To Food Industry: Your Packaging is Not Innovative at All

Have you ever thought of changing the common but unreasonable things or would you like to just follow them? A consulting agency once conducted a 26-year market research in China. It shows that there are a large amount ofunreasonable packaging in our life and some of them have remained unchanged fordecades.

Yinlu Foods Group and Wahaha Foods Group, tycoons in this industry,have been using current packaging for decades on end. I wonder whether the founders of these groups have ever taken the boxes all the way when visitingfriends in the mountainside. Can the plastic handle be softer?

Do you think that a handle, which fits our finger curve, can be called a friendly design or a progress? What will happen if the CEOs of NESTLE or Nongfu Spring carry their own bottles of water from Family Mart to theirhome? (It takes only one minute for me to do so.) We always design and makeprogress for a certain purpose. A handle with finger curve is good, but it isstill so narrow that it will hurt our fingers after a while. Only experiencecan tell whether it is a friendly design or not.

It is said that the current zip-top can be originated from the1960s, after which there was few overturning improvement. I dare to ask the twoColas that, could the zip-top be a little bit tilted so that the guy with thinor short nails can open it more easily?

And in the real life, the groove on the top, through which thedrinks will flow to your mouth, is often filled with dust since it is placed onthe shelf in the shop.

In addition, if the zip is broken, how can we open it?

You can hardly imagine the eager of our generation for canned food, forexample, some children would hold the can tightly which had been presented totheir relatives; is seems that more children even broke the glass bottle toopen a can.

What is worse, when we bought a can for its cup shape, the handleunexpectedly broke up before the cap was open.

How many times when we try to open a bottle of beer without a bottleopener, everyone gives full play to his/her remarkable skills by using varioustools, including teeth, chopsticks, lighter, even chairs with hard edges andfire hydrant boxes. I would accept that if you define “omnipotence” as a culture.

For many times, when I finished my meal at therestaurant, I would like to take those glass-bottled Coca Cola or mineralwaters leftover but was stopped by the boss: “You cannot take the bottles away”.Recycling of glass bottles shall be regarded as the model in garbage classification, however, this would also cause troubles to consumers inevitably.Is there any all-in-one solution?

For one who seldom drinks, it is very difficult to open the cork ofthe wine. But sometimes only half of that stuff can be pulled out with utmost effort?Unfortunately, the cork left would fall into the bottle inattentively. As aresult, the whole wine is full of sawdust, which is more delicious indeed!

Still on that question, for those handles you designed, can they prevent from hurting our hands?

Anyone that uses plastic bags knows that the bag would be shrunkinto one line no matter how big the bags are, and one shall always change hisor her hands. Clever people may have found a pad to alleviate the pain. Butthis is not the solution in the end. Who has ever thought of a new invention bycreating one plastic bag that will never hurt our hands?

Decapping would be convenient in the future, but why can’t I get it?

This is the tool bottle in Vietnam promoted by Coca Cola, but who would like to throw it away? At least it is useful in water fight. It is said that these ideas come from Ogilvy & Mather China.

With hand written bottles for Arshaan Mineral Water, you can never be afraid of missing the bottle you used from now on. However, why can’t I get it also or is this only a gimmick stunt for promotion?

Originality comes from the real care for our clients. Considering client experience in each detail, anyone can create original and intimate products. It is easy to find that the above products still exist in our daily lives in large amount through this investigation. The purpose for this investigation is to kindly remind the industry that the ubiquitous is not the reasonable, and slight improvements on details will gain attentions from more clients.

Mote Chan, non-senior in the food & beverage industry. However, he has more than 20-year experience in food & beverage purchase. This investigation involves at least 3 supermarkets in Shanghai for more than 20 years. At present, he is organizing Food & Beverage Innovation Forum 2015 with his team. We aim to make the world better through innovation!