Lids off to Napoleon

Lids off to Napoleon

Emballage, the French had grand expectations when they bestowed such a regal name for what in English is mundanely called packaging. How is it then that the package has not delivered the experience as per the grand design?

Download the article as PDF: Lids off to Napoleon (PDF, 2 MB)

The raison d'�tre like many other practical inventions actually originated from a military need. As a forward thinker, it was Napoleon Bonaparte in 1795 understanding that an army travels on its stomach who sponsored a contest to discover how to safely preserve food. The cash prize was awarded in 1809 to the French Chief Nicolas Appert who invented the canning process based on glass jars. A year later the British were preserving food in metal cans and the rest is history. Well not so fast actually for here lies the root of our troubles.

Amazingly, it took the next 50 years to invent the first opener for the tin can, engineered as a lever and chisel. Until 1885 cans were opened manually with a hammer & chisel or any other implement that could penetrate the can. The modern-day can opener (with a serrated wheel) that we find tucked away in the back of a kitchen drawer dates back to 1925. It took 115 years to provide an adequate opening device! Do you think this mistake could be repeated today?

Actually it has and rather recently at that, not to mention that designers have yet to provide the opening device. Yes, I'm referring to the blister pack and clamshell packaging that is today proliferating across shelves, stores and continents to the frustration of all consumers. Further this packaging is devoid of any opening instructions or markings. The disturbing aspect is that more and more consumer goods are being packaged in this format, regardless of consumer preference.

The rationalization for this impregnable package comes from the mass-market retailers. The retailers consider the annoyance felt by the consumer to be a small price to pay for reducing the tremendous costs of retail theft and its impact on the bottom line. Have they ever got it wrong!

Where the clamshell's lack of easy opening detours thieves, the need for the product condemns the consumer to the frustration of having to open the package. By design this is a contradiction to the fundamental marketing concept of accessibility to product. Further it drives the consumer into the arms of an alternate product supplier, namely the competition.

Since necessity is the mother of invention a number of individuals have been tinkering in their garages having recognizing the marketing opportunity the current clamshell package represents. Just search on Google for a plastic package opener and half-a-dozen or so solutions will jump out at you. A socially responsible designer on the other hand would have recalled the lessons learned from Napoleon's can and saved humanity another 50 years of frustration.

Lets look at another example. In 1915 the first paper bottle is patented, what we know today as a gable top. In 1937 Pure-Pak begins mass production of the gable top and not until 55 years later in 1992 is the first closure for the carton offered to the consumers. Once again consumers endured & struggled with an inferior package opening. Interestingly jam jars had closures, as did bottles and tins, so the concept was not unfamiliar at that time. Perhaps the technology was not available? That can't be the case either since 23 years earlier (1969) Neil Armstrong went for a walk on the moon.

My impression is that packaging design went astray from the very beginning. The value proposition was never explored nor was secondary packaging perceived to be more than a necessary expense. Sure there were a few players out there that new something about packaging. Faberge knew how to evoke the emotions through packaging; Andy Warhol transformed packaging into art and the dark art of chocolate couverture had the population drooling long before Lady Godiva inspired Joseph Draps. However each artist had their exclusive clientele and it is not until recently that we find packaging appealing to the masses.

Rapid advancements in print technologies, new substrates, inks and foils together with the need for product differentiation provided the impetus to transition this industry. Packaging designers are today's alchemists enticing and communicating with the consumer via the package. The world as well is but one converging global marketplace today and the package is making the 3 second sales pitch not the salesman any longer. The reach of the package is omnipresent therefore the possibilities are endless; think smart packaging, interactive packaging, animated packaging and so on.

Well let's not cry over spilled milk as there are exciting packaging developments being made in the market place today. It's not uncommon today to find merchandise where ergonomic features are incorporated into the design. Ergonomic packaging is a logical extension of that principle. The package has long surpassed the basic requirement of communicating. Interactive by its very nature packaging screams out for intelligence, animation and a story line. Deliver the Aladdin's lamp, the message in the bottle and fulfill the consumers' 3 wishes for novelty, opulence and intimacy.

If there is a profession to aspire to, packaging design is it. The industry is primed to come of age. Technologies are developing at record speeds: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Controlled Delamination Materials (CDM) and Nanotechnology to mention but a few. Creativity and innovative proficiency to deliver quality ergonomic products are deemed consumer essential. As well, packaging is more or less at the infancy stage of its lifecycle, so many low hanging fruit to pick from. Convergence of functionality with packaging is but one of these low hanging fruit ripe for development. No short cuts please, follow the quality functional deployment matrix to completion to avoid contradictions.

Consider the Champagne packaging paradox. A brilliant and intuitive convergence, the ice bucket together with the Champagne secondary packaging is integrated as one. Simply open the Champagne box, add the ice and the celebration follows. That is if you have the strength to pop the cork.

There lays the paradox; handgrip strength diminishes after age 40. Typically one can expect to lose one-third to one-half of a pound of muscle annually. The aging global population will have difficulty to pop the cork; consideration should have been given to this point during the redesign phase of this great convergence.

How realistic is animated packaging? Boxes that unfold before your very eyes, lids that open, packages that atomize fragrance or sing a song, all with a slight touch of a finger. Think back to a jack-in-the-box, the elastic powered glider or flapping bird, the string figures that collapse when you release the tension button. Ideas for thought. Visit the D-idea.com website under portfolio to glimpse what CDM can do for the future of the can. Now benchmark your packaging.

What I see as having a far-reaching application is the convergence of pill containers and single tablet dispensing. Why not model the pill dispenser after the PEZ candy dispenser that has been around for the past 70 years. There would be familiarity with the dispenser and its simplicity of use, not to mention the pleasant memories from childhood days. The child preventive caps are as much of a barrier to a person with limited dexterity or reduced strength as they are to children and not always necessary. Of course there's the obvious to overcome, pills spilling out due to the loss of control when handling the pill containers.

Another convergence is something I call the guzzler. Let the beverage can become the drinking vessel. Remove the complete upper surface in one fluid motion and drink as from a glass; thereby indulging both the sense of taste & smell while quenching a thirst. The advertisement could go something like this; "the guzzler puts a drink in your hand".

While there still exists marketing opportunities from converging within the same product category endless opportunities will emerge from being the first to diverge into a new category. Think along the lines of Darwinism, survival of the first.

Lids off to Napoleon for initiating the development of the can. Inadvertently his failure to provide an intuitive opening should be our inspiration and divergence extraordinaire. Think about it; why not use modern day technology and kitchen appliances to facilitate the removal of lids and caps. Conceptually this should be a walk in the park. Frequency waves (microwave), negative temperature (freezer) and light sensitivity (lamps) could be enablers that activate inclusions within the cap or lid to open on demand.

We can take this divergence one step further and use food grade bonding agents that once deactivated release the cap from the container. It could be as simple as passing the jar under the deactivating strip as per the illustration.

Thus you have a few ideas that will revitalize packaging.

Canadian born Dean Bellefleur is a leading international expert in consumer packaging design. D-idea is partnered with Karin Schou Andersen Design in Denmark and can be contacted by visiting www.D-idea.com partners.

Original post: http://www.logistics-mag.com/en/archives/vol-10-06/industry2.php