Cosmos Corporation of Wentzville, MO approached Berlin Packaging with a challenge: While Cosmos’ TropiClean pet grooming products were recognizable, the containers and visual branding hadn’t changed in 15 years, giving them dated look. VP of Marketing Darin Kassebaum led the charge for Cosmos’ re-invention of the brand, and took an active role in the design process.
According to Scott Jost, Director of Berlin Packaging’s design division Studio One Eleven, “Our initial discussions with the Darin centered on the bottle itself and his vision to raise the bar on packaging sustainability, but in the end we agreed that a more comprehensive overhaul of the brand itself was in order.”
Studio One Eleven began by redesigning the TropiClean logo, transforming it into a fresher contemporized brandmark that is recognizable to brand loyalists but much more bold and credible than the outgoing version.
For the bottles themselves, the Studio’s depth of experience in human factors and user research came into play. “Pet grooming packages represent a special challenge” says Jost. “In addition to being right-sized for the user’s hands they must be suited to one-handed use by a distracted pet owner in a wet environment.”. Topping off the whole package is a Studio-created custom flip-top closure, also designed to be opened and closed with a single hand.
According to Kassebaum “The bottle and sleeve are made from Ingeo, an ingenious biopolymer made from plants, not oil. This means it’s 100% natural and renewable. Scott Jost and the Studio One Eleven team were instrumental in the design of a complete package that communicates the green positioning of TropiClean in the market” The results speak for themselves... the new packaging system has the visual impact to attract first-time buyers and the functional “delighters” to keep them coming back for re-buy.
