Megan Nalazek is a junior in Michigan State's School of Packaging and is a first-year ISBT Scholarship recipient.

The beverage industry is incredibly unique by the way the packaging of the bottle must speak to the consumer. You want the design to have distinctive features that pulls the consumer's attention as well as keeping the cost as low as possible. I believe finding the perfect balance between these two makes packaging so interesting. Beverage packaging specifically is so fascinating because of the added challenges there are when it comes to trying to integrate beverages into eCommerce and creating packaging that is genuinely unique.

Thanks to my current internship at Edgewell Personal Care, eCommerce has been an area that I have had the opportunity to grow my knowledge in. As time goes on, beverages are inevitably going to become more common in eCommerce, just like many other products. The struggle that comes into play here is that certain beverages need to be kept at specific temperatures in order to maintain the products integrity. With this, there will need to be innovations in the way packages are distributed. Amazon has already started taking this on by creating insulated packaging with the use of foam, but I look forward to possibly being one to help find other options for this challenge.

There is also the obstacle of striving to ensure the product you design is different from what everyone else is doing. This is part of the process that is so inspiring to me. Many beverages generally tend to have packaging that is skinny, tall, and holds a cylinder shape. Given that this is what consumers tend to want for on-the-go drinks, we are challenged to think of what can make our product stand out while also being convenient. Pom Wonderful has done an excellent job creating a juice bottle that not only stands out, but still holds a convenient shape for people to be able to carry around throughout the day. Then there in the industry of glass bottle packaging that tends to get a bit more creative with bottle shapes. One product that sticks out in my mind as motivation for how far you can push creativity is the Patron glass bottle that has a bee-shaped piece of metal that gently folds over the sides of the glass. I have not seen any other beverage utilize metal this way before to create distance between them and competitors. The dark metal beautifully contrasts against the clear glass as well as the competitors' clear bottles on the shelf. I aspire to create packaging that is distinctly different from what is currently on the shelves.

With these hurdles in the beverage industry, it requires a push for innovation and testing the bounds of what has already been done. I love a good challenge and look forward to putting my creativity into finding solutions for these.

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