Here's the dilemma: You have what no doubt is the number 1 brand product in the category. Your position in the market has been solid for decades and number 2 doesn't even come close. The product has achieved this dominance because of it's consistent quality and the brilliant advertising behind it.
Along comes an innovation that in essence will in practical terms make your product easier to dispense for your customers BUT will at the same time eliminate the prize characteristic and iconic merchandising label that your product is known by.
If you are the president of Heinz, what would you do? Would you use this new development or not?
TV commercial film for Heinz Circa 1968
The wait is over: MIT researchers solve the ketchup problem
Published May 23, 2012 FoxNews.com
No more violent shaking. No more tapping the “57” logo. And certainly no more ketchup left to waste at the bottom of the bottle — all thanks to Ph.D. candidate Dave Smith and his team of MIT researchers.
Smith's team, consisting of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists, over the past several months has created “LiquiGlide,” a non-toxic coating so slippery that when you tilt the bottle, the ketchup just flows. Every last drop.
"It just floats right onto the sandwich," Smith told Fast Company.
The technology isn’t limited to just ketchup, Smith says. The coating can be applied to a variety of surfaces, glass or plastic, and could conceivably work with all kinds of thick sauces. And for Smith, the benefits are obvious.
