Ernest to the Rescue: Cape Seasonings’ Snack Packaging Stands Up Under Pressure
July 30, 2015
The Problem
Cape Seasonings has a twisted take on pretzels and chips. The Delaware-based company makes bite-size snacks that are made only with real, natural ingredients. No additives, preservatives, gluten or GMOs. Just the good stuff. Of course, that’s not the only reason to buy them.
“It doesn’t matter how healthy something is if it doesn’t taste good,” said owner Butch Feeser.
Despite their great product, Butch› and his team had a problem. Cape Seasonings’ packaging didn’t show shoppers just how awesome these snacks are. The packaging looked pretty blah, and it didn’t stand out on grocery shelves. Additionally, the chips were getting damaged, and the packaging wasn’t fully airtight, which limited its shelf life.
One day, Butch was in a grocery store and saw some really great cookie packaging. He contacted the cookie manufacturer and learned that the packaging was created by some company called Ernest Packaging Solutions. (That name sounds vaguely familiar, right?)
The Ernest Solution
Butch got in touch with Gene McMillion, a client relationship manager at Ernest Packaging. “He said that he’d been working on this for months and months and months, and no one could help him,” Gene said.
Having spent decades helping companies solve their packaging problems, Gene knew what to do right away. “This was a no-brainer slam dunk,” he said. “I’ve done this enough that I had the data. We use our knowledge and move forward based our experience.”
Ernest’s solution to Cape Seasonings’ problem had several elements:
1 – Great design that tells a story. People are hungry for au naturale snacks, and the new packaging puts this front and center.
2 – It stands up. While most chips and pretzels fall on their sides, Cape Seasonings has a stable base that allows it to stand up, which helps ensure that shopper will notice it while talking down the grocery aisle. The Ernest team engineered the base of the gusseted bag to include the appropriate strength of substrate to keep the bag standing.
3 – Stronger packaging to decrease breakage and increase shelf life. The new packaging does a much better job of protecting the snacks. It’s specifically engineered to keep out air and moisture. “The engineered film that we’re using significantly increases shelf life,” Gene said. It also protects the chips during shipping in a way that Gene describes as being “like a shock absorber.”
The Results
To say that Butch is pleased with Cape Seasonings’ new packaging would be an understatement.
“On every problem that I had with packaging, I got it solved with Ernest Packaging,” he said. “I really can’t say enough about Ernest and the ease of process with the team there.”
The new packaging is getting significantly more attention on grocery shelves. “When everybody else’s bag is falling over, mine is still standing,” Butch said.
Butch recently had a colleague ask for a referral on a packaging solutions partner. It wasn’t a difficult pitch for Butch. “All I needed to say was, ‘This is my bag, and this it what it does,’” he said. The packaging speaks for itself.
Is your packaging getting the attention that it deserves? Just like we did for Cape Seasoning, Ernest can help you stand out and get noticed! Contact us today to start overhauling your packaging.
