Inspired new toothpaste packaging wins award

A team of marketing students has won an award for their innovative design of toothpaste packaging in a competition organised by the Portsmouth Business School and sponsored by an international product packaging company.

The second year students who are currently studying for BA (Hons) Marketing degree, were given a brief from Chesapeake, a global supplier of cartons, labels, leaflets and board and specialist plastic packaging. They worked in small teams to come up with a new packaging concept for an existing product.

The students developed, reviewed, tested and wrote a new product proposal before submitting it to Chesapeake’s Head of Research and Development, Carol Hammond, who assessed the ideas.

Carol said: “In the face of increasingly demanding customers and ever greater competition, businesses are required to have a deep understanding of customer needs and the ability to offer highly distinctive and valued products and services in new and interesting ways.

“Working with the students has been fantastic for the company as it is great to have a fresh injection of ideas from a group of young minds. They came up with some unique concepts, some of which definitely had the potential to be taken to market.”

The best project award went to students Charlotte Smith, Wan Wei, Jamal Abutarboush, Emily Campbell and Andrea Langley. They designed a strip of packaging with different air-sealed sections containing a smidgen of toothpaste in each.

Charlotte said: “We came up with the idea when discussing how annoying it is to take a big tube of toothpaste with you if you’re just going away for one or two nights. This new toothpaste packaging would mean you could just rip off as many portions as you need.

“We were thrilled to win best project. It’s great to be part of a competition sponsored by a global organisation because you really get a feel for working on a real-world brief.”

Provided by University of Portsmouth