The challenge
The trend towards sustainability will continue to establish itself in the field of car care and chemical products, making markets in countries outside Europe more open in this segment. A customer has, therefore, approached Caramba to have us develop a new more environmentally friendly car care line for him with high quality, effective and sustainable products to be certified by the EU Ecolabel and other external institutes.
Our approach
After the formation of a project team with participants from all the departments of our company, the tasks were distributed as follows:
- Research & Development: Development of the ecological formulations according to the catalogue of requirements of the EU Ecolabel
- Purchasing in cooperation with Research & Development: Determination of the individual containers, adapted to the products and their field of application
- Product Management/Quality Management: Creation of the application and labelling texts in cooperation with our customer, as well as the product registration for the markets
- Production: Production planning and container filling tests, as well as filling of the first series
- Logistics: Carrying out transport tests of the displays
In regular meetings with all the project teams, the current status was reviewed and all the participants were involved in the decision-making process. In addition, our customer was continuously informed about the progress of the project. In close coordination with all the parties involved – both internally and externally (our customer and certification bodies) – we found solutions for the successful realisation of the project. For the positioning of the products in displays, we carried out transport tests in advance to ensure proper presentation in the market. The certification of the ecological products was carried out in cooperation with the responsible certification body as well as the research and development, product management and sales departments.
The result
By working closely with our customer, we succeeded in delivering a complete range of sustainable, effective and high-quality products within just eight months – from development to market launch. All products were certified by external institutes. In particular, EU Ecolabel certification guaranteed the ecological quality of the products throughout their lifecycle. The launch of the new range with our customer’s branding not only generated additional sales but also strengthened customer loyalty and identification with the brand. The product positioning under a globally known brand gave consumers the assurance that the products met the brand owner’s usual quality standards. Surveys of the market by the customer resulted in consistently positive feedback regarding the products offered, packaging and presentation of the goods in the display.