60 PW JUL2021
By Dr. R. Andrew Hurley, PhD, Contributing Editor
Taking the Fifth (Panel): Create an Invitation to Engage tube is placed in the box, but instead of it being a run-of-the-mill sixSeveral times a month, individuals, sided box, it has an extension that allows it to be hung on a peg. This inventors, and startups reach out to me extension provides extra marketing area on the front and increases with questions about the best ways of packaging their really cool the marketing area on the back of the box. These extended marketing ideas. One recent conversation was with Clemson alumna Catherine areas are ideal for new products that don’t fit a single retail category, Chapman, co-founder of BitRip, a digital tape that stores a wealth such as BitRip’s digital tape. The additional space on the packaging of information about the objects it’s applied to. They sell their tape can be used to educate consumers about the product and help the online, but she was looking for ideas for packaging her product for the consumer determine if it solves their needs. For a relatively low cost, retail marketplace. the advertising return of a fifth panel can be quite large. It’s a good question. Digital tape that can be used like a Beyond just marketing the product, a fifth panel can give combination sticky note and QR code doesn’t really fit into one consumers a memorable tactile experience before they even purchase particular retail category. It isn’t actually a sticky note, so it doesn’t the product, providing a kind of unboxing belong in office supplies. Though it’s experience right there in the store. Think of a tape, it doesn’t really fit in with masking, A fifth panel is a relatively fifth-panel package for the newest in soundpainting, and duct tapes. It can store digital simple concept, but it can cancelling headphones. You pick the box up information, but it isn’t software. It is a provide a powerful message. off the shelf, loving that satiny feel. The box completely new concept, and it requires its own unique category. But before consumers That’s why I recommend it to doesn’t say much, but it doesn’t need to. Still, you turn it over, examining all sides, reading can understand it enough to appreciate its many of the people who call the information that’s there. You get back to many uses, they first need to be educated about what it can do. What I suggested to with questions about how to the front and slowly open that fifth panel. that scritch that lets you feel you’re Catherine, in fact, what I recommend to most package the unique products There’s the first to crack the spine of this “book” of those who ask, is to consider fifth-panel they’ve created. The only way (even though you know you aren’t, you packaging. feel like you are). And then, there they are, What is fifth-panel packaging? Don’t boxes to convert passersby into nestled in the velvet-flocked plastic form are have six sides? Which one is the “fifth” one? purchasers is if the packaging the headphones you’ve been waiting for. You What the term really means is “extra smile and trail your fingers across the mattepanel.” It’s a common packaging technique is seen and touched. finish cellophane, imagining these on your for electronics and audio/visual devices. ears, looking like the well-contented, stress-free person sitting in the Remember the days when software was purchased in a box, before pastoral scene on the back of the cover you just opened. Yes, you know downloading gigabytes was a realistic scenario? You’d take the box these will provide all the noise-cancelling bliss you’ve dreamed of. off the shelf, review the front and the back, then open the panel on Fifth panels do require some thought before implementing. Tobias the front. The little circle of Velcro made a slight scratchy sound like Watson, Creative Director at Quad, noted that fifth panels should you were opening a book for the first time—a powerful psychological communicate a level of care and precision. For instance, the thickness factor that bridged a level of familiarity to the excitement of what of your paperboard will be doubled to create that fifth panel, so if was about to be revealed. On those two inside panels, you were you currently use 24-point stock, the panel now becomes 48-point. able to read more about the features and functions of the software, This can provide an additional level of security and protection to a see screenshots and other graphics, and get a feel for whether this package, but it may also present challenges for some folding and was the right software for your needs. The space provided by the gluing operations. extra panel allowed the software marketers that much more area to There is a level of premium-ness that comes with many fifth communicate value without taking up any additional shelf space or panels. With the added space, there’s room to spread out what you overloading the precious primary display panel (PDP) that needed to want to say and places for graphics to show different aspects of the grab your attention first. product. That same added space can also create a feeling of needing A book-style opening is not the only type of fifth panel available. to cram in as much information as possible, thereby rendering an There are also fifth-panel peg hanging boxes, frequently referred to experience that is not only overwhelming, but also overlookable. as “fifth-panel headers.” Typically, they house a primary package, for With a thoughtfully designed fifth-panel package, the benefits instance, a bottle of medicine or a tube of lip balm. The bottle or
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