mjvilardi

6 February 2007 - Here’s our first exhibit, and it’s deliciously bad. International Delight Nonfat Coffee Creamer is pretty tasty when you’re in the mood for flavored coffee (or to mask the bitterness of cheap or over-roasted beans). The product used to come in a traditional “gable carton” with a plastic screw cap – nothing fancy, but very functional and neat. In 2003 the manufacturer, Morningstar/Dean Foods, changed the packaging, and the result was not such a delight.

From the press release in the April 2003 issue of Food and Drug Packaging:

[the] coffee creamer’s redesigned package has an ergonomic shape, allowing for convenient one-handed open and pour. The new bottle design replaces a paperboard carton that had a pour spout with a screw-on cap. The new one-handed open design helps alleviate consumers’ morning chaos with a package that’s easy to use.

The key to the package is its closure, supplied by Owens-Illinois. The curved blue lid Is made from polypropylene (PP) and has a dispensing button that is pushed to release the product.

But the sleek new bowling-pin-shaped package has a serious flaw: it dribbles. A lot. And the cream accumulates around the spout lip, so that when you snap it open sticky white droplets spatter whatever surface you’re aimed at. I guess I should remember to wipe it down after each use, but in my pre-coffee stuppor it’s easy to forget… Why would marketers and designers inflict such a sloppy bottle on us? What’s the rationale here? The packaging industry seemed to like the new design, and Morningstar even received the 2004 DuPont Packaging Award:

Morningstar, a Dean Foods subsidiary, says the new package and closure were created in response to consumer research, and were highly rated in tests. “Dispensing closures such as this are [serving] a growing convenience market category and are enthusiastically embraced by consumers,” says Owens-Illinois’ Timothy McAshlan, of Closures & Specialty Products. “They are becoming a focus for consumer products companies. Food products continue to be at the forefront of exploring new package shapes, package concepts and materials.”Designed by Morningstar’s marketing team along with input by Lipson Alport Glass & Associates, the 38-mm closure features a toggle-style end that cleanly cuts off the product with minimal dripping and no residue and securely seals the bottle for refrigerated storage.

– Packaging Digest, August 2004

“Minimal dripping.” Yah. Bet those “consumer tests” didn’t go past a single use. Oh, and here’s the spot in the fridge where my International Delight lives (I cleaned it right after I took this shot, honest!)…

As always, if you have candidates for the Museum of Bad Design, please offer them in a Comment… or drop a line to: museum(at)mjvilardi(dot)com   …thanks!