Over the last five years many iconic brands bottles have been redesigned, together with even more new brands entering the market.
Bottle design in the 21st century is built around LOOKS – internationally renowned designers are employed to develop a unique brand-focused look where the bottle becomes the message to drive presence, equity and ultimately, sales.
In a perfect world this thought process seems logical, EXCEPT that designers design for look, they don’t usually consider design for functionality behind a bar (considering speed of service, fit, ease of use and safety).
The fatal flaw is when design is predicated on looks or presence, ultimately functionality and then sales will suffer.
In the battle behind the bar there’s just one simple rule: the harder it is for a bartender to pick up, hold, and serve a bottle, the less likely a bartender will go pour that bottle, recommend that brand to a guest in an up-sell; totally regardless if the brand has paid to be promoted, profiled and poured in a bar.
To brand custodians throughout the world this news is not good.
We all know Homer Simpson’s famous “D’OH” catchphrase whenever he realises a mistake or when something bad has happened.
So we’ve borrowed that and applied it to our list of some typical ‘Bottle D’ohs:
The history books are full of ‘Bottle D’oh’s, resulting in bottle re-designs, due to on-site negative feedback.
A very memorable instance some years back saw a Vodka brand introduce a new bottle shape that could not fit a speed pourer, resulting in millions of dollars in lost sales, new bottle design etc. As we understand it, the brand manager in charge lost his/her job.
Then there was the Asian brand owned by a European company that created a bottle which tended to result in broken bottle necks in transit. Or even the Tequila brand that designed a bottle and received a massive pouring contract with a large organisation…all without a speed pourer on the planet to fit it.
So Über stepped in and designed one: the ProFlow Extreme™.
There’s no international standard on bottle design, so the sky’s the limit when it comes to getting the creative juices going. But it’s worth remembering: when designing the bottle consider how the alcohol is going to be poured from it! Design thinking will change only when spirit bottles are considered as a delivery platform rather than just a point of sale pony – designing in isolation means you potentially may not be making a statement but rather serving a sentence!
Want to avoid costly mistakes that could cost your brand sales and opportunity? Contact Über for some practical design assistance click here.