Articles
Oxymorons, Tailors, and Tooling Lines
What's your favorite oxymoron? Some people like "jumbo shrimp" or "pretty ugly." I like "stock custom" because our company has found a way to make it not so oxymoronic after all.
What is this all about? Let's imagine that for whatever reason, you need a new suit. You could walk into the store, buy one right off the rack, and take it home---but it won't look good, because the sleeves will be too long and the seat will sag. Or you could spend a boatload of money and have a talented tailor handcraft a suit to your exact measurements. But if you're like most of us, you'll go for the "stock custom" option: find a suit on the rack, then have a tailor take it in here and let it out there until it fits just right.
Sonic has developed a way for marketers to apply this approach to their packaging. Packaging is manufactured by machines, and stock machines are fine for certain types of products: soda pop comes in cans, and cans all have the same shape. But other products require more specialized packaging. Shape, size, material, printability, and a host of other factors influence how well your product's package will set it apart from the competition. Customers today expect a quality product---that's a given. It's the package itself that presents or reduces the barrier to entry and influences the customer at the point of sale.
Custom tooling is expensive; companies generally don't want to invest tens of thousands of dollars and months of design time in a machine that makes a single type of package. But if you have a special product that needs to stand out, you need to create a delivery system that presents it appropriately and gets it noticed. That's where stock custom tooling comes in.
Sonic produces a particularly versatile type of packaging option called the thermal blister pack. More upscale than a pouch, this sachet-style package is perfect for a wide variety of applications---powders, liquids, gels, solids, you name it. We have invested in core technology; for a stock custom packaging solution, you simply select the approximate size and shape of tooling that, with some modifications, will produce the right blister pack for your product. With an investment of only a few thousand dollars (instead of tens of thousands) and a design phase that is weeks shorter than going the custom route, you can have a package that's tailored to show off your product perfectly.
