Elephants and Ponds

Two clear examples of the success of the Tata Elxsi creative process have yet to be launched in markets other than India, but it will be just a matter of time: GlaxoSmithKline wanted to re-launch Horlicks in an HDPE bottle aimed at the kids market, and through the brand naming process with Tata Elxsi,

“This was for the Indian market and the elephant is an iconic image, both cultural and religious, as the god Ganish, and testing showed kids responded well to a cartoon elephant.

So the job could have been a simple cartoon elephant printed on a sleeve and shrunk to an HDPE wide-neck jar.

“However, where is that little extra added value which the product needed? So during the early concept stage we decided that our Horlicks Junior elephant should have a trunk… not just a cartoon trunk printed on a sleeve but a proper trunk! The bottle was designed so that it bulged where Junior’s trunk would be.

“Arranging for the label applicator and shrink unit to position the trunk exactly on top of Junior’s bulge with minimal rejects did take some effort but it was worth it!”

Horlicks Junior won an India Star packaging award, and Tata Elxi has been commissioned to develop more cartoon characters in the product range; “We’re looking at lions” Lions don’t have trunks! “That’s true, but till the product is launched we can’t reveal what will replace the trunk other than to say the bottle will be as unique as Junior.”

Ponds Talcum Powder proved a much more complex design project “The Brand owner wanted to increase visibility in the market, talcum powder is big business in India, but more than that there were a few usability issues which we needed to address:

“In the market there were two types of closure – a two-layer rotating cap with holes punched, the user rotates the cap lines up the holes and shakes the product out. The other is a flip top. Neither closure had pre-moulded holes but had to be punched out. The consumer found it inconvenient since neither was a single handed operation – both hands had to be used to open the container” says Shyam Sunder, senior industrial design specialist.

“Our design proposal focussed on three areas where we could add value to the product: By changing the closure’s material of construction we could eliminate the hole punching stage of manufacture and pre-mould the holes. We would change a two handed method of operation to a single handed opening process and finally we would include some tamper-evident device clearly visible to the consumer.”

As with all good design; form follows function. With the functionality issues to the fore the design brief evolved thus: “To provide an impactfull face for graphics. Explore ‘exciting’ versus ‘classical’ form amenable for sub-brands using colour. A convenient dispenser for both facial and body application. With a product feasible for costs and manufacture using the existing filling lines”.

Following an evaluation of the wide range of products available to the consumer category – in this case female – The Tata Elxi team explored a range of non-talc products and shapes which appealed to women; shampoos, perfume, handphones to short list a range of ideas to give a femine form-factor.

“We developed a shutter mechanism to slide across a fixed base with pre-moulded holes which eliminated the hole-punch manufacturing stage and enabled the container to be opened with a single slide of the thumb. Here we were able to change the material and we went through three different blends of PVA and PP” Continues Shyam, “We also included a red plastic strip which acts as a lock, which must be removed to open – this also acts as a tamper evident device since if there is no red plastic strip, the consumer will see.”

The dispensing system is also unique: “The problem with talc dispensing systems is that when the user tries to power her back, most of the talc ends up on the floor. The solution was to set the closure and moulded dispensing holes at an angle to guarantee maximum coverage.”

The approval process also called for full mock-up prototypes to be produced so the client could evaluate and compare it with the competitor’s product.

Finally Tata Elxsi delivered mechanical and digital data to the Unilever mould makers for fully CAD-CAM production.

The closure itself has been patented by Unilever citing Tata Elxsi as the inventor.

Smart Design

As packages get smarter, Tata Elxsi is becoming more involved in the creation of the actual product: “Our electronic engineers are on hand where a product and its pack require some form of electronic gadget – RFID for example, or some new washing products in a bag have a type of measured release mechanism, or even the design of an electric toothbrush where the components, the product design and the package all have to be conceptualised as a single unit”

If packaging is the ‘silent salesman’ of the brand then the architect, package designer sits very quietly in the shadows.

Outside India, Tata isn’t exactly a household name, unless of course you’re a tea drinker, in which case you might have come across Tata – they own the brand Tetley.