Do Judge A Book By Its Cover

Mom always said, “beauty is only skin deep.” But when your innards are as fascinating as shampoo or toothpaste there’s a lot riding on exterior presentation.

Truly a well-designed, fetching package can be the difference between sales and second place.Look no further than Target’s house brands eroding name brand market share as proof positive. That’s why this week we’re celebrating our staff picks of innovative packaging.

Where to start? How about the granddaddy of them all: Coke’s iconic bottle.

Packaging as a differentiator is nothing new, a hundred years ago (almost)— in 1915—Coca-Cola understood that nickel-sugar-water is nickel-sugar-water, and without a “hook” their product would be lost in the crowd. Enter the Contour Bottle.

Nice Curves, Earl

Following a competition announcement by Coke to all of its bottle suppliers, Earl R. Dean, the supervisor of the bottle molding room at the Root Glass Company, wanted to base his design on either the coca leaf, or the kola nut. (Get it? Coca…Cola.) Ignorant to what either looked like, he took a trip to the local library and based his drawings off a different gourd-shaped pod which was also an ingredient—not finding the leaf or kola images he sought. Where’s Google Images when you need them?

Though the final product was ultimately slimmed in the middle because it was too top heavy, even the ridges still present today were based on Earl’s cocoa pod sketch.

As a reward for the big, Root Glass Company win, Earl was offered either a $500 bonus (about 11K in today’s greenbacks) or a job for life. He chose the job. Let’s hope with all that soda laying about he also got dental.

Today, the Coca-Cola trademark wave, the plastic bottle, even Santa being fat are all based on that original package. (We might have made that last one up, but St. Nick is dressed in red-and-white at your local mall because Coke commissioned an ad campaign depicting him that way in the ‘30s.)

Just goes to show…when you thoughtfully consider your packaging you can make history. The alternative? Sales are as slow as Christmas.