I'm sitting down to have lunch at my desk one afternoon when I notice the label on a packet of catsup. Instead of the word "ketchup" or "catsup," the label is the picture of a bottle. Not just any bottle. The bottle: the Heinz ketchup bottle.
In that instant, it all became clear. Packaging is the brand as much if not more than the product inside.
No package in the history of mankind has been as carefully developed and marketed as the Heinz catsup bottle. The six-sided glass container, in fact, made Heinz what it is. And the machines that fill and cap those containers today — as well as the plastic packets bearing their image — are making someone a truckload of money. All you engineers who design those machines should be happy to know that.
Motion System Design publishes many articles on how to improve packaging operations. Check out the latest article in our Motion in Packaging series: Operation: Shrink labeling
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I learned some interesting trivia about this bottle when I visited the Owens/Illinois plant in Muskogee, OK where they’re manufactured.
Heinz even tattooed the neck of these ketchup bottles with the number “57” to remind consumers about their famous steak sauce. I’ve seen many frustrated folks in restaurants poking a knife inside, trying to get some ketchup out. I’m sworn to secrecy, but tapping the bottle on that “57” makes it flow right out...give it a try sometime, but shhhhhh you didn’t hear it from me.
