R&D/Leverage and Dr Pepper Snapple Create New Legacy Bottle

The new Legacy bottle will be used for many of DPS’s brands, including 7UP, Sunkist soda, Canada Dry, Sun Drop, Squirt and other soft drinks in the company’s portfolio that do not have their own brand-specific bottle designs.

4/15/2011 --- The debut ‘idea-to-mold’ collaboration between R&D/Leverage and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, has resulted in a new design for its 20oz ‘Legacy’ bottle.

The new Legacy bottle will be used for many of DPS’s brands, including 7UP, Sunkist soda, Canada Dry, Sun Drop, Squirt and other soft drinks in the company’s portfolio that do not have their own brand-specific bottle designs.

DPS’s director of packaging, Robin Utay, said that the success of an important single-serve beverage package involves much more than aesthetic considerations alone. “Our packages have to pass muster with consumers and with internal constituents they must look good on the shelf, and they must run efficiently in all our manufacturing locations and work in vending machines.”

“That’s why the alignment between R&D/Leverage and our teams was so important. The 20oz size is central to our efforts to grow our business in single-serve formats across our flavour portfolio, so it’s got to be perfect, in many ways.”

The entire process, including all up-front consumer work, was conducted on an accelerated timetable, according to Tamara Christensen, Leverage’s director of research. “This was a 28 week process that included comprehensive qualitative and quantitative consumer validation everything, including consumer shopalongs.

“With a single-serve package, the tactile aspect of the package is as important as the visual cues, such as shapes, graphics, label size and placement. It has to look good, and feel good in the consumer’s hand. As a result, we developed specific ‘tactile tactics’ research tools to get at consumer likes and dislikes regarding how the product felt, because 20oz bottles are held – a lot,” she said.