki Friedman, "comfort of use and aesthetics."  "First, the design is an ergonomically designed bottle, created to be comfortable for the consumer to use, even with frequent application," said Friedman.

The second area the design team addressed, aesthetics, focused on what Friedman said was a common concern they hear from consumers.  "Cleaning product packaging is generally not attractive enough to want to leave out."  Sound familiar?  It should this is one of the key concepts behind Method's packaging design - their idea was to make cleaning products packaging more pleasing for consumers.  Its very interesting to hear this was a key concern for Clorox and one their placed enough importance on to contact them.

Friedman said, "Because Clorox Anywhere spray is a great solution for daily sanitizing, and is gentle enough to use around kids, food and pets, they wanted a package that was attractive enough to leave out on the counter.  As a result, the package was also given an elegant look." 

I agree, the packaging on this product is close to revolutionary for a company like Clorox.  It stands out on the shelf, its elegant and works well with the product.   Friedman said graphic design on the packaging was done in-house using the Clorox Creative Services department.

I think Clorox hit a home run on this product from all aspects: environmental, packaging, design, and effectiveness.    It will be interesting to see if they continue to develop custom packaging and work on offering consumers reformulated versions of some of their other products.

Brita Teams Up with Nalgene to Reduce Disposable Water Bottle Usage

UPDATE:  April 9, 2008 - see our story on the new NON-Leaching Nalgene Bottles on our companion site Sustainable is Good Products

Water filter maker Brita owned by Oakland-based Clorox has teamed up with Nalgene to launch a new campaign aimed at reducing the use of disposable water bottles.

The campaign, Filter For Good, is obviously mutually beneficial to both the water filter and reusable bottle makers.   It also may be in response to the growing sales of another popular reusable bottle Sigg.

The new campaign highlights the perfect marriage of the two products.  Use your Brita to purify tap water and then fill your Nalgene with the tap water.  Clearly this choice has tremendous environmental benefits when you look at disposable bottled water as the alternative. 

According to the LA Times, Sigg has worked a deal with Aveda placing their water bottles at this year's New York Fashion Week.  Sigg USA also reports a 200% increase in sales over the last three months. 

There certainly has been increased attention to the disposable water bottle issue over the last several months. 

More than anything from my discussions with consumers Nalgene has suffered more from the fact their bottles are mostly made from Lexan #7 plastic than anything else.   Increasing numbers of consumers are turning to reusable bottles made of metal like the Sigg or Klean Kanteens over their plastic bottles.

Nalgene has also launched Refill Not Landfill, a campaign aimed at encouraging more consumers to use their reusable bottles over disposable water bottles.  The company uses #7 Polycarbonate/LEXAN, #2 High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), #4 Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and # 5 Polypropylene (PP) plastics to make the various products in their line. 

Again the resistance I have seen from consumers related to reusable plastic water bottles has more to do with consumers being concerned over plastics as opposed to objecting to the idea of a reusable bottle itself.  Whether the concerns are unfounded is another issue but the feeling is certainly out there.  I believe this is why companies like Sigg and Klean Kanteen are seeing increases in sales.