Sometimes even the best-known brands find themselves without a unified packaging strategy. Until recently, that was the case with Turtle Wax, the 70-year-old automotive appearance products manufacturer with distribution in 90 countries. Different SKUs even in a single package category like spray products utilized different package structures, varying shades of the company’s signature green, and disparate label shapes and branding schemes adopted over time as new product lines were introduced. There was a family resemblance but no standardization.

As a first step in a broad rebranding initiative, managers decided to solicit custom design proposals for the 16-, 23- and 26-ounce PET trigger bottles used to package 10 SKUs in their Jet Black, Quick & Easy and Performance Plus lines. The goal was to bring consistency across the portfolio to optimize merchandising and brand recognition.

After evaluating proposals from multiple suppliers, Turtle Wax selected a concept by Berlin Packaging’s (berlinpackaging.com) Studio One Eleven that was quickly nicknamed the “vortex bottle” for a unique neck and base design featuring deeply angled whirlpool-like grooves. The dynamic line work added a sense of movement and instantly differentiated the package on the shelf.

The project also yielded important material reduction advantages through Berlin’s choice of Alpha Packaging (alphap.com) as the bottle manufacturer. Specifically:

•All three bottles incorporate 30% post-consumer PET plastic, exceeding California’s 25% PCR requirements for bottles in this size range while also saving more than 116,000 pounds of virgin resin annually based on historical Turtle Wax sales volumes.

•Alpha’s new lighter-weight preforms dramatically reduced resin use, yielding a 21% reduction for the 16-ounce bottle (from 43 to 34 grams) and a 19% reduction for the 26-ounce size (from 53 to 43 grams) for a total annual savings of 62,000 pounds of plastic.

The new packages utilize MWV Mixor trigger sprayers with an off-the-shelf black sprayer for the Jet Black line and a custom green sprayer for Quick & Easy and Performance Plus lines. Label design was handled by in-house Turtle Wax designers.

The launch was so successful that Alpha is now building 12-, 20- and 64-ounce molds with the same design to house additional SKUs.