The Power of ‘Chaos’ Packaging

Susan Allen Augustin, co-founder and chief brand officer of female personal care products company Here We Flo, shares how challenger brands can use chaos packaging, such as Here We Flo’s ice-cream tub for its tampon product, to create the disruption needed to stop consumers in their tracks and engage with a brand.

Packaging World:

Can you provide a bit of background on Here We Flo?

Susan Allen Augustin:

Susan Allen Augustin, co-founder and chief brand officer, Here We Flo. Picture courtesy of Here We Flo.Two besties went to a unisex bathroom and came up with a business idea. I wanted to take on the toxic patriarchy and start a feminist mafia, while my partner, Tara Chandra, couldn’t find organic tampons anywhere in the U.K. and was shocked that I wasn’t aware of the benefits of using them. Together we started Here We Flo to fight the shame and stigma around life’s messiest moments and make fiercely natural care mainstream.

Here We Flo creates bloody brilliant plant-powered products for period care, sensitive bladder [issues], and sexual wellness that are better for our bodies, our communities, and our planet. [We are] Empowering people [with] periods to feel crazy confident in their messiest moments with funny, feminist, and fierce vibes.

Fast forward a few years, Here We Flo is the fastest growing and biggest sustainable period care brand in the U.K., listed in most major retailers and growing rapidly in U.S., with listings in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Amazon, and CVS.

Why did you choose a paperboard ice-cream tub to package your tampons?

From the start, I knew we needed to stand out on shelf because we wouldn’t be able to afford billboards for a long time. The ice-cream tub happened organically and started as an inside joke. Tara, my vegan, very lactose-intolerant co-founder, always craved full-fat dairy ice cream when on her period. During development, we put all our tampon samples in a repurposed ice-cream tub, and the more we looked at it, the more it felt right for us. The tampons just looked amazing in it.

Finding the right tub took time and research. We wanted it to be recyclable and biodegradable to align with our sustainability values. We ended up working with the manufacturers that supply Baskin-Robbins, as they were the only ones who could make us a tub without the plastic lining you typically need for ice-cream.

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How would you describe “chaos packaging”?  

Chaos packaging disrupts perceptions of what is “normal” product packaging for a consumer goods category. It turns normal on its head, typically by repurposing forms and formats associated with a completely different category. Like us using an ice-cream tub in period care, or a sunscreen from Vacation [brand] in a whipped cream can. Harnessing the unexpected creates intrigue and stopping power at shelf and makes consumers pause and engage with the proposition. As a challenger brand, your packaging is your biggest billboard and most likely your only billboard for a few years, so a sprinkle of chaos is a superpower.

How has Here We Flo’s ice-cream-tub tampon packaging evolved from causing actual chaos, by accidentally being placed in freezers, to becoming a successful strategy for extending consumer engagement in a category with traditionally minimal shelf attention?

In our early Here We Flo days selling tampons to our local mom and pop independent stores, we were obsessed with feedback. We’d go as far as to help stack shelves in our retailers in exchange for advice. We were consistently advised to overinvest in point-of-sale at shelf and shelf-ready packaging to frame and support our products, which we continue to do today.

The only time we end up in the freezer these days is when people who don’t menstruate are putting away the groceries on autopilot.

Can you explain the business strategy behind using packaging as a billboard for emerging brands? Is the packaging-as-a-billboard strategy different for emerging brands versus established brands?

Says Allen Augustin, “Even though most of our sales are in period pads and liners, which are sold in a box, our retail partners call our tampon tubs ‘trolley magnets.’” Image courtesy of Here We Flo.When you are starting out, you just don’t have the same deep pockets as established brands, which pushes you to think outside of the box in how you [create] brand attention and awareness. Necessity is the mother of invention, and in consumer goods, your packaging becomes your first—and possibly only—marketing asset. So, it needs to work hard. It needs to be a marketing Swiss army knife.

However, it’s not enough just to have a disruptive form, every part of the pack counts. If our ice-cream tub makes people stop and investigate our tampons, the rest of the pack, from aesthetically adorable colors to our funny, feminist, and fierce tone of voice, is designed to make people with periods emotionally connect with the brand and convert them to Flo.   

This mindset doesn’t just apply to our packaging; it applies to how we approach marketing overall. Our best-performing social content last year involved me interviewing people about their periods at a Christmas market, dressed all in pink holding a giant tampon—unexpected and engaging.   

The magic happens when you figure out how to do what must be done in a way that it hasn't been done before and have a deep understanding of your consumer and how they like to engage with things.  

How did you break the stigma in feminine care through innovative design?

Traditionally, feminine care and intimate health products are designed to be discrete, easily hidden in a cupboard or handbag. This reinforces the stigma that periods are shameful and something we should hide, which is wild given they are a natural bodily process for 50% of humans and nothing to be ashamed of. We have an opportunity to educate and change the narrative.

Our tampon ice-cream pot does just that. It unashamedly celebrates a deep-rooted truth—period cravings—and does so with bold, bright, adorable colors. It’s designed to be shown off, not hidden. And it makes people smile and feel seen.  

We want to fight shame with sunshine and destigmatize messy moments with humor that invites conversation. Having a product that stands out and gets consumers to engage with it is the first step in starting that conversation.

How are you using chaos packaging to extend the typical 3-second dwell time in personal care aisles?

All three messy-moment categories we play in—period care, sensitive bladder, and sexual health—have traditionally been shy, discrete categories. Getting people to dwell for more than three seconds at a shelf is definitely a challenge.   

People are inherently curious, so inspiring curiosity, like putting tampons in an ice-cream tub, or using cute, unexpected copy on the front of pack, invites people to explore further and dwell longer. Unashamedly celebrating the messy moment with unexpected personality also makes them less shy and embarrassed about browsing and purchasing our categories.

Read this column, “Packaging as a Brand-Builder,” by Sterling Anthony.

What has been the impact of disruptive packaging on brand growth and retail partners?

The tub has had the same effect on retail partners as it does consumers. Being different starts a conversation and opens doors. Even though most of our sales are in period pads and liners, which are sold in a box, our retail partners call our tampon tubs “trolley magnets” [“shopping cart magnets” in the U.S.]. They attract people to discover Here We Flo on the shelf and shop the range. Our tampon pot has become a distinct brand asset that is totally identifiable as Here We Flo.   

Can you speak to challenges of navigating retail placement with chaos packaging?

Like most things in life, there is a trade-off. Compared to our boxed pads and liners, the tampons aren’t as space efficient, but they are better at driving brand awareness. Designing to make your retailers’ lives easy while creating chaos is also key; every pack we create considers grocery-shelf heights and comes in retail-ready secondary packaging to make stacking and storing in-store easier.

How do you build consumer trust while being disruptive?

The opportunity and challenge here is putting true consumer insight and understanding at the heart of your design instead of just designing to disrupt. It’s not easy to find that balance. In our early days, we crowdsourced feedback on everything and anything using WhatsApp groups of our target consumer friends and friends-of-friends, which really helped.

Also, design alone is not enough. As well as an amazing product experience, you need a clear and authentic brand purpose and demonstrate it consistently to create consumer trust. Our brand mission is to fight the shame and stigma around life’s messiest moments. Everything we do as a brand is grounded in this.  PW