Reinventing the Reinvented
By Paul Winaghrt
Ziploc Bags are so ubiquitous with respect to plastic containers that it falls under the category "Gernericide". Genericide is a legal term for what happens to a brand name or trademark when it becomes a common noun due to the popularity of its usage. Kleenex, for example, is actually a brand of facial tissue paper but if someone asks you for "a Kleenex" you know immediately what he or she are referring to. The key word in the definition of genericide, subsequent, is popularity. A brand name cannot go through the process of generification if it is not first extremely popular. And Ziploc bags are nothing if they are not popular. But even this pinnacle of popularity cannot escape the prevalent energy of surplus productivity.
A classic productivity gain via the melding two physical things together, a Ziploc bags is just a plastic bags that has a plastic zipper. Through an array of company purchases, in 1968 Dow Chemical Company eventually released and marketed Ziploc Bags to huge success. They obviously have had (and continue to have) tremendous ramification how we preserve, store, and transport things - of which food is the most popular. Although the brand is now owned by S.C. Johnson, Ziploc Bags are as popular as they ever been.
In fact, as late as 2008, Ziploc enjoyed over 30 percent of the entire plastic bag market[1], a percentage that was more than double its nearest competitor. So what to worry about? Stable market share is a conglomerate's dream. Well Ziploc's biggest competitor isn't another large corporation producing Hefty or Glad bags. Rather it is generic or private labels plastic bags that own this market since they can easily beat Ziploc on price. As such, although it is gone through generificaction, Ziploc needs to stay heavily dependent on innovation, and trends thereof, to further position their product squarely with consumers' ever evolving needs.
Since "new" productivity through the association of a mental quality and a physical thing is now more desirable than the "classic" version of productivity, Ziploc has introduced bag with "Smart Zip" or smart zippers. Now what makes these zippers smart you might ask? Well according to www.ziploc.com, "The Ziploc® Smart Zip® seal is a new redesigned zipper that actually lets you hear and feel the seal forming one continuous lock to block out air and protect your food." [2]
Think about that for a minute. The innovation or the smart is the engineering of the zipper to improve the human experience of feeling and hearing. The physical properties associated with the purpose the plastic bag serves hasn't changed. It is no stronger or flexible than the previous model from what I can tell. If it was, I am assuming they would be marketing that fact.
No, what has improved is that it is more adaptable to humans. This is what surplus productivity is all about, greater innovation with a bent toward humanness. This is absolutely true to all the "smarting" currently going on, The smarting of phones, cars, water, and even bacon! (See my Flickr feed for pictures of all these and many more at #surplusproductivity and feel free to add your own) is due to the economic phenomenon of surplus productivity that first started accumulating in 2000.
Surplus productivity is rapidly changing everything we come to know and love. It is so powerful and omnivorous, that it is even changing the brand name product that out recognizes the product itself. Watch out, before we know it the intelligent Kleenex will be right under our noses.
A note about the author, the founder and chief contributor of the economic website www.surplusproductivity.com, Paul Winghart graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1998 with a BA degree in Economics. Over the course of the next 15 years, Paul has been employed in the financial sector working as a Senior Fixed Income Strategist for a global wealth management company, achieving the level of Vice President. Based on the reputation earned over the years as a consistent prognosticator of economic fundamentals, Paul has also had the opportunity to speak at a number of events as well as serve as an adjunct professor of business for Bethel University. Most recently he presented the topic "Productivity and the Future of Interest Rates" to the World Futures Society's 2013 annual world conference. Additionally, Paul is a two-time nominee (2011, 2012) for selection into the Financial Advisor/Private Wealth magazine's national Due Diligence/Research Manager All-Star Team. Paul resides in St.Paul, MN with his wife and four children. He can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @SProductivity
By Paul Winaghrt
Ziploc Bags are so ubiquitous with respect to plastic containers that it falls under the category "Gernericide". Genericide is a legal term for what happens to a brand name or trademark when it becomes a common noun due to the popularity of its usage. Kleenex, for example, is actually a brand of facial tissue paper but if someone asks you for "a Kleenex" you know immediately what he or she are referring to. The key word in the definition of genericide, subsequent, is popularity. A brand name cannot go through the process of generification if it is not first extremely popular. And Ziploc bags are nothing if they are not popular. But even this pinnacle of popularity cannot escape the prevalent energy of surplus productivity.
A classic productivity gain via the melding two physical things together, a Ziploc bags is just a plastic bags that has a plastic zipper. Through an array of company purchases, in 1968 Dow Chemical Company eventually released and marketed Ziploc Bags to huge success. They obviously have had (and continue to have) tremendous ramification how we preserve, store, and transport things - of which food is the most popular. Although the brand is now owned by S.C. Johnson, Ziploc Bags are as popular as they ever been.
In fact, as late as 2008, Ziploc enjoyed over 30 percent of the entire plastic bag market[1], a percentage that was more than double its nearest competitor. So what to worry about? Stable market share is a conglomerate's dream. Well Ziploc's biggest competitor isn't another large corporation producing Hefty or Glad bags. Rather it is generic or private labels plastic bags that own this market since they can easily beat Ziploc on price. As such, although it is gone through generificaction, Ziploc needs to stay heavily dependent on innovation, and trends thereof, to further position their product squarely with consumers' ever evolving needs.
Since "new" productivity through the association of a mental quality and a physical thing is now more desirable than the "classic" version of productivity, Ziploc has introduced bag with "Smart Zip" or smart zippers. Now what makes these zippers smart you might ask? Well according to www.ziploc.com, "The Ziploc® Smart Zip® seal is a new redesigned zipper that actually lets you hear and feel the seal forming one continuous lock to block out air and protect your food." [2]
Think about that for a minute. The innovation or the smart is the engineering of the zipper to improve the human experience of feeling and hearing. The physical properties associated with the purpose the plastic bag serves hasn't changed. It is no stronger or flexible than the previous model from what I can tell. If it was, I am assuming they would be marketing that fact.
No, what has improved is that it is more adaptable to humans. This is what surplus productivity is all about, greater innovation with a bent toward humanness. This is absolutely true to all the "smarting" currently going on, The smarting of phones, cars, water, and even bacon! (See my Flickr feed for pictures of all these and many more at #surplusproductivity and feel free to add your own) is due to the economic phenomenon of surplus productivity that first started accumulating in 2000.
Surplus productivity is rapidly changing everything we come to know and love. It is so powerful and omnivorous, that it is even changing the brand name product that out recognizes the product itself. Watch out, before we know it the intelligent Kleenex will be right under our noses.
A note about the author, the founder and chief contributor of the economic website www.surplusproductivity.com, Paul Winghart graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1998 with a BA degree in Economics. Over the course of the next 15 years, Paul has been employed in the financial sector working as a Senior Fixed Income Strategist for a global wealth management company, achieving the level of Vice President. Based on the reputation earned over the years as a consistent prognosticator of economic fundamentals, Paul has also had the opportunity to speak at a number of events as well as serve as an adjunct professor of business for Bethel University. Most recently he presented the topic "Productivity and the Future of Interest Rates" to the World Futures Society's 2013 annual world conference. Additionally, Paul is a two-time nominee (2011, 2012) for selection into the Financial Advisor/Private Wealth magazine's national Due Diligence/Research Manager All-Star Team. Paul resides in St.Paul, MN with his wife and four children. He can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @SProductivity
