Arthrotec

As America's population ages, makers of all kinds of consumer goods are trying to figure out: What makes a package senior-friendly?

Designing a package that appeals to older consumers means taking a lot of concerns into account. Regulatory requirements loom largest for certain kinds of products. For others, packaging suppliers, designers and users say it's a matter of common sense; features that appeal to seniors probably will appeal to a lot of other consumers, too.

Seniors Like packages that are light, easy to handle and easy to read. In these respects, they are no different than most other consumers; they may simply place more emphasis on these factors.

"When we had dealings with [liquor distillers], one of their big reasons to go for they plastic packaging is a lot of the retirees down in Florida didn't like having the bottle slip out of their hands and smash all over the floor," says one package designer.

In other respects, though, seniors respond to different factors in packaging. Some of these are due to physical reasons, while others are rooted in mentality and life experience.

"I think older consumers are probably more sensitive to ease of opening and usage," says Ian McLean, president of McLean Designs, a packaging Design firm. "I also think it's as important or more important for the older consumers to create packaging graphics which are legible and comprehensible, easily navigated--user-friendly."

Generation gap

Part of this attitude stems from generational experiences, McLean says. "They're not born in the age of computer literacy and complicated stuff. They want something that's fairly simple and understandable, and not too convoluted," he says. "They're not really wild about fads and gimmicks so much. I think they would tend to pick a package for its functionality and its [being] more utilitarian. Assuming we're not talking about some value-added product like wine, or something that's more emotional. But when it comes to buying hand lotion, they're not going to go for the exciting, swoopy bottle. They're going to go for the one that somehow functions better."

This utilitarian attitude has another source, McLean says: Senior citizens often don't have the disposable income of other consumers. "With the boomers aging there's a lot of money there. But for other people, who are older than that and on fixed incomes, I think price point and value and dependability are high attributes," he says. "They're somewhat averse to overtly flashy things. They want substance over style."

Lee Sucharda Jr., CEO of package design firm Design North, says that one reason there hasn't been a lot of innovation in senior-friendly packaging lately is that consumer packaged goods companies are trying to take costs out of their packages. There just isn't a budget for design features, such as ergonomic shapes, that appeal to older consumers. When companies restructure a package, Sucharda says, they go for uniqueness and shelf impact more often than ease of handling.

Sucharda identified several characteristics that make packaging senior-friendly, such as easy-opening caps, clear product descriptions, good legibility and use of non-verbal information where possible. "Iconography quickly communicates the message of what the product is and how is should be used," he says.

Some major consumer-packaged goods producers have long understood the importance of appealing to older adults.

"Since the senior community are a big chunk of our consumers, we have been trying to stay focused on keeping our packaging senior-friendly for over 15 years now," says Jeannie Tharrington, a spokesperson for Procter & Gamble. Examples of senior-friendly P&G packaging cited by Tharrington include the Safety Squeeze bottle, originally developed for Aleve painkiller (which P&G no longer owns) and now in use for products like Scope mouthwash, which requires pinching tabs with one hand while turning the cap with the other; and a spray trigger whose head rests between the thumb and forefinger for easier action.

Welcome seniors, not kids

Many P&G products are required to be in child-resistant packaging, which opens up a whole new dimension in senior-friendliness. The concepts of "senior-friendly" and "child-resistant" are intimately linked, thanks to a policy decision seven years ago by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

The CPSC is the federal agency whose responsibilities include determining which products have to go into child-resistant packaging. The agency recently expanded that realm into low-viscosity hydrocarbons--a regulatory change that will have wide repercussions in personal care and other product segments. (See "CPSC adds to list of child-safe requirements" on page 38.)

The CPSC also sets protocols for testing whether packaging is child-resistant. These tests involve panels of both young children and adults, to determine that the latter can open packages that the former cannot. In January 1995, the CPSC changed the test protocols to mandate that the adults on these panels be aged 50 to 70.

The CPSC was responding to a chronic problem with child-resistant packaging, particularly closures. Many adults, especially older ones, were finding the packages so frustrating and difficult that once they got the package open, they left off the closure. This led to tragedies where visiting grandchildren or other children were poisoned by medicine with missing caps.

"We were seeing poisoning of kids from their grandparents' medicine," says Ken Giles, a public affairs specialist for the Consumer Products Safety Commission. "The grandparents' medicine, like heart and diabetes medicine, is very toxic to young children."

Using older adults on the test panels is an attempt to ensure that child-resistant packaging will be used as intended--that is, that the package will be safely resealed. The most successful such packages are the ones that call for brains over brawn.

"It's forced manufacturers to come up with packaging that is more cognitive-based and less strength-based, because older people still have their cognitive skills," Giles says. "Instead of the old push-down-hard-and-turn, which was the first generation of child-resistant packaging, you now have packaging that doesn't really depend on strength, but rather on cognitive skills to get it off."

This approach is necessary because the strength gap between small children and older adults often is narrow or even nonexistent, says Lori Dixon, president of Great Lakes Marketing, which tests packaging for child-resistance under CPSC guidelines.

"Those who are creating new packages need to understand that it's a mental game," Dixon says.

"Three-and-a-half- to four-and-a-quarter-year-old kids [the ages mandated for CPSC test panelists] are physically strong. These kids are playing soccer and T-ball--there's pre-K physical activities all over. The seniors are losing hand strength and dexterity. The difference between the two is, the seniors are able to read and understand well-written directions. So the goal is to come up with packaging that requires some thinking.

Notch niche

One example of such a package is a pouch for physician's samples put out by Pharmacia. As a major manufacturer of medicines for arthritis, Pharmacia has to be especially mindful of the difficulties encountered by consumers with feeble hands, says John Bitner, manager of package design and development.

Accordingly, Pharmacia has developed a small pouch for physicians' samples of Arthrotec and Cytotec, two of its arthritis medications. The pouch features an oversized heat-sealed area around the pocket, creased over a notch. It also features a dummy notch below the crease; the pouch will remain sealed if this notch is torn. The dummy notch is clearly labeled "Do NOT tear here," taking advantage of the fact that seniors can read and preschoolers can't.

"This pouch was designed to fool the child--outsmart him," Bitner says. "Because we can't go by strength alone."

Some packaging meets CPSC requirements through more mechanical means. Shortly after the CPSC test protocols came out, Owens-Illinois debuted a squeeze-and-turn closure that doesn't require as much torque as the standard dual-wall push-and-turn systems now widely in use. Instead of relying on torque generated between the threads as the liner is compressed, the Owens-Illinois closure depends on lugs designed into the closure, says Brian Brozell, advanced design engineer.

Senior-friendliness can be incorporated into some pharmaceutical packages in a more direct say. Under CPSC regulations, one stock keeping unit (SKU) of a given product line can be issued in a non-child-resistant package. The label must say specifically that the product is for households without young children, and the company is not allowed to allude to the easy-open feature in advertising or promotions. One example of such a package is the 165-count Advil 200-milligram tablet with a tab atop the screw closure that provides leverage for easy opening.

The key to designing a truly senior-friendly package is going beyond the bare-bones CPSC requirements, says Phil Lambert, manager for stock products at Rexam Closures.

"Two-piece push-and-turn type systems are very well-known, so everyone can get it open, but that doesn't mean seniors find it friendly," Lambert says. "Some companies look at [the regulations] and say, `You know what, I care that my customers out there are going to have a good experience with my product. Just passing protocols may not be good enough for me. I want to know the real perceptions of people.'"

RELATED ARTICLE: CPSC adds to list of child-safe requirements.

One of the most sweeping additions to packaging safety regulations in years will take effect this October, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) adds low-viscosity hydrocarbons to the list of products that must be in child-resistant packaging.

The new category comprises a variety of consumer goods, including baby oils, hair oils, sunscreens, bath oils, massage oils, make-up removers and spot removers. The rule covers all products with 10% or more hydrocarbons with a viscosity of less than 100 Saybolt Universal Seconds (meaning that 60 cubic centimeters of it flow out of a standardized orifice under specified conditions in less than 100 seconds).

The CPSC is adding hydrocarbon products to its list because of the danger of small children aspirating them and damaging their lungs. In a Federal Register notice last year, the agency claimed that more than 70,000 ingestion incidents with these products have been reported.

The new regulation has sent makers of affected products scrambling. Some packaging observers speculate that some products may be reformulated to rise above the regulation's viscosity threshold. Others are testing out new designs to meet the CPSC requirements for child resistance and senior-friendliness.

Lori Dixon, president of Great Lakes Marketing, a leading conductor of child-resistant package testing, thinks the ultimate consumer impact will be minimal.

"Consumers are probably quite comfortable with child-resistant packaging because they're so used to it," Dixon says. "They're just going to have to get used to the fact that it's going to be on a lot more products that they use on a much more regular basis.... When you grab your suntan oil and you're at the beach, your mindset's just a little bit different, but it'll just take a second."

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