Located in major cities across the East Coast, Tend is reimagining the dentist office by focusing on the patient experience. The offices are comfortable and modern. Pricing for their full range of dental services is up-front and transparent. Through their app, patients book visits, view health data, and even cue up their favorite Netflix show before they arrive. To help patients get back on schedule as the world emerged from pandemic lockdown, Zenpack and Prime Studio joined forces to create a sustainable to-go bag. Once more, Zenpack showed its expertise as a sustainable packaging design agency. It’s hard enough to get patients to return to the dentist. It’s not everyone’s favorite appointment, and the COVID-19 pandemic gave us another excuse to avoid the dentist chair. For Tend, getting patients to return for their 6-month checkup was more difficult than usual, even for a dentist office designed to provide the most pleasant experience possible. On top of this challenge, Tend wanted to provide an eco-friendly alternative to the single-use plastic to-go bag. In collaboration with Prime Studio, we produced a vibrant and sturdy toiletry bag that customers love. The bag is made using ocean plastic fabric—a textile spun from plastic bottles recovered from waterways—and has plenty of room for extra travel essentials. What started as a free giveaway to get customers back on schedule now headlines the Tend Anywhere Starter Kit available on the Tend webstore. The pandemic disrupted just about every aspect of our lives, including the routines we don’t mind forgetting about. Dentist offices already have trouble making sure their patients return every six months, and Tend was no exception. Post-visit prizes sweeten the deal when you’re a kid, but the cheap plastic bag filled with travel-size toothpaste, floss, and a new toothbrush isn’t enough to keep patients on schedule. The team at Tend wanted to create something their patients would actually use. Prime started designing a toiletry kit that would hold more than just a few items while remaining sturdy for years. We started searching for the right textile for the job. Sustainable and versatile, ocean plastic fabric comes in a variety of weaves for a multitude of applications, from undergarments and workout gear to duffel bags and suitcases. We needed a more rigid weave for optimal structural integrity. Tend’s primary teal color presented the next challenge. In printing, every material accepts color in its own way; Tend teal will most certainly present a different tone on paper versus fabric. And every fabric absorbs at a different rate. To get it right, we planned for round after round of print testing and color matching. After weeks of searching and testing, we found a sturdy yet soft ocean plastic polyester. This particular weave is designed to maintain its shape during travel and daily use. Now that we had our fabric, we were able to optimize the sewing method for mass production and dial-in the Tend blue. Ocean plastic fabric can be printed just like any synthetic polyester material. We usually print in standard CMYK, but to perfectly match the Tend blues, we hand-mixed the dye and compared the results to an actual Tend product box. After dozens of samples and color mixes, we achieved Tend’s marine blues flowing among shades of white. We then completed the design with custom embroidered tags and embossed metal zipper pulls. With the prototypes approved using our expertise in rapid prototyping for packaging we were ready to move into mass production. We quickly produced and shipped thousands of bags to meet Tend’s fulfillment deadline. The Tend team sent these gifts to patients during lockdown as a gentle reminder to get back into the dentist chair. After mailing the bags with a discount coupon, more than 65% of recipients responded with a new appointment request—sure beats an automated text message. Due to its popularity, the bag became the highlight of the Tend Anywhere Travel Kit, now available for purchase on their website. These industry first branded ocean plastic bags are just another example of Tend’s patient-focused approach to dentistry. At Zenpack, we specialize in innovative dental packaging design services that can help elevate your brand and leave a lasting impression on your clients.
Tend
Recycled, reusable, and a good reminder to keep your teeth clean—it’s all in the bag.
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