Innovative Packaging Holds Sway

Innovative Packaging Holds Sway
Packaging design is one of the most demanding and innovative fields in technology, often changing the very ways in which products are manufactured, preserved, marketed, distributed and used.

With more than $100 billion in gross sales, packaging is the third-largest industry in the nation.

Many types of merchandise have relied (at least partly) on their packaging technology for success in the marketplace.

One of the most influential packaging designs was that used for the crackers known as Uneeda Biscuits.

In the closing years of the 19th century, bakers produced crackers that were mixed together and sold from open barrels in local general stores.

As it became possible to distribute products more quickly to other regions, a group of bakers merged their operations to form National Baking Co. (later known as Nabisco).

This new company then distributed its own crackers (Uneeda Biscuits) nationwide, enclosed within a waxed paper wrapper inside sturdy cardboard boxes.

This simple but innovative packaging conveyed a powerful message to the public - that Uneeda Biscuits were not only fresh and of uniform consistency but more sanitary than crackers sold in bulk from barrels.

A higher benchmark for quality was established by the success of Uneeda Biscuits, and a new era in merchandising began as individually packa