Ketchup in a Bottle

Last weekend, I happened to enter a fast-food place (chick-fil a to be precise). I´d been craving waffle fries for a while now and could not resist any longer. Apparently, I´d been MIA from fast-food for too long because strangely enough it was the first time I encountered the new packaging design for Heinz Ketchup!

 

Heinz, an iconic American brand,  rolled out the new packaging design for its product on March 4th 2011. It´s the first ketchup packaging makeover in 42 years. The company´s milestone is a huge step forward in the realm of innovation and design. The product packaging was created with the consumer in mind.


Here were my first thoughts when I met redesigned Mr. Ketchup:

1) Wooah, this looks cool & fun!
2) Three times more ketchup
3) You can dip or squeeze!

Then this thought came into my head, ¨Wait, a minute... what about environmental consciousness? this has more plastic!¨ It weighs more than the older packing material, for sure it´s transportation is more costly?!?! Heinz claims it´s recyclable and good for the environment. Not totally convinced.

Although it´s a big change for the company, there are some suggestions for improvement: the naming is deceiving, it should have been dip OR squeeze, NOT dip and squeeze. You can only do one or the other. Also, it would have been even more innovative to use one type of material for all of the packing. Using two types, such as foil and plastic, is already conventional. I´d be curious to know the difference in the production cost-- likely to be expensive. Conclusion: Packaging should engage, evoke, engross, and build trust with the end user.