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Mary Ruth’s packaging is clearly not built for the chaos of retail

MaryRuth’s has great shelf placement, but you’d never know it with bottles turned sideways and shipping labels slapped over the front. This is what happens when design doesn’t account for real-world execution. Would your brand survive this?

91 views
3 Likes
Aug 05, 2025
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Description Description

Great packaging on a render means nothing if it falls apart on the shelf.

In the vitamin aisle, the gap between intention and execution becomes obvious fast. Bottles that aren’t structurally contained spin. Facings drift. Brand blocks collapse. What looked bold and cohesive in a design review becomes visual noise when store associates stock it in a hurry. That’s the operational side of retail packaging design that most teams underestimate.

Structural decisions matter. Boxing a product versus relying on a free-standing bottle changes how it behaves in the real world. The same lesson shows up in wine packaging design and even in protein bar packaging; if the format can’t control orientation, you risk losing your brand signal at the exact moment it needs to work hardest.

Then there’s distribution reality. Shipping labels slapped across the primary display panel undo months of hierarchy planning. If case pack, fulfillment, and merchandising aren’t aligned, your packaging won’t appear as intended.

Shelf execution isn’t cosmetic. It’s commercial.

transcript Video Transcript
transcript-icon
  • 00:00:00 There's the beauty that you design and
  • 00:00:01 then there's the reality of the shelf
  • 00:00:03 and we're seeing it right here.
  • 00:00:06 Hey everybody, it's Shopping with
  • 00:00:08 Christie. Today I'm at Walmart and I'm
  • 00:00:09 taking a look at the vitamin and
  • 00:00:11 supplement aisle and I wanted to show
  • 00:00:13 you something. It's kind of my worst
  • 00:00:15 nightmare as a brand marketer and as a
  • 00:00:17 brand designer. I'm talking about facing
  • 00:00:20 your brand and what happens when your
  • 00:00:23 packages are turned around and sort of
  • 00:00:25 all over the place. What does that do to
  • 00:00:27 your brand block? And I'm also talking
  • 00:00:30 about shipping mishaps. Let's take a
  • 00:00:33 look right here with a brand that's
  • 00:00:35 doing very well on the marketplace right
  • 00:00:37 now, and that would be Mary Ruth's. Here
  • 00:00:41 is the overall multivitamin set at
  • 00:00:44 Walmart. Mary Ruth has this wonderful
  • 00:00:46 placement right in the middle at eye
  • 00:00:48 level. I knew it was Mary Ruth because
  • 00:00:51 I've been taking a look at this brand
  • 00:00:52 and I know this set very well. But I
  • 00:00:54 gotta tell you, if I was a consumer with
  • 00:00:56 the way the products are showing up
  • 00:00:57 right now, I don't know that I would
  • 00:00:59 notice it and I don't know that I would
  • 00:01:01 know that it's Mary Ruth's. The main
  • 00:01:03 reason for that is because of how the
  • 00:01:06 products are actually showing up on
  • 00:01:08 shelf. There's the beauty that you
  • 00:01:09 design and then there's the reality of
  • 00:01:11 the shelf. And we're seeing it right
  • 00:01:13 here. So specifically, you zoom in. This
  • 00:01:15 is really what the graphic should be
  • 00:01:17 looking like, right? Mary roofs,
  • 00:01:19 beautiful, clear. You see the RTBs right
  • 00:01:21 there. But then as your eye drifts, it's
  • 00:01:24 kind of gone. So you've got one may
  • 00:01:27 here. You've got a bunch that are
  • 00:01:28 turned, right? And this is sort of the
  • 00:01:30 risk you take. If you don't box your
  • 00:01:32 items, like you see here, this is boxed.
  • 00:01:35 These are not. The bottles spin. It can
  • 00:01:37 be very easy for anyone who is uh just
  • 00:01:40 stocking the shelves to just kind of not
  • 00:01:42 care. So you can see me automatically
  • 00:01:44 facing these products. You can't take
  • 00:01:46 the brand marketer out of me. I got to
  • 00:01:48 face them. So, you know, now it
  • 00:01:49 certainly looks a lot better. But just
  • 00:01:51 realize if you're a brand owner that
  • 00:01:53 this could happen to you, especially if
  • 00:01:54 you're in file format. The other thing I
  • 00:01:57 want to point out is I don't know what's
  • 00:01:59 going on here, but a bunch of their
  • 00:02:00 products have this shipping label right
  • 00:02:02 on top of the PDP. Look at that. There's
  • 00:02:04 another one bad there. There's one right
  • 00:02:06 here. Clearly, somebody tried to like
  • 00:02:08 scratch off, but it didn't completely
  • 00:02:09 come off. What happened? But I think
  • 00:02:11 maybe these ones are such big sellers
  • 00:02:13 that they came in a case pack, a full
  • 00:02:15 case pack. Whereas these items were
  • 00:02:17 maybe picked and they didn't come in a
  • 00:02:18 full case. You can see right here, case
  • 00:02:20 pack one. So maybe these just were
  • 00:02:22 distributed as each and that might have
  • 00:02:24 been the issue. But you got to realize
  • 00:02:27 that when you're doing business like
  • 00:02:28 that, you know, you got to find a way
  • 00:02:30 maybe hopefully that your distributor
  • 00:02:32 doesn't do this to you. Hopefully Mary
  • 00:02:34 Ruths, you'll find a solution for this.
  • 00:02:36 I would not love that if I was the brand
  • 00:02:38 owner or brand manager, but that's the
  • 00:02:40 thing that would keep me up at night if
  • 00:02:42 I was this brand. Stopping that
  • 00:02:43 swirling, keeping your facings right,
  • 00:02:45 and tracking down this problem and
  • 00:02:47 solving it. That's that. Talk to you
  • 00:02:49 later.
Christy Lebor, Partner and Head of Brand Development at SmashBrand, brings two decades of Fortune 500 CPG experience (Kraft, PepsiCo, Unilever). Leverage her expertise in launching Axe Body Wash and the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to help your FMCG brand scale from disruptor to market leader.
Christy Lebor Partner & Head of Brand Development, SmashBrand
45 Articles

Christy Lebor is a Partner and Head of Brand Development at SmashBrand, a premier brand development agency championing the FMCG space. With two decades of Fortune 500 CPG experience, Christy harnesses her background from industry titans to infuse brands with a growth trajectory that transitions them from category disruptors to legacy brands.

Her portfolio includes:

  • Brand management roles at global giants: Kraft, PepsiCo, and Unilever.
  • Launching pivotal products: Axe Body Wash in the US and the original Dove Campaign for Real Beauty at Unilever.
  • Steering innovative product lines at PepsiCo: Gatorade chews, protein bars, Mio Fit, and Amino Energy.
  • Pioneering breakfast innovations at KraftHeinz: Just Crack an Egg
  • Leading the branded business segment and global innovation at JBS, the world's largest meat company in the world.

Prior to her tenure at SmashBrand, Christy's track record spans various senior management and development roles. Each role has honed her expertise in the intricacies of FMCG, enabling her to cultivate category advantages for brands. From SKU rationalization to directing pivotal innovation stage gates, Christy's acute expertise in FMCG has consistently placed her at the forefront of the industry. Her ability to make incisive, strategically sound decisions has been key in propelling brands to market leadership.

Her philosophy pivots on the principle that timely, relevant data, integrated with brand strategy, is the linchpin for brands aspiring to scale and establish market dominance. At SmashBrand, Christy intricately weaves this philosophy, ensuring brands are not just strategically poised but holistically developed.

Educationally, Christy is equipped with a BBA from The University of Michigan Business School, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and additional prowess in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School.

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