Most of us at some time in our life will have been exposed to Tupperware plastic containers. In cupboards around the country, squirrelled away there will likely be an old plastic container or plastic salt cellar with the iconic Tupperware brand name. 80 years old it grew at a time of very different marketing strategies. Sold through product parties it was quite a staple in Australian homes in the 1980s and 90’s. As I read of its demise in the Financial Review I remember well quoting on a catalogue project for Tupperware in Sydney in the 90’s. These glossy 180-page productions were a much sort after project by agencies and design houses alike.
Sadly, Tupperware’s demise is the result of long-term endemic decline as management failed to adapt and change with cheaper often more superior designed products making their ways on to mass merchant retailer shelves. A change in eating habits and the types of containers used in kitchens saw product development flounder. Innovation with respect to colours and design was well behind the rest of the market.
The Tupperware marketing strategy relied on women at home and party plan style marketing which became increasingly difficult to organise as more women worked and their time became more precious. Extended trading hours and increased ranging by specialist and mass merchant retailers saw the category grow, but Tupperware enjoyed little of that growth.
In recent years despite attempts at relaunching the brand through major retailers, in the US they have been seen as largely irrelevant. In marketing terms their distribution, ranging, and advertising have failed to adapt to the omni-channel environment in which we now live.
Recent efforts to sell online appear to have failed and the company has gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
For me it’s another salutary lesson. A brand may be iconic but unless it is fed, nourished and its marketing reflect society’s way of life it becomes irrelevant. Who knows someone might see an opportunity and seek to bring it back to its glory days. More likely though it will become a nostalgic marketing case study which will go into the annals of marketing history.