President of SGD highlights how brands can stand out with hard-to-imitate designs

At the recent Luxe Pack Monaco conference Sudan commented: “Why is glass the preferred material? There is no other material which can be shaped and framed to evoke the same qualities of luxury to sell products.”​

“Differentiation is important, particularly since more and more new brands are now coming out. You have to do that through glass design and through decoration techniques.”​

The president also described the need for brands to have packaging which was difficult or impossible to emulate. “You have to create emotions with​ more radical designs and decoration techniques.”​

Impossible to copy - now the key to success​

Sudan highlighted particular methods which companies could use to render their designs difficult to copy, including faceted bottles, which are extremely difficult, particularly because decoration on an irregular surface is hard to replicate.  

Sudan also discussed other luxury cosmetics packages produced by SGD, such as an Elizabeth Arden bottle which has a completely different appearance depending on the angle it is viewed from, and a Lady Million bottle which is constructed to appear to lack a mould seam.

In all cases, making a product unique, so much so that it is difficult to copy, is crucial to success.

Strength of European luxury packaging​

Other speakers at the conference included Ulrich Nebe, former CEO of Heinz Glass, who discussed the continuing lead which, in his opinion, European companies had over other regions of the world in luxury packaging.

He described the "centuries of tradition" ​of European glassmaking companies, commenting: “People in Europe have generations of glassmaking in their families - father, grandfather and grandson.”​

Meanwhile Alberto Bormioli, CEO of Bormioli Luigi, also described the passion which European glassmakers had for their work.

Pushing the envelope in luxury is becoming ever more important - in a recent interview with CosmeticsDesign.com, packaging expert Oliver Stokes from PDD highlighted how companies need to add efficiency and targeted features in order to stand out in the current market environment.