Changing Packaging Landscape The Only Constant
By Paul Pethick
General Cryovac General Mills LCBO Old El Paso President’s Choice Procter & Gamble Tetra Pak The Great Atlantic & Pacific Company of Canada•••
Not all successful packaging change can be appreciated, or even noticed, at first glance. In case of General Mills Canada Corp.’s Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff brand of taco shells, the beauty of it latest packaging overhaul is all on the inside—achieved by augmenting the time-honored taco shell with a square base so that it can stand up without tipping over. For Tex-Mex foodies like myself, this is a taco equivalent of the invention of sliced bread, and it’s nice to see that remarkable product innovation complemented by a packaging enhancement that promises to end the deep disappointment of opening up a new box of tacos just to find broken bits of tortilla pooling at the bottom of the inner wrap. While replacing the cardboard wedge typically used to support the brittle shells with a more rigid corrugated inner tray may not guarantee the packaged product complete protection from unwieldy store clerks, the improved inner packaging has more than stood up to the fairly unceremonious treatment dished out to this product in my kitchen.
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Confucius may well have remarked that change comes to those who wait, if he was still around today, and it feels like I’ve waited an eternity for a product like President’s Choice Vegetable Fried Rice to come into being. Packaging this tasty side-dish in a glitzy version of those plain cardboard containers that inexplicably always look so tantalizing on kitschy TV sitcoms not only gives the product instant respectability afforded by the drawing power of one of Canada’s most successful private-label brands, the fact that you can actually use the takeout-style container to cook the dish in the oven—just remove the outer plastic wrap and set on a cookie sheet—is picture-perfect execution of what modern consumer convenience is all about.
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The importance of changing with the times has certainly not been lost on packaging gurus at the venerable consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Inc.—at least if the new Ultra Concentrated Dawn dishwashing liquid is anything to go by.
So long to the old matronly shaped bottles that always resembled the headless and appendage-less body of Mother Hubbard herself, with the bold new design virtually brimming with the promise of futuristic cleanliness starting right from the flip-top cap, which is itself a remarkable improvement over those old-school pull-tops that inevitably get covered up in layers of leaked dishsoap. And with a nice ergonomic grip designed right into the PET container, this really is one packaging makeover that should leave many consumers happy to get a handle on.
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