Milliken Chemical has conducted extensive research on the topic of packaging for soft drinks, specifically closures. The soft drink market is fiercely competitive and packaging is the key to driving demand and choice. In the past, labeling and bottle shape have been the components used to catch the eye of the consumer. Until recently, the closure had served as dead space with white being the consistent color.

Through its colorants technology, Milliken Chemical is demonstrating how beverage caps can become an intrinsic and valuable part of packaging aesthetics by replicating beverage color or brand in transparent PP to enhance consumer appeal and brand image.

The concept of transparent, colored PP closures is not new to Milliken Chemical. They pioneered this development in a number of areas including personal care products, where clarified PP gives a highly attractive appearance associated with more expensive materials, while at the same time delivering simplified processing as well as cost savings achievable with PP.

A bottled beverage with a transparent cap is much more likely to be chosen in a buying situation than one with an opaque cap. When asked to pick their beverage of choice from a cooler stocked with bottled beverages divided equally between opaque and transparent caps, the following was determined.

• 62% of all consumers chose a beverage with a transparent cap.
• 72% of consumers less than 18 years of age selected the transparent cap.
• When specifically asked which cap is more attractive, 71% chose transparent.
• Among those who chose the transparent cap, the most common reason for doing so was that they found the cap appealing (33%), other reasons included:
  • Cap stands out more (7%)
  • Cap looks different (7%)
  • Looks like “specialty offer” or contest cap (7%)