Heinz has given its ketchup bottle a new kind of lid. Called the "Love Lid," it is the company's first cap that users can adjust. It has three settings, from light to heavy, named "Like," "Love" and "Crazy Love."
Anyone who has used an old glass bottle knows the problem. You tip it over, hit the bottom with your hand and hope for the best. Sometimes nothing comes out. Sometimes far too much does. The new lid, made for Heinz's squeeze bottles, lets you choose how much you get.
The lid looks simple, but it took real work. Heinz developed it with two design partners, and the company holds a patent on it. Inside, just two parts control how the ketchup flows. Each time you turn the cap to a new setting, it makes a clear "click."
"The biggest challenge was making something that feels incredibly simple to use but is actually quite complex behind the scenes," Jamie Mack, who works on brand communications for Heinz in the U.S., told Fast Company. Getting a good feel, a tight seal and three squeeze settings into only two parts, he said, took a lot of design and engineering.
For now, the lid is sold for a limited time in the U.S. and the U.K. Mack says the company is listening to customers to decide whether to keep it.
It is not Heinz's only packaging idea. Earlier this year, the brand released a french fry box with a pull-out space for ketchup built into it.
Together, these ideas show how Heinz is drawing attention to its ketchup without changing the ketchup at all. Its parent company, Kraft Heinz, faces competition from store brands in supermarkets. So instead of changing the recipe, Heinz is changing the bottle and the way people use it.