Debate
How can glass packaging add value to a brand?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Packaging can become an important part of a brand’s identity.
- Glass combines design possibilities with strong barrier and inert properties.
- Transparency, shape and tactile details can help create a distinctive product experience.
- The strongest packaging choices connect technical needs with what the brand wants to express.
Packaging is often one of the first things consumers notice about a product. Its shape, colour, feel and transparency can all contribute to the way a brand is recognised and experienced.
For Vigo Kombucha and Italian beer brand 32 Via dei Birrai, choosing glass was part of a wider product strategy. Protection mattered, but so did design, quality and the way the packaging reflected each brand’s personality.
Packaging does more than contain
The right packaging has several jobs to do.
It needs to protect the product and work throughout production and distribution. But it can also help a product stand out, make it easier to recognise and contribute to the experience consumers associate with the brand.
That combination of function and identity was central to the choices made by both Vigo Kombucha and 32 Via dei Birrai.
Two brands, two approaches
VIGO KOMBUCHA
Let the product speak
When CRUZ GROUP developed Vigo Kombucha together with O-I Glass, the team wanted packaging that suited both the product and the audience it was trying to reach.
Glass gave the brand a transparent container that puts the kombucha itself on display while supporting a clean, premium visual identity.
There was also a technical consideration. As kombucha contains live cultures, the brand wanted a packaging material with very low interaction with its contents.
We didn’t want to have any interaction between the live cultures that are inside the product and the packaging. We wanted it to be safe and aseptic. Glass was the only packaging type to meet these criteria
Alexander Psztur, co-founder, CRUZ GROUP
Glass is highly inert and impermeable to gases and vapours, properties that make it suitable for protecting a wide variety of foods and beverages.
Source: Marsh & Bugusu, Food Packaging—Roles, Materials, and Environmental Issues, Journal of Food Science, 2007 – Read the scientific paper
32 VIA DEI BIRRAI
Give beer its own occasion
For Italian craft brewer 32 Via dei Birrai, packaging was also a way to position the product.
The brand developed distinctive glass bottles with Verallia, including a 75 cl format designed to give beer a different presence at the table and make it suitable for sharing during an aperitivo or after dinner.
Shape, proportions and the feel of the bottle all become part of that experience. The aim was not simply to package the beer, but to give it a presentation consistent with the quality and personality the brand wanted to express.
Where glass creates brand value
Transparency can make the product itself part of the design.
Colour, texture and appearance remain visible, giving brands another way to communicate quality without adding complexity to the pack.
For a product such as kombucha, that direct view of the contents can become part of its identity.
Start with the product
A strong packaging concept begins with what the product actually needs.
For Vigo Kombucha, limiting interaction between packaging and live cultures was an important requirement.
For 32 Via dei Birrai, presentation and the occasion of consumption played a larger role.
The solutions were different, but the principle was the same: packaging works best when technical performance and brand expression are considered together.
The container is not an afterthought. It is part of the product experience.
VIGO KOMBUCHA
Transparent glass lets the product remain visible while supporting Vigo’s clean and distinctive visual identity.
32 VIA DEI BIRRAI
A larger bottle format helps create a more convivial serving occasion for the Italian craft beer brand.
TACTILE DESIGN
Shape, embossing and Braille show how the surface of a glass bottle can add both identity and function.
Design with purpose
Good packaging design is not about adding features for the sake of it.
It is about identifying what matters for the product, the brand and the people who will use it. Sometimes that means transparency. Sometimes it is a recognisable silhouette, an embossed detail or a format designed for sharing.
Glass gives brands a broad creative canvas, but the most valuable designs are the ones where every choice has a reason to be there.
For Vigo Kombucha and 32 Via dei Birrai, that meant turning the container into a natural extension of the product itself.
