Made out of plastic and designed to be airtight and reusable, Tupperware owns its rise to the household brand it is today to its "Tupperware party" marketing concept. A social gathering hosted by Women to Women that brilliantly showcased the brand's revolutionary food storage containers to their targeted audience.
A little bit like Gillette, Tupperware became synonymous with leftover conservation plastic containers and that was simply because they were the first ones to satisfy what, at the time was an unforeseen market need; the need to contain and keep food airtight to preserve it for longer periods.
It all started with 10-year-old Tupper’s desire to become a millionaire! With an unyielding determination and an unbreakable spirit, fate smiled at him when in 1936 he crossed paths with Bernard Doyle who, at the time, headed DuPont’s plastic division and offered him a job.
Notwithstanding, his stint at DuPont was short-lived (a year to be exact) and, after joining the company and learning everything there was to learn about polymers, he left to establish his own venture in 1938. The Earl S. Tupper Company set its sights on the consumer market and began exploring new possibilities for its business by producing trivial products like sandwich picks and cigarette cases.
Although plastic was a relatively new petroleum-based material, the consumer market wasn't that eager to embrace it due to its reputation for being greasy, smelly, and brittle. In a stroke of ingenuity, Tupper saw this as an opportunity; by tirelessly refining the raw material, by way of purifying the black polyethylene slag, Tupper envisaged a plastic that could shatter preconceptions and astonish the public. His invention wasn't just less greasy than its predecessor, it was also more flexible and had the added advantage of being transparent. But Tupper's triumph didn't end there; he knew that to truly make an impact, he had to showcase his creation in an equally extraordinary way.
And that was when the Wonderbowl was born. This revolutionary container, whose lid was modeled after a paint can, hid its magic in the ability to keep food fresh by creating a vacuum-tight seal that prevented any air or moisture from seeping in. This modern marvel was tailor-made for the suburban housewives that ruled the kitchens in 1946 with modern appliances and large refrigerators, which allowed them to only go to the grocery store once a week, thereby making them perfect candidates to take advantage of the most effective method of food storage.
Despite Tupper's ingenious idea, the intricacies of the lid's design were still causing confusion among the masses; this, combined with people's limited perception of plastic at the time, resulted in unsatisfactory sales figures even two years after the product's launch.
It took a stroke of genius to elevate the Tupperware brand to new heights and that moment came in the form of the "Tupperware party" - a social gathering hosted By Women to Women, that showcased the brand's revolutionary food storage containers.
Despite common belief, it wasn't Tupper himself who came up with this game-changing idea. That honor can be attributed to Brownie Wise, a savvy saleswoman working for Stanley Home Products. She recognized the potential of Tupperware as a hot commodity and pioneered the first Tupperware party, featuring a demonstrator who showcased the products to an enthusiastic audience. The parties were so successful that Tupper himself took notice, eventually buying out the concept and turning it into a core part of his company's sales strategy.
Thanks to this innovative approach, Tupperware grew into a household name, and Tupper was able to sell his company for a staggering 16 million dollars in 1958, allowing him to reach the millions he dreamed about since he was a little kid.
All of this led Tupperware to be featured on the Guinness Book of World Records as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century.
Tupperware: The rise of a household brand
Теги
tupperware productsmini documentariestupperware partytupperwareamerican success companyamerican success storytupperware partiesproduct designindustrial designdesignerdesign historyinnovationguinness world recordsfood storageplastic containerkitchen designkitchen productsairtight sealwomenplastic bowlkitchenware itemsentrepreneurial mindsetentrepreneurshipearl tupperbrownie wiseinventorfood storage containersdupont plastics