Packaging News

Vitasnella water brand was acquired by Ferrarelle in 2012. What the company inherited was packaging that, though well established in Italian consumers' minds, was misaligned compared to the dynamic, modern and glamorous advertising campaigns of recent years.

Though enjoying widespread appreciation, Ferrarelle decided to update Vitasnella's image through a restyling able to transmit, through more up-to-date aesthetic and iconographic codes, not only the brand's promise but also to improve the performances and ergonomics of the packaging, making it consistent with the consumers' perception of quality, that is to say men and women who love wellness and sport activities.

Harmonious reshaping

The restyling, entrusted to the design center of P.E.T. Engineering, appealed to the benefits of the brand's promise, which is the feeling of being fit, translated into a container with a tapered and harmonious shape, obtained thanks to a change of the proportions of the upper and lower parts of the bottle.

The lightness is visually represented by removing the complex decoration of the previous version and inserting a graphic garnish, which starts from the shoulder and flows sinuously along the body symbolizing how water enters the body and the elimination of excess fluids and toxins.

The graphic ornament, apart from being a meaningful element, becomes structural and strengthens the grip area, which was developed according to ergonomic and anthropometric factors, making of the packaging the perfect tool for a physical exercise common for everybody: drinking Vitasnella water.

P.E.T. Engineering marketing & communication manager Elisa Zanellato says that the two bottle sizes, of 1.5 L and 500 mL, each dropped two grams of PET polymer. That is a 7 percent weight reduction for the 1.5-L size and about 14 percent as much 500-mL size.

The company emphasizes that the weight decrease wasn't the main goal that Ferrarelle wanted to reach. Vitasnella is a high quality water and the bottles needed to be perceived in the same way.

"The new-shape bottles meet perfectly the needs of manageability and practicality, which are essential for our target customer, women and also men aged between 25 and 45 who have an active life and play sports regularly," affirms Gabriele Monda, brand manager of Vitasnella. "The light-weighting of the bottles--and more precisely, the modification of the handling--make the bottles more ergonomic and easier to use. This innovation is really relevant because the brand Vitasnella can highlight its own positioning, not only through the activities above and below-the-line already explained, but also through its packaging."

The restyling expresses the brand's promise by creating a strong synergy between packaging and communication.