JKR

Two recent and rather neat pack physicals – a sachet you can squeeze or dip and a re-sealable battery box which prevents the batteries rolling around your man-drawer. Such design work is not typically seen to belong at the cutting and glamorous edge of design, and can be easily overlooked, despite the fact it offers huge added experiential benefit to the consumers. Somehow technical innovations of this kind lack the sex appeal of a new graphic make-over. True to this observation, the Duracell pack hides its light under a bushel – no big PR piece, still virtually impossible to glean any story after ten minutes on Google, and on-pack communication which looks, politely, to have been produced in-house. Conversely, Heinz’s sachet seems to be setting itself up as the answer to the prayers of anyone who has suffered a dip/squeeze conundrum. Online one can even watch a film of the sachets on the production line, going into boxes etc – heady stuff.

While the Heinz PR might be a little OTT, it is getting results – national press coverage, tonnes of links on-line (including some from the style sections). This is probably helped by integrating the innovation into a very resolved piece of branding. It appears Heinz realise that the little things can mean a lot, while Duracell, who have solved a genuine consumer problem, seem to be missing an opportunity every bit the equal.