Wrigley’s new Big-E-Pak is a really smart product.
The package is a stand up tub with 60 pieces inside. You can pop the top and grab as many pieces as you’d like. Or, you can pop the little “share” flap, shake the tub, and drop a few pieces into your friend’s hand.
It’s perfect for anyone who wants to have some gum around but doesn’t want to have to keep buying boxes, dealing with wrappers, foil packs, etc. 60 pieces in a self-contained, upright Big-E-Pak fits nicely on your desk, counter, or in your car.
Since the beginning, gum packages have been optimized for the pocket or drawer. Wrigley finally asked “why does gum need to be that portable all the time?”
This is really a great example of innovating through utilitarian package design. The product is the same inside, but outside it’s different.
Smart thinking. Well done.
steve
on 01 Nov 06i’ve been wanting a pack of those. can’t believe they just started doing this now. great idea
Daniel
on 01 Nov 06I see it as just another example of wasteful over-packaging.
Cheryl
on 01 Nov 0660 pieces of gum?
I don’t see that as innovating, it’s just more marketers developing more wasteful products – is it really that hard to deal with gum as it exists?
I’m all for innovation but this is just repackaging something that already exists and super-sizing it.
Austin SEO Guy
on 01 Nov 06That reminds me a lot of the Sherman Williams paint can that made so many people say “thank you.” Paint cans are messy and hard to pour, so Sherman Williams began putting their Dutch Boy paints into all-plastic “twist and pour” containers with a convenient spout. Sales went up instantly.
I like companies that remember the product is the marketing.
brad
on 01 Nov 06Wasteful overpackaging? This is just the opposite! Instead of 60 pieces of gum individually wrapped in foil and paper, you get 60 pieces of gum in a tub. This boils down to less packaging, not more. And you could probably use the tub for something afterwards.
Cameron
on 01 Nov 06Yeah, if anything it reduces the packaging. The container is actually still quite small—perhaps two-thirds the size of your fist. I have one in the cupholder in my car and it is about half the diameter of the cupholder.
Skylar
on 01 Nov 06They have had these for quite a while here in Canada and I also think they are awesome! I go through packs of gum like crazy and this is a good way to save on packaging. If only they could make this “tub” into a small cardboard box or something more enivro-friendly…
JF
on 01 Nov 06I see it as just another example of wasteful over-packaging.
Huh? It saves packaging.
Pat Maddox
on 01 Nov 06Gum does need to be portable. I’ve never been about to approach a girl and thought to myself, “Man I really wish I had some gum sitting on my desk at home.” No, I reach into my pocket and grab a stick of gum.
However, I hate the current packaging. There’s the foil wrapper, and the paper wrapper around that…all bound, but then after I take a few pieces of gum the pieces loosen up and fall all over the place.
I like the idea of free pieces that are easily dispensed. But it should be portable. Maybe like a pez dispenser for gum, but lighter weight.
JF
on 01 Nov 06Gum does need to be portable. I’ve never been about to approach a girl and thought to myself, “Man I really wish I had some gum sitting on my desk at home.” No, I reach into my pocket and grab a stick of gum.
I said “that portable all the time.”
Joe Ruby
on 01 Nov 06Ugh, that’s way too big and bulky to put anywhere but on my desk. Square containers are much more efficient than round.
brad
on 01 Nov 06The container is actually still quite small—perhaps two-thirds the size of your fist.
Even so, that means the tub is still big enough to hold the teeth that will fall out of your mouth after you finish chewing all that gum ;-)
Kenzie
on 01 Nov 06Been hooked on these for a while now… one for the desk, one for the Jeep, one at home. It seems like I never run out of gum anymore.
eric L
on 01 Nov 06oh man. i guess i kinda agree with pat, i read the post and immediately said “damn, that won’t fit in my pocket. it’s true current gum packaging is incredibly wasteful, i hate the plastic and foil blister packs. but the question is, is a hard plastic package that’s pocket sized really more environmentally friendly than blister packs. i doubt it.
MH
on 01 Nov 06“Put it in her ear?” ;-)
Matt Oakes
on 01 Nov 06HA! Nice one mate :P
The packaging looks pretty good and as I hate those stupid paper ones this could be a winner.
Curt Sampson
on 01 Nov 06We’ve had this packaging for gum in Japan for at least as long as I’ve been here—more than five years. I don’t know if that means anything or not.
BTW, why is it that all of these blog comment forms ask for a “URL”, and then when I enter a perfectly valid one, “mailto:[email protected]”, it goes and mutilates it into an invalid http: URL?
MM
on 01 Nov 06Here’s a different question: When there is an Email field and a URL field for comments, why do you put your email in the URL field? Just to see how clever the software is? It’s not that clever. You broke it :) If you want to leave an email address you can use the Email field. It will be linked for you.
Adam
on 01 Nov 06Who needs a tub of gum when I can have six feet of bubble tape in my pocket?
For me… not them!
DXO
on 02 Nov 06This product is great in the abstract and bad on the execution. The lid does not stay on. It has popped off twice in normal usage and spilled all my gum nuggets.
Anson
on 02 Nov 06Kinda makes me feel sick looking at that “tub o gum”. There’s something sexy about long thin foil-wrapped strips. The tub conjures visions of a fist size chunk of gum blocking some poor bastards colon or something.
Also this will only work for pellets - which I hate - strips seem to “go off” when exposed to air.
Richard Bird
on 02 Nov 06Innovation in packaging, including structure, is de rigeur these days and may be at the expense of ROI and other quantitative logic. In other words, it may be a truly, beneficial change or simply an ephemeral marketing tactic. Time will always tell. If you are unable to find the tub-o-gum in 3 months, point made.
(Note: Culture and geography have a lot to do with this equation. For example: We have developed unique delivery structures for oral pharmaceuticals in equatorial climates that would not have a market north or south.)
New structures, labeling, line segmenting/fragmenting, coupons and rebates are among many options considered by cpg companies looking for any and all opportunities to answer shareholder pressures for quarterly cash flow improvements in a micro-marketing environment.
Planned intervals of “newness” is a proven cycle to attract consumer attention.
jetrac
on 02 Nov 06How much more space does one of these tubs take up in a landfill than the equivalent paper? How much longer does it take to biodegrade?
Daniel
on 02 Nov 06Those are the lines I was thinking along when I said “wasteful over-packaging,” jetrac. Also, this “innovation” in packaging is clearly intended, much like the big-gulp before it, to promote over-consumption and move more volume. Who really needs to shake out several pieces at once? But then, I’ve never been a gum chewer so perhaps I just don’t understand.
Sarah
on 02 Nov 06The love of my life is the eclipse cinnamon mints in the flip-top tin. It’d be great to be able to get little gum pellet type things in the same packaging.
Erin
on 02 Nov 06I think the packaging is wasteful because it’s polyethylene, which is made from petroleum, and, as we’re all aware, petroleum is a rapidly disappearing resource. If you buy gum packaged in paper (I can’t think of any brands, since I don’t chew gum, but you know what I mean—Trident, or the like), you’re still consuming resources, but at least they’re renewable resources. Bonus: we haven’t gone to war with Canada over logging rights. :)
TD
on 02 Nov 06I can definitely see both sides of the argument here. From a purely design stand point, this packaging is a breakthrough. Especially when it come to gum packaging. But the implications are not very digestible. It’s the same line of thinking as the super duper big gulp and mondo bag of chips etc. Promotes utter laziness and wastefulness as well as over consumption in the holy name of ‘convenience’. I can definitely do without it.
CPW
on 02 Nov 06As mentioned before, not really a breakthrough; the tub-o-gum has been in other markets for a while (I have tubs from both Hong Kong and Germany). Apparently, one of the reasons it took a little longer to get to the US because Wrigley redesigned the packaging so it doesn’t look like a bottle of drugs or pills. That seemed crazy to me until I saw the German bottle. I have to admit, the German bottle does look similar to a bottle of pills (like Tylenol or something similar). The Hong Kong bottle doesn’t look like that, however (more stout with a cover that flips up by squeezing the sides of the top).
I am a fan of the tubs, although I do wish there was a package that didn’t use plastic. In Hong Kong, they also had resealable pouches of gum (about 25 pieces per pack). Not as nice to stick in a drawer, but very nice to travel with (can carry more gum while using less packaging). I’m keeping one to reuse by filling with gum from a tub!
Ryan
on 02 Nov 06I agree. I think it is a smart design. I usually keep gum either on my desk at home, or stranded in my car. RARELY do I have it in my pocket anyway, so this design works out nicely for me.
Jan Korbel
on 02 Nov 06Do you really want to put box like this on your desk? Right beside your clean-designed MacBook?
I think it would be really novel if they try to sell it in more stylish box (cube anyone? ;) )
Jack Shedd
on 02 Nov 06Two words: Bubble Tape.
I want a Kleenex box sized Bubble Tape container. Wrigley, please get on this.
Dean
on 02 Nov 06Chewing gum is a disgusting habit.
Almost as disgusting as eating meat.
Paul Livingstone
on 02 Nov 06When you guys do these little product pieces amongst your regular content, it just seems surreal.
Like where Jim Carrey’s wife in the Truman show asks “Why don’t you let me fix you some of this Mococoa drink, all natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua, no artificial sweeteners!” in the middle of an argument.
You’re creeping me out guys, stop it.
JB
on 02 Nov 06It’s kinda’ crazy that a simple gum package generates so many comments (this is 34th), isn’t it?
Too much free time, anyone…?
JB
brad
on 02 Nov 06How much more space does one of these tubs take up in a landfill than the equivalent paper? How much longer does it take to biodegrade?
Sure, it takes up more room but it contributes less to global warming. Personally I’d rather have stuff like this that sits safely in landfills for a few hundred years instead of paper that gets anaerobically processed into methane (20 times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2 on a molecule-per-molecule basis). Also you’re forgetting that chewing gum is typically wrapped in metal foil as well as paper, so you have to factor that into the equation as well. And there are the energy costs of producing the paper, cutting the individual chewing gum wrappers, wrapping each piece individually by machine, etc…..in the end the environmental impacts of the two forms of packaging may be roughly equivalent, although I suspect the tubs may come out better in terms of lower overall impact.
The best thing would to have gum available in bulk dispensers at the store and you bring your own tub to be refilled, but I doubt that’s gonna happen!
Don Schenck
on 02 Nov 06Sixty pieces of gum would last me about 20 years.
Dean: I not only eat meat, I eat RAW meat! Carpaccio, baby!
Kill it and grill it!! I hope that offends you!
'D"
on 02 Nov 06Another classic example of “selling the sizzle and not the steak.”
Greg
on 02 Nov 06Also of note here is the fact that the larger lid on the gum doesn’t snap closed tightly enough to be carried around in the inner pocket of your messenger bag. About a month ago I bought one of these and in short order had about 50 unwrapped pieces of Eclipse floating around in there.
So, while innovative, the design isn’t without a show-stopping flaw.
I also get sick of having just one flavor of gum way before chewing 60 pieces. A variety pack would be nice, with a better latch.
Mike L
on 02 Nov 0660 pieces? What kind of sweetener is used? If Sorbitol is the sweetney, you may want to cut back as more than five or six pieces in a day and you may get a major case of wind and even diarrhoea.
“The bacteria that live in our colons absolutely love sorbitol,” says gastroenterologist Charlene Prather, of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, US.
The bacteria breaks down the sorbitol, and that produces large amounts of gas that swell the colon and cause pain and cramps.
You may want to leave yourself a TA-DA to cut back on the gum…
nic
on 02 Nov 06Reminds me of Xylish in Japan. They go the extra mile by adding a little post-it style book on the top of the container so you can tear one off and discard your gum in it. How thoughtful!
example
nic
on 02 Nov 06Better example
richard
on 02 Nov 06You can use this container after the gum is gone. Buy one of those travel tissue packs, and put the tissues into the empty gum container. Instant car-friendly tissue pack.
And the ugly plastic wrapper comes right off, so you end up with a simple white container (with a blue lid).
You could use it as a mini piggy bank, too. You could probably even use it as a mini cocktail shaker, if you were really desperate.
Chuck Cheeze
on 02 Nov 06Why does anyone think that marketing people at {insert sales conglomerate here} would design packaging for gum to biodegrade or take up less space in a landfill? Just look at how long the product itself takes to biodegrade (hint: ABC gum will still be around with the roaches after a nuclear war)
Brian
on 03 Nov 06Yeah, the overwrap and the top sticker both come off easily, making a pretty decent desktop object. I’ve been into removing overwraps on packages for a while, to beautify my space – e.g. toothpaste pumps.
BTW, not to trivialize the worldwide energy debate, Erin, but petroleum is not a rapidly disappearing resource. There are many large, well-known deposits of oil and gas that aren’t being used because they’re economically un-feasible at today’s oil prices. Basically, it’s true that we’re running out of the easily extracted oil, but much more remains, waiting for new extraction technologies or for the price to climb.
nikster
on 05 Nov 06Only old people use these in Korea… just kidding, but seriously, this kind of package has been around for ages in Asia. Maybe a Wrigley’s exec figured the U.S. market was now finally ready for it.
I always keep one or two of these in the car, backpack etc. Much more space efficient to use these super-thin breath freshener wafers in the pocket for portability.
I disagree that the dispenser is a great idea – of all the dispensers I have seen, most just don’t work very well and it’s just as good to pour some gum out of the tub. It’s a gimmick that doesn’t really improve anything – good marketing feature though.
nikster
on 05 Nov 06Only old people use these in Korea… just kidding, but seriously, this kind of package has been around for ages in Asia. Maybe a Wrigley’s exec figured the U.S. market was now finally ready for it.
I always keep one or two of these in the car, backpack etc. Much more space efficient to use these super-thin breath freshener wafers in the pocket for portability.
I disagree that the dispenser is a great idea – of all the dispensers I have seen, most just don’t work very well and it’s just as good to pour some gum out of the tub. It’s a gimmick that doesn’t really improve anything – good marketing feature though.
mirzu
on 07 Nov 06It looks great, and is a very good idea. But the execution is terrible. The top comes open too easily, and has spilled on me on numerous occasions.
RossMoney
on 15 Nov 06this is the tightest thing i have seen in a while! i was at the gas station and i was like, aw hell naw give me that thing. and the guy was like, yeah man three and a half bucks or whatever, and i was like done deal. i love to share my gum so this is a great way to do so.
Emily
on 22 Nov 06I was just telling my friend how wonderful this new product was and I saw some of the comments and I was appalled. I personally love this product, it is very convenient in my vehicle so I won’t get into an accident while trying to find gum…safety first. Thank you to the marketing department.
This discussion is closed.