Colman’s has been mixing the strong stuff since 1814, and boy do the English love it! The thick and spicy English Mustard adorns millions of refrigerator shelves across Great Britain and has done alright for itself in more distant parts of the world, too. There was even a tiny glass jar of Colman’s in my parent’s house, right next to the oversized bottle of squeezy American-style mustard. On rare occasions, dad would crave something a little stronger than the squeezable, fluorescent yellow goo on his sandwiches and out would come the little jar, patiently providing tangy, eye-watering spread for years to come. That tiny jar was bottomless. Dad would dig a small smear of yellow out with a butter knife and carefully wipe it ever so thinly onto his bread, taking great pains to spread it evenly. He hardly put any on at all. Once, when the big squeezable jar was empty and I’d grown tired of trying to dress my bologna sandwich with the driblets that flew out with a loud ‘FFFT!’ sound, I substituted a good spoonful of Colman’s and mentally scoffed at my father for never using enough of the stuff. One generous bite and I barely knew what hit me. Tears were streaming down my face, my tongue was burning and there was a terrible bitter taste clinging to the roof of my mouth. My poor sandwich was ruined. What kind of a mustard was this?

The English kind, it turns out! It only took me one attempt with the Colman’s to understand why dad used a knife and only dabbed at the mustard. He wasn’t just being careful, he was afraid. I respect that little glass jar and its ability to withstand at least one year in the fridge. I assumed that everyone else did, too, but it seems that the producers of Colman’s haven’t been tasting their product enough. New on grocery store shelves, it’s the new squeezy Colman’s English Mustard. Been struggling with the knife and little jar for too long? Try the new squeezy bottle! Guaranteed to ruin your sandwich!

After a long and prosperous run as the strong mustard in the little glass jar, Colman’s has hopped aboard the squeezy bandwagon and forgotten that it is a unique sauce with different design needs. Giving this old mustard a new and trendy image isn’t as simple as popping it into a plastic bottle. Its re-branding requires some genuine thought on the part of the marketers and designers – and who knows what the people at Colman’s were paid to think of and implement this ‘new’ idea.

The major flaw in the new design is the fact that it isn’t actually product-based. Colman’s spread is used sparingly; squeezy bottles are for getting a lot out in a hurry. In a similar bad design move, the makers of Marmite – the so-called edible motor oil beloved on toast ‘soldiers’ in the UK – have adopted a squeezy bottle as well. These designers need to get more creative! Squeezy bottles have had great success with products like bottled water, ketchup, mayonnaise and American mustard, but it’s ridiculous to think such success can be tacked onto such powerfully flavored sauces as Colman’s or Marmite. Just one squeeze and ‘FFFT!’ your lunch is done for.

It looks like rival sauce groups have frightened Colman’s into design homogeneity. Everyone is getting squeezy, and the old mustard company doesn’t want to be left behind. In a frantic bid to keep up with the other mustards, the tiny glass jar is wilting away, thought too old-fashioned for life after the 1990’s. The real shame is, a little more effort in the design department and Colman’s could have monopolized on the fact that it’s not right for a squeezy bottle! The old label features a quaint and not outworn 19th century style graphic, proclaiming the proud fact that this mustard has been around for nearly 200 years. The label is easily recognizable and even comfortingly familiar to consumers who know what they’re looking for. What Colman’s really needed to design was a new ad campaign, not a new bottle.

Is this what longstanding, quality products are doomed to fall victim to? Aren’t there any people at Colman’s who considered this imminent change and thought to themselves, “Now that just won’t work”? It looks like the old company needs a new Ideas Department, or at least somebody who isn’t afraid to try something different to what’s already out there on supermarket shelves. If you’ve already got this small jar of mustard sitting inconspicuously in the fridge door, cherish it before the squeezy new stuff arrives, for your life is about to change.

Colman’s. Not cut out for life in a squeeze-bottle.

Written by d/visible contributor Mandy Gardner.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 12:44 pm and is filed under In-depth, Business, Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.