Amabrush Starter Set

Posted on

Derrick Lin

Global

Design: Process AG
Project Type: Produced
Client: Amabrush
Location: Austria
Packaging Contents: Toothbrush
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper overboard, PET

Problem:
When a brand decides to break away from the norm and create something new there is the challenge of adoption from consumers who are already familiar and comfortable with a form and status quo of a product.

The toothbrush we know today started being mass produced in 1938. Since then, toothbrushes have remained somewhat of a dormant category. The form, cost, and application of the toothbrush has been widely adopted and is rarely given a second consideration by most consumers. It wasn’t until General Electric released its electric toothbrush in the 1960s did the market see any innovation. If we think of other products we use in our daily lives like the TV we can see that adoption is typically catalyzed by the convience of the product. Looking again at the toothbrush, it is something used multiple times a day, however, the form factor and adoption of new technology happens at a snail’s pace. This is impart due to the fact that there is little room for innovation. Most toothbrushes do their job relatively well. Amabrush’s angle of approach was to shorten down the time it takes to brush your teeth and also allowing the user to be hands-free during the tooth brushing process.

There were a number of challenges when developing the initial custom packaging for the Amabrush toothbrush. One of which was educating consumers that a new product as well as a new technology within a dormant industry. The second challenge was designing packaging that looks “medical” while keeping the brand look and feel present throughout. These two challenges of the custom packaging design process where the focal point of the Amabrush project that process was tasked with.

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Custom Packaging Design Criteria:

  • A custom retail packaging solution that educated consumers about the innovative product, including its features and benefits over existing electric toothbrushes.
  • A packaging solution that would protect the product during shipping and provide security when displayed on a retail shelf location.
  • A messaging strategy that is clean and minimalistic while also highlighting important specific product features. Visually telling the consumers what’s included in the box, and a focus on the technical significance of the product.
  • Design that displays a medical design ideology and theme while maintaining the brand look and feel.
  • Packaging that creates an exciting and haptic unboxing experience.
  • A custom packaging experience that accommodates multiple languages for global retail distribution and manufacturing efficiency.

Core Demographic:
Wide age demographic with discretionary income. Most would consider themselves early adopters or willing to try new products that are seen to save time in daily life or are technologically significant.

About the Product:
Experience an all-over clean for your teeth when you use the Amabrush Automatic 10-Second Toothbrush. This revolutionary oral cleaning device gives each of your teeth the royal treatment in just seconds. The Amabrush consists of three parts: the mouthpiece, handpiece, and toothpaste capsules. You begin by placing the toothpaste capsule inside the handpiece.

Process’s Approach:
-Structural design concepts that featured product security and multistep customer unboxing experience
-Graphic Design concepts that showcase the product, technical significance and minimalistic design that emphasized a medical look/feel the reaffirms the products vigorous testing and superiority.

A big packaging concern that Amabrush faced was product security inside the cosmetic packaging itself. Amabrush needed the product to ship snuggly within the packaging to minimize damage received during shipping. As an emerging product, there weren’t luxury packaging solutions readily available to them to reference for structural ideas. Additionally, a toothbrush is classified as a class one medical device by the FDA.

This medical classification presents another set of challenges that Process AG had to abide by. For instance, luxury packaging for most consumer electronics provides security for its contents by using some sort of foam. Most foams are banned by the FDA which drove our decision to use a thermogenic vacuum mold to meet the product security requirement while also maintaining FDA approved standards. One mold was used to secure both the handle and the mouthpiece, while another molded was used to secure the charging base and the toothpaste pods. For added structure, both molds were housed inside individual rigid boxes, one for the mouthpiece and handle and one for the charger and toothpaste. These were joined together on the sides, providing a “book” like opening experience.

To seal the “book” together a neodymium magnet was used to ensure the “book” wouldn’t haphazardly open and spill and damage the contents. Finally, the rigid box is secured with a sleeve that contains a majority of Amabrush’s product messaging.

The second problem that we aimed to solve for Amabrush was the design and messaging on the packaging. Our goal for Amabrush was to create packaging that was clinical and safe but also provided insight into the product superior capabilities to a consumer that hadn’t likely seen the Amabrush product before. For many customers, this will be their first encounter with this brand. Since the form of the toothbrush hasn’t been changed in so long that it might not be completely obvious what the purpose of the product are. Process Ag felt it was imperative to show a clear image of the product and connect it with the purpose of the product by prominently showing “ The 10-second toothbrush” next to the product image. The sides of the exterior of the luxury packaging were largely kept white with the logos being the primary focus.

The back of the box contains headline the reiterates the significance of the product, with a blurb about the brand’s mission statement. The back then makes use of some Iconography showcasing what is inside and then goes into the specs of that specific component of the product. Integrating “Apple store” and “Google Play” badges somewhere on the box was of vast importance to help establish credibility behind a new product. A couple of other functional badges showcasing the products ability to perform wireless charging and connecting via Bluetooth are showcased on the sleave.

The back of the sleeve reiterates the product’s capabilities, along with addressing each individual components specs supported by some clinical Iconography. The sides of the sleave are clean and simple with a stand-alone logo center in the white space of the sleeve.